the rhapsodic cineaste

“For guys like me, Las Vegas washes away your sins. It's like a morality car wash. It does for us what Lourdes does for humpbacks and cripples. And along with making us legit…comes cash, tons of it. I mean, what do you think we’re doing out here in the middle of the desert? It’s all this money.” – Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert DeNiro)

For years Casino has been derided as kind of a Goodfellas Redux. It’s not hard to see why. Released only five years after Goodfellas, the film reunited Martin Scorsese with author/screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, and actors Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Frank Vincent in a profane, shockingly violent tale about organized crime.

Inspired by true story of sports handicapper Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro, Casino has more in common thematically with Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part II (1974). Though both films ostensibly portray the mafia’s influence in Las Vegas gambling, each more subtly chronicles the disintegration of a marriage and a vain quest for legitimacy.

Whereas The Godfather’s Michael Corleone is unrepentantly evil—his own quest for legitimacy merely lip-service to his long dead, youthful ideals—Casino’s Ace Rothstein wants merely to be an honest businessman. The dream is still within his grasp.

Interestingly, here is a mob movie where the lead character is generally honest, non-violent and law-abiding. Sure rules are bent here and there, and Rothstein has no illusions about the true nature of his gangster employers. Yet he works hard to keep his nose clean. Las Vegas has legitimized his trade, and he makes every effort to exploit the opportunity he’s been given. It’s largely the criminal escapades of gangster Nicky Santoro (Pesci), that destroys Rothstein’s dream.

Martin Scorsese is a modern master and, as such, any tale he decides to tell is one worth watching. Repeatedly. While not my favorite Scorsese film, Casino is in the director’s top tier.