Casino 1995 Film Wikipedia
Casino is a 1995 American epic crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, produced by Barbara De Fina and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film is based on the nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas4 by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese. It stars Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, Don Rickles, Kevin Pollak and James Woods. Casino is a 1995 American epic crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, produced by Barbara De Fina and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film is based on the nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film.
- Etymology and usage. Casino is of Italian origin; the root casa means a house. The term casino may mean a small country villa, summerhouse, or social club. During the 19th century, casino came to include other public buildings where pleasurable activities took place; such edifices were usually built on the grounds of a larger Italian villa or palazzo, and were used to host civic town functions.
- Casino: the 1995 film by Martin Scorsese is a story about greed, deception, money, power, and murder between two best friends. A mafia enforcer and a cas ino executive compete against each other over a gambling empire and o ver a fast living, fast loving socialite. Starring Robert De Nero, Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone in a performance that earned her a Golden Globe Award for.
The relationship between Ace and Ginger becomes so diminished that Ace gives her all her money and tells her to leave. The Feds make their move. They arrest all the bosses, Nicky's crew and raid the Gold Rush. Artie Piscano has a heart attack when the Feds search his house. The bosses order all the men involved with the casino scam (Andy Stone, John Nance etc.), murdered. Ginger gets involved with some lowlifes and has an overdose and dies. Ace survived the car bombing at the beginning because of a secret metal plate under the driver's seat. Nicky was the one who planted the bomb. Both Nicky and his brother Dominic, are taken out into a cornfield by Frankie and Remo Gaggi's boys, beaten with baseball bats and buried while they were still breathing. All of the major casinos and condemned. Ace goes back to being a bookie and making money for people back home. And that's that.
Nikki Williams
Revealing mistake: Near the end when Ace gets into his Cadillac, in the first shot facing the front of the car, there is a protective glass in front of Ace (the same width as the windshield) with the dashboard in between that glass and the windshield. Note the vertical edge of the glass is visible at the right side, and the rearview mirror's sticker on the windshield casts a shadow onto the second glass. During the stunt, the flames on the dashboard are between the glass shield and the windshield, keeping the actor safe from harm.(02:46:05)
Super GroverTrivia: Robert DeNiro's attorney in the movie is Oscar Goodman, who ironically was the attorney for Frank Rosenthal, as well as Tony Spilotro, who was played by Joe Pesci
Question: Sam and Nicky both refer to 'back home' but they do not explain where it is . I thought it was Kansas City because that is where the bosses are, but it's revealed that they are only there because 'its as close as they could get to Vegas without being arrested'. Does anyone know where in America Sam and Nicky are originally from?
Answer:Frank Rosenthal (the basis for Sam Rothstein) and Tony Spilotro (the basis for Nicky Santoro) were both from Chicago, so that is likely 'back home'.
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Casino 1995 Film Wikipedia Encyclopedia
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Directed by
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- Robert De Niro
- Sharon Stone
- Joe Pesci
- Don Rickles
- Kevin Pollak
- James Woods
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Casino is a 1995 American epic crime film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci. It is based on the nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese. The two had previously collaborated on Goodfellas.
The film marks the eighth collaboration between director Scorsese and De Niro, following Mean Streets (1973); Taxi Driver (1976); New York, New York (1977); Raging Bull (1980); The King of Comedy (1982); Goodfellas (1990); and Cape Fear (1991).
In Casino, De Niro stars as Sam 'Ace' Rothstein, a Jewish American gambling handicapper who is called by the Chicago Outfit to oversee the day-to-day operations at the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. His character is based on Frank Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust, Fremont, and Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago Outfit from the 1970s until the early 1980s. Pesci plays Nicholas 'Nicky' Santoro, based on real-life Mob enforcer Anthony J. Spilotro, a 'made man' who could give Ace the protection he needed. Nicky is sent to Vegas to make sure that money from the Tangiers is skimmed off the top and the mobsters in Vegas are kept in line. Sharon Stone plays Ginger McKenna, Ace's scheming, self-absorbed wife, based on Geri McGee.
Plot
In 1973, sports handicapper and Mafia associate Sam 'Ace' Rothstein is sent to Las Vegas to run the Teamsters Union-funded Tangiers Casino on behalf of the Chicago Outfit, which secretly controls the Teamsters, while Philip Green serves as the Mob's front man. Taking advantage of gaming laws that allow him to work in a casino while his gaming license is pending, Sam doubles the casino's profits, which are skimmed by the Mafia before they are reported to income tax agencies. Impressed with his work, Mafia boss Remo Gaggi sends Sam's childhood friend and mob enforcer Nicholas 'Nicky' Santoro and his associate Frank 'Frankie' Marino to protect Sam and the whole operation. Nicky's volatile temper soon gets him banned from every casino in Las Vegas, so he gathers his own crew and engages in independent shakedowns and burglaries, instead.
Sam meets and falls in love with a hustler and former prostitute, Ginger McKenna. They conceive a daughter and marry, but their marriage is proven difficult by Ginger's covetousness and love for her manipulative former boyfriend, con artist-turned pimp Lester Diamond. Lester is beaten severely by Sam and Nicky after they catch him conning Ginger out of some money. Ginger subsequently turns to alcohol. Meanwhile, Sam makes an enemy in county commissioner Pat Webb for firing his brother-in-law Don Ward for incompetence. When Sam refuses to reinstate him, Webb pulls Sam's license from the backlog, forcing him to face a hearing for his gaming license while secretly arranging for the board to deny Sam. Sam blames the incident on Nicky's recklessness and the two argue furiously in the desert after Sam attempts to tell Nicky to leave Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, the casino counters begin stealing some money for themselves, prompting the Midwest Mafia bosses to put Artie Piscano of the Kansas City mafia in charge of overseeing the transactions. Piscano is unable to find the thieves, but keeps tabs on everything he knows about Las Vegas in a private notebook, ranting about it in his grocery store. The FBI, investigating a separate crime, have wired Piscano's store, and Piscano's detailed complaints, complete with names, spurs the FBI to begin investigating the casino. Meanwhile, Sam finally seeks divorce from Ginger, tired of her alcoholism. She then kidnaps their daughter, Amy, taking her to Los Angeles, and plans to flee to Europe with Lester. Sam convinces her to come back with Amy, and then scolds her for stealing his money and kidnapping their daughter. After he overhears Ginger talking on the phone about killing him, he kicks her out of the house, but soon relents. Ginger then approaches Nicky for help in getting her valuables from their shared vault in the bank, and the two start an affair. Sam discovers this after finding Amy tied to her bed by Ginger, who is with Nicky at his restaurant. Sam disowns Ginger, as does Nicky. A furious and drunk Ginger crashes her car into Sam's driveway, making a scene, and retrieves the key to their deposit box after distracting the attending police. Even though she succeeds in taking her share of the money from the bank, she is arrested by the FBI as a material witness.
The FBI moves in and closes the casino. Green decides to cooperate with the authorities. Piscano dies of a heart attack upon observing federal agents discover his notebook. Nicky flees Las Vegas before he can be caught. The FBI approaches Sam for help, but he turns them down. The bosses are arrested and put on trial, and decide to eliminate anyone involved in the scheme to prevent them from testifying. Among those killed are three casino executives, Teamsters head Andy Stone, and money courier John Nance. Ginger travels to Los Angeles and ultimately dies of a drug overdose in a motel. Sam himself is almost killed by a car bomb, and suspects Nicky was behind it. Before Sam can take revenge, Nicky and his brother Dominick are ambushed by Frankie and their own crew, beaten and buried alive in a cornfield, the bosses having had enough of Nicky's behavior and suspecting his role in Sam's car bombing.
With the Mob now out of power, the old casinos are purchased by big corporations and demolished. The corporations build new and gaudier attractions, which Sam laments are not the same as when the Mafia was in control. Sam subsequently retires to San Diego and continues to live as a sports handicapper for the Mob, in his own words, ending up 'right back where I started'.
Cast
- Robert De Niro as Sam 'Ace' Rothstein
- Joe Pesci as Nicholas 'Nicky' Santoro
- Sharon Stone as Ginger McKenna
- James Woods as Lester Diamond
- Frank Vincent as Frankie Marino
- Don Rickles as Billy Sherbert
- L. Q. Jones as Clark County Commissioner Pat Webb
- Kevin Pollak as Philip Green
- Alan King as Andy Stone
- Pasquale Cajano as Remo Gaggi
- John Bloom as Donald 'Don' Ward
- Dick Smothers as Nevada State Senator Harrison Roberts
- Philip Suriano as Dominick Santoro
- Bill Allison as John Nance
- Vinny Vella as Artie Piscano