When it comes to making movies about people involved in violent or shady business, Martin Scorsese has no equal. He\u2019s tackled corrupt Wall Street financiers, Chicago mobster Tony Montana, and a deranged would-be assassin, among other subjects. But his film Casino, based on the real-life story of mobster Frank Rosenthal and the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas, is one of his most ambitious. It tells the tale of how mob control over Vegas waned and how huge gambling corporations took over the city. It\u2019s also an interesting history lesson about how Sin City has evolved over the years.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a lot going on in Casino, which is arguably one of the greatest films ever about organized crime. It follows the true story of Frank \u201cLefty\u201d Rosenthal and the Stardust casino, which he managed from the late \u201970s to early \u201980s. De Niro stars as Sam Rothstein, who takes over the Tangiers hotel after Rosenthal\u2019s death. He\u2019s backed by mob strongman Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), who runs the hotel\u2019s illegal side business.<\/p>\n
Scorsese\u2019s direction is typically brilliant, with the opening sequence \u2014 which has deliberate echoes of Goodfellas\u2019 Copacabana interlude \u2014 feeling like an entertaining behind-the-scenes tour of the casino world. From there, it becomes more conventional, but never boring or dull. In fact, there are so many small details that feel right \u2014 from airborne feds circling a golf course to casino cooks putting just the right amount of blueberries in a muffin \u2014 that you almost forget that it\u2019s a fictional story about gangsters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When it comes to making movies about people involved in violent or shady business, Martin Scorsese has no equal. He\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n