Music N' More: Casino (1995)

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Casino (1995)

-Made in 1995
-Directed by Martin Scorsese
-Based on non-fiction book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi

Did You Know?
-The F word is said 422 times, and the film holds a Guiness World Record for most swearing in a movie
-Sharon Stone had back problems from an old injury and the gold and white beaded gown she wears during a casino scene weighed 45 pounds
-The jewelry store Nicky robs is an actual Las Vegas jewelry store. The line "I just got a shipment of diamonds from Israel" was not scripted
-The character K.K. Ichikawa was actually based on Akio Kashiwagi. He was a Japanese high roller during the 70s and 80s and was a big scene at Las Vegas casinos. By the end of the 1980s, he had used up all his casino credit, owing many casinos, millions of dollars. He was eventually murdered in his Tokyo home by the Yakuza(Japanese Mafia) in 1992.
-In the movie, Nicky is placed in the black book. In real life, Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, the person De Niro's character is based on, is the one really in the black book.
-The gray haired hitman in the sunglasses at the end of the movie was a real life mob member. His name is Frank Culotta. He is portrayed by Frank Vincent. Culotta was the chief lieutenant of Tony Spilotro in the 1970s and 1980s and entered the Witness Protection Program before the conrfield incident took place and was not present, unlike Marino.
-Robert De Niro has appeared in at least 3 movies that use the song Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones in the soundtrack: Casino(1995), The Fan(1996) and Goodfellas(1990)

-Robert De Niro stars as Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a Jewish-American gambling handicapper who is called by the Mob to oversee daily business at the fictional Tangiers casino in Las Vegas. The story is based on Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust, Fremont adn Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago Outfit from the 1970s until the early 1980s.
-Joe Pesci plays Nicky Santoro, Sam's hot tempered, hair trigger tempered friend, based on real life mob enforcer Anthony Spilotro. Nicky is sent to Vegas to make sure no one messes with Sam or skim money off the top from the Tangiers and that the mobsters in Vegas are keeping their toes in line.
-Sharon Stone plays Ginger McKenna, Ace's wife.
-In the scene where Nicky and his brother Dominick are beaten and buried in a cornfield, that actually happened. The real guys, Anthony Spilotro and his brother really were beaten and buried in an Indian cornfield in 1986.

Plot
-Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is a sports handicapper and mob associate who is sent to Vegas to run the Teamsters-funded Tangiers Casino on behalf of several midwest mob families. Sam becomes the Tangier's boss, while taking advantage of the gaming laws allowing him to work while his gaming license is being considered. He doubles the Tangier's profits which are skimmed by the Mafia before the records are reported to the income tax people. Because the bosses are impressed by Sam's work, they send Sam's friend, mob enforcer and caporegime Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro (Joe Pesci) and his gang, which includes Frank Marino (Frank Vincent) to protect Sam and the whole casino. Nicky, unfortunately, becomes more of a problem than solution as his aggressive attitude quickly gets him barred from virtually every casino in Vegas and his name into the black book, which has only one name in it, Alphonse "Scarface" Capone. With his name in the black book, Santoro's name has been grilled into the mind of virtually every police officer and FBI agent and other law enforcement officers. So Nicky then gathers his own crew and begin running burglaries from other businesses and houses.

-Sam, however, meets and falls in love with Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone), who is a hustler. Despite her hesitance, they soon marry and conceive a daugher, Amy. Their relationship takes a turn for the worse when Ginger is caught by Sam and Nicky aiding her former boyfriend, a con man named Lester Diamond (James Woods). Sam also makes an enemy out of Clark County Commissioner Pat Webb (L.Q. Jones) by firing Webb's brother in law Donald Ward (Joe Bob Briggs) from the casino for not doing his job right. Sam refuses to rehire him, despite pressure from Webb to do so. Webb gets payback by pulling Sam's casino license application from the backlog, forcing Sam to have a license hearing, while seeing to it that gaming board and State Senator Harrison Roberts of the State of Nevada (Dick Smothers) to reject the application. Sam responds by appearing on TV and openly accuses the city government of corruption. The bosses, angry at this, ask him to return home. But he refuses and stubbornly blames Nicky's lawbreaking for his mess. In a heated argument in the desert, Nicky tells Sam to never "go over his head" again.

-The bosses hire Kansas City mob underboss Artie Piscano to run the skim and reduce the amount local mobsters are keeping for themselves. But with his big mouth, he keeps incriminating ledgers and is caught on an FBI bug discussing the skim of money from the casino. Sam almost loses patience with Ginger after she and Lester are in L.A. with plans to run away to Europe with his daughter Amy. He talks Ginger into bringin Amy back, but Ginger's drug addictions anger him so much that he kicks her out of the house. She returns, on Sam's word that she carry a beeper at all times to contact her when he needs to. Ginger turns to Nicky for help in getting her share of the money from her and Sam's shared bank account, and they begin a sexual affair, which according to mob rule could get the 2 of them killed, along with Nicky's crew for covering it up. Sam reaches the boiling point with Ginger when she ties Amy to her bedposts to have a night out with Nicky. Sam tracks her down and finds her in Nicky's restaurant The Leaning Tower and he confronts her and disowns her. She turns to Nicky, but he has reached his limit with her too. The next morning, Ginger goes to Sam's house, creating a domestic disturbance, and uses the distraction to get the key to the safe where their money is. She takes some of the savings, but then is arrested by FBI agents

-Wth Ginger arrested and the FBI's discovery of Piscano's records, which are then matched with skimming operation, the casino crumbles beneath everyone's feet and the bosses are arrested. During a meeting, they decide to cut all ties and eliminate everyone who was involved to keep them from testifying. This includes the head of the teamsters and several casino executives. At the same time, Ginger dies practically poor in L.A. of a drug overdose and Sam is almost killed in car bomb, which he suspects Nicky planted. Nicky and his brother Dominick are called to a meeting in a cornfield after all the heat in the city blew down. Upon arriving, they are held down and beaten to within an inch of their lives with aluminum bats by Frankie and his gang before being buried alive. Sam narrates that the bosses were fed up with Nicky and his lawbreaking in Vegas, and ordered Frankie and the gang to "make an example" of him and his brother

-With the mob out of power, the old casinos are bought by big companies and torn down to make way for gaudy casinos bought with junk bonds. Sam laments that the new "family friendly" Las Vegas lacks the same glitz and glamour it once had, and lacks the same kind of catering to players the old Las Vegas had. In the final scene, it shows an older Sam living in San Diego, once again a sports handicapper for the mob, or in his words "...right back where I started."

Cast
Robert De Niro: Sam "Ace" Rothstein
-Based on: Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal

Joe Pesci: Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro
-Based on: Tony "The Ant" Spilotro

Sharon Stone: Ginger McKenna
-Based on: Geraldine McGee Rosenthal

Frank Vincent: Frank Marino
-Based on: Frank Culotta

Don Rickles: Billy Sherbert
-Based on: Murray Ehrenberg

Pasquale Cajano: Remo Gaggi
-Based on: Joseph Aiuppa

James Woods: Lester Diamond
-Based on: Leonard "Lenny" Marmor

Kevin Pollack: Philip Green
-Based on: Allen Glick

Alan King: Andy Stone
-Based on: Allen Dorfman

Philip Suriano: Dominick Santoro
-Based on: Michael Spilotro

Vinny Vella: Artie Piscano
-Based on: Carl "Tuffy" DeLuna

Joseph Rigano: Vincent Borelli
-Based on: Nicholas Civella

Nobu Matsuhisa: K.K. Ichikawa
-Based on: Akio Kashiwagi