F-0212

Title:

Casino

Category:

S

Produced:

1995

Country:

USA / France

Released:

Film: Nov 1995 (USA)
DVD: Feb 1998; Oct 2000 (2-DVD No. 2); May 2001 (2-DVD No. 1); Jun 2005; Jan 2006
VHS: Jan 1997 (2-VHS)
Soundtrack: Nov 1995 (2-CD, 2-MC)

Director:

Martin Scorsese

Writer:

Nicholas Pileggi (book, screenplay); Martin Scorsese (screenplay)

Actors:

Robert De Niro (Sam 'Ace' Rothstein); Sharon Stone (Ginger McKenna); Joe Pesci (Nicky Santoro); James Woods (Lester Diamond); Frank Vincent (Frank Marino); Pasquale Cajano (Remo Gaggi); Kevin Pollak (Phillip Green); Don Rickles (Billy Sherbert); Vinny Vella (Artie Piscano); Alan King (Andy Stone); L.Q. Jones (Pat Webb); Dick Smothers (Senator); Joseph Rigano (Vincent Borelli); John Bloom (Don Ward); Melissa Prophet (Jennifer Santoro & Amazon.com)

Description:

This Martin Scorsese film depicts the Janus-like quality of Las Vegas--it has a glittering, glamorous face, as well as a brutal, cruel one. Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro, mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark, live and work in this paradoxical world. Seen through their eyes, each as a foil to the other, the details of mob involvement in the casinos of the 1970's and '80's are revealed. Ace is the smooth operator of the Tangiers casino, while Nicky is his boyhood friend and tough strongman, robbing and shaking down the locals. However, they each have a tragic flaw--Ace falls in love with a hustler, Ginger, and Nicky falls into an ever-deepening spiral of drugs and violence. (Tad Dibbern)

Sam 'Ace' Rothstein, a mob-connected casino operator in Las Vegas, attempts a civilized lifestyle with his money-conditional wife, Ginger. Nicky Santoro, a boyhood friend of Ace and now a Made-Man of the Mafia, arrives in town with an ambitious agenda of his own that soon disrupts Ace's life. Before long, Ginger and her long-time leeching lover Lester, along with Nicky's mistakes, causing problems. (Brian Whiting)

Director Martin Scorsese reunites with members of his GoodFellas gang (writer Nicholas Pileggi; actors Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Frank Vincent) for a three-hour epic about the rise and fall of mobster Sam "Ace" Rothstein (De Niro), a character based on real-life gangster Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal. (It's modeled after on Wiseguy and GoodFellas and Pileggi's true crime book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas.) Through Rothstein, the picture tells the story of how the Mafia seized, and finally lost control of, Las Vegas gambling. The first hour plays like a fascinating documentary, intricately detailing the inner workings of Vegas casinos. Sharon Stone is the stand out among the actors; she nabbed an Oscar nomination for her role as the voracious Ginger, the glitzy call girl who becomes Rothstein's wife. The film is not as fast paced or gripping as Scorsese's earlier gangster pictures (Mean Streets and GoodFellas), but it's still absorbing. And, hey--it's Scorsese! (Jim Emerson, Amazon.com)

Martin Scorsese's movie about Las Vegas in the seventies and early eighties clocks in at close to three hours, and the epic running time is absurdly disproportionate to the stature of the main characters: a mob-connected cASINo manager (Robert De Niro); his wife (Sharon Stone), a former hustler; and a vicious gangster (Joe Pesci). These insectlike figures play out a petty drama of greed, jealousy, and depraved indifference to human life, while voice-over narrations try strenuously, and unsuccessfully, to persuade us that something weighty and tragic is going on. Individual sequences-mostly brief documentary-style passages-are lively and superbly edited, but none provides more than a momentary rush. The picture circles its empty center endlessly: around and around it goes, and where it stops nobody knows. Scorsese certainly hasn't forgotten how to make a movie; what he appears to have forgotten is why. Also with James Woods, Frank Vincent, and Don Rickles. Screenplay by Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi. (Terrence Rafferty, Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker)

Language:

English, French

TT:

178 min (Film, DVD) / 179 min (DVD, VHS) / 324 min (2-DVD No. 1) / 363 min (2-DVD No. 2)

J.S. Bach's Music:

Matthäus-Passion BWV 244
Georg Solti / Chicago Symphony Chorus (Chorus Master: Margaret Hillis) & Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus (Chorus Master: Doreen Rao) / Chicago Symphony Orchestra
From: Bach: Matthäus-Passion (St. Matthew's Passion) (London) [V-2]
Courtesy of The Decca Record Company Limited, London, by Arrangement with PolyGram Film and TV Licensing, 1988 The Decca Record Company Limited, London

Format:

Film: Color (Technicolor), DTS-Stereo / DTS
DVD: (AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1) | (Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1) | (AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC, Region 1) | (NTSC, Region 2) | (NTSC, Import, Widescreen, Dolby, Dubbed, Region 1) | (AC-3, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1) | (Anamorphic, Color, NTSC, Region 1) | (PAL, Widescreen, Dolby, Subtitled, Region 2) | (Anamorphic, NTSC, Region 2) | (PAL, Region 2)
2-DVD No. 1: (Closed-captioned, Color, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1)
2-DVD No. 2: (Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1)
4-DVD: ( NTSC, Widescreen, Dolby, Subtitled, Dubbed, Box set, Region 1)
2-VHS: (Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC) | (Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC) | (PAL)
Soundtrack: 2-CD; 2-MC

Company:

Film: Universal Pictures; Syalis DA; Légende Entreprises; De Fina-Cappa
DVD: Universal Studios; Universal Home Video
VHS: Universal Studios
Soundtrack: MCA [2CD, 2-MC]

Comments:

2-DVD Set No. 1 includes: Casino/Carlito's Way
2-DVD Set No. 2 includes: Robert De Niro Double Feature (Casino / The Deer Hunter)
4-DVD Set includes: Coleccion De Gangsters 4 DVD Box Pack (Smoking Aces, Scarface, Carlito´s Way & Casino)

Watch selections:

Buy movie at:

DVD: Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com [Region 2] | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com [PAL, Region 2] | Amazon.com [Region 2] | Amazon.com [PAL, Region 2]
2-DVD No. 1: Amazon.com
2-DVD No. 2: Amazon.com
4-DVD: Amazon.com
2-VHS: Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com [PAL] | Amazon.com [PAL]
Soundtrack: Amazon.com [2-CD] | Amazon.com [2-MC]

Source/Links: IMDB
Contributor: Aryeh Oron (November 2007)