Casino 1995 Roger Ebert
Martin Charles Scorsese (born November 17, 1942) is an Italian-American filmmaker, born in New York City and raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy. He began his career as part of the New Hollywood generation of film school students. He is regarded as one of. Martin Charles Scorsese (/ s k ɔːr ˈ s ɛ s i /, Italian: skorˈseːze; -eːse; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor.One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and influential directors in film history. Scorsese's body of work explores themes such as Italian-American identity. Roger Ebert's Top 10 Films by Year: 1967-2005. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) 2. Ulysses (1967) 3. Casino (1995) 6. Apollo 13 (1995) 7.
Martin Scorsese's fascinating new film 'Casino' knows a lot about the Mafia's relationship with Las Vegas. It's based on a book by Nicholas Pileggi, who had full access to a man who once ran four casinos for the mob, and whose true story inspires the movie's plot.
Like 'The Godfather,' it makes us feel like eavesdroppers in a secret place.
The movie opens with a car bombing, and the figure of Sam 'Ace' Rothstein floating through the air. The movie explains how such a thing came to happen to him. The first hour plays like a documentary; there's a narration, by Rothstein (Robert De Niro) and others, explaining how the mob skimmed millions out of the casinos.
It's an interesting process. Assuming you could steal 25 percent of the slot-machine take - what would you do with tons of coins? How would you convert them into bills that could be stuffed into the weekly suitcase for delivery to the mob in Kansas City? 'Casino' knows. It also knows how to skim from the other games, and from food service and the gift shops. And it knows about how casinos don't like to be stolen from.
There's an incident where a man is cheating at blackjack, and a couple of security guys sidle up to him and jab him with a stun gun.
Casino Roger Ebert
He collapses, the security guys call for medical attention, and hurry him away to a little room where they pound on his fingers with a mallet and he agrees that he made a very bad mistake.
Casino Ebert Review
Rothstein, based on the real-life figure of Frank (Lefty) Rosenthal, starts life as a sports oddsmaker in Chicago, attracts the attention of the mob because of his genius with numbers and is assigned to run casinos because he looks like an efficient businessman who will encourage the Vegas goose to continue laying its golden eggs. He is a man who detests unnecessary trouble. One day, however, trouble finds him, in the person of Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone), a high-priced call girl.