Casino written by Nicholas Pileggi and directed
by Martin Scorsese
A different
version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E
and
http://realini.blogspot.ro/
Casino is a
very popular film.
Nevertheless,
popularity and critical success are two different things.
Critics did
not like this movie as much as the rest of the already consecrated chef d’oeuvres
and multiple award winners directed by Martin Scorsese:
-
Goodfellas, Raging Bull and Taxi
Driver
But the
story is very good, if familiar.
The cast is
stellar:
-
Robert de Niro, Sharon Stone and Joe
Pesci
If we add the
Demiurge Scorsese, there is nothing more to add to this recipe that guarantees
success and art.
Yet,
grumbles were heard:
-
“Expectations could kill Casino
faster than any potshots from critics. Martin Scorsese is the man, the most
viscerally exciting director of his generation, with such classics as Mean
Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and GoodFellas to prove it. There's the rub.
A pedestal makes a precarious perch. Any hint of dissatisfaction from the
fickle crowd and down you go. Even before Casino opened, the black cloud of
letdown hung over Scorsese's epic tale of mob infiltration of Las Vegas during
the 1970s. Casino, said the buzz, is too long (nearly three hours), too brutal
(a thug with his head in a vise is squeezed until his eye rockets its socket)
and too familiar (Scorsese again directing Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci as
hoods. Enough).”
That is
what Rolling Stone had to say.
I for one
liked it.
Robert de
Niro plays Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a wizard and a man who knows very well what
horse is going to win.
He is very
popular with mobsters who can win big time at the races and betting on the successful
teams.
It is work
rather than intuition or magic and in this sense and Ace is just doing his
homework, collecting all the data.
It is a
rather well known story, with the one who has all the information being able to
place the right bets.
In a way,
Ace is a role model: a hardworking, successful, talented, rich manager who has
seen the American Dream come true…
Only positive
psychology has proved that the “dream „that involves material success, money,
fame and status is not as happy as it appeared to be, because external,
extrinsic goals do not bring wellbeing.
And indeed,
if Ace marries Ginger, portrayed by Sharon Stone and that looks like a
guarantee of Flow, in reality, after the “honeymoon effect” is over, things
fall apart.
They engage
in a destructive battle and the triangle of conflict that has Joe Pesci in the
role of Nicky Santoro as the third element in this explosive mix ends up in the
sight of federal agents and they all suffer.
There is
the well-known excess when we watch movies with and about mobsters, with
torture, violence and betrayal.
Ace and
Nicky are supposed to work together as part of a “mob team „detached to Sin
City to make money for the Goodfellas.
But Nicky
is exceeding his role and becomes involved with all sorts of individuals and
attracts attention on the casino.
He gambles
and loses, then asks for loans and becomes violent, rude and a menace to those
around him.
Ace and
Nicky have various disputes and a beautifully filmed face off in the middle of
the desert where the latter threatens the former.
People are
taken in the middle of nowhere, made to dig graves and then clubbed to death in
horrendous manner.
The fight
between Ace and Ginger becomes an opportunity for Nicky to take his revenge,
according to the principle
-
The enemies of my enemy are my
friends
But personages
and people act irrationally- sometimes Predictably Irrational as the book says-
and they are very volatile and unpredictable
-
Look no further than The Donald and
his torrent of stupid tweets
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