Search Movie Review Archives

Las Vegas has a storied history some of which the city itself doesn’t want to remember. Martin Scorsese’s “Casino” reveals the city warts and all with a glimpse into how the mob won and lost Vegas. Set in 1973 “Casino” focuses on a trio of characters two of whom are mobsters running one of the largest Casino’s on the strip. Sam “Ace” Rothstein (De Niro), Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) and Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone/st2:PersonName>) struggle to stay atop an empire made of shifting sand and money. Rothstein gradually loses control of the Tangiers Hotel and sees his dreams slip away; Nicky spirals down a drain of drugs and his preoccupation with violence; Ginger watches her independence erode and becomes a lot soul. It’s a fascinating, powerful three hour wild ride.

Although I’m not a fan of dual sided discs, Universal has done a very nice job with this edition. We get a lot of nice extras including 4 featurettes on the making of the movie. “Casino: The Story” focuses on the genesis of the film. Writer Nicholas Pileggi pitched the story idea to Universal for a book he was planning to write and after Scorsese had worked on a number of projects at the studio, he was asked what he might like to do next. He hit upon Pileggi’s idea for “Casino” which, unfortunately, hadn’t been fleshed out yet. Scorsese and Pileggi collaborated on the screenplay based on Pileggi’s story. While Scorsese was busy making the movie Pileggi was frantically trying to finish the book so that it would come out before the movie or, at the very last, at the same time. ***

”The Cast & Characters” focus on the casting process, how the actors interacted and the difficulty Stone had working in the “boy’s club” since she is essentially the only important woman in the cast. That’s not to suggest that De Niro and the cast gave her a hard time; on the contrary by all accounts De Niro was very generous (as was Pesci) in working with her but it was a stretch for her as an actress and she needed the support of the strong ensemble cast to help her achieve her goals. She relates one amusing story about how Scorsese missed both her auditions and she believed she wasn’t going to get the role until he showed up personally to discuss it with her. ***

”The Look” focuses on the challenges of creating the glitter of “Las Vegas” and having the garish look of the city translate to film. Producer Barbara Del Fino mentions that at one point they thought about taking a closed casino and getting it up and running again vs. building one on a soundstage. While a soundstage is a perfectly controlled environment, it’s difficult to translate that atmosphere. They eventually ended up shooting a the Riveria Hotel. They’d start shooting at 11 pm but did most of their best work between 2 am and 6 am before the senior citizens showed up./o:p> ***

“After the Filming” features Pileggi and Scorsese discussing the difficulty of the collaborative process and how the director really is the only one taking the whole journey and controlling the film from beginning to end. His editor Thelma Schoonmaker discusses the editing process, post production and trying to bring Scorsese’s world to life from all of the bits of film Scorsese had shot. Luckily, Scorsese like Hitchcock (by the way, Scorsese shares something else with Hitchcock—he’s the only major director of the late and early 21st century with a similar vision and stature that STILL hasn’t won an Oscar) knows what his film will look like before he ever shoots a frame. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t improvise but he goes with his initial instinct in shooting a scene. ***

“Vegas & The Mob” gives us the history of Vegas using the “synergy” of the Universal/NBC merger by including a report from MSNBC on the city. We also get a number of deleted scenes unfortunately your not able to access them individually. “History Alive: True Crime with Nicholas Pileggi” is from the History Channel and is a solid 45 minute documentary on Vegas that clearly was made to tie in with the release of “Casino” for DVD. Part documentary and biography of Pileggi, it’s a pretty good little presentation. ***

”Moments with Martin Scorsese, Sharon Stone and Nhcholas Pileggi” provides brief interviews with participants in the making of the film discussing the journey from script to screen. While many of the comments are similar here to the hodge podge commentary track for the film, it sounds to me like the commentary track isn’t the interviews stripped of the visuals for the most part. There’s also production notes which, I believe, were on the original DVD release of the film. ---