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Casino

Structure/Plot

While I don’t like the idea of comparing movies, it is helpful to compare this to Goodfellas in order to highlight the errors. The main problem is the lack of focus. The movie doesn’t tell the story from one POV and it jumps around too much. While Goodfellas covers thirty years of time, there’s a clear series of episodes that is told from Henry Hill’s perspective. That never waivers.

But in Casino, we start at the present time of the story, jump back a little, jump back to how it started…all mixed in with the inner workings of such an establishment and how the mob controls it. It was certainly entertaining, but there was no focus or order.

If you were to describe Goodfellas, you would say it’s the life story of this gangster who starts out as a wide-eyed kid, gets involved in a few specific incidents, and ends up turning against his buddies to save his own skin. For Casino, you would say it’s about an expert gambler who acts as the front-man for a mob family to run a casino…and eventually they screw it all up and lose everything. You see what’s missing? The specific incidents, the heart of the story. Goodfellas has the Lufthansa heist and its aftermath, Henry’s cocaine operation, etc. But who remembers the specifics of Casino? That’s the flaw.

Once Ace gets married, the movie really goes downhill. There’s not enough glue to the story. And there are too many scenes with Ace and his wife fighting- it doesn’t add to the story or create more drama.

Character

Most of the juice in the story comes from the Joe Pesci character. Another flaw- give the story to your numero uno.

Logic

What about the very beginning where we clearly see Ace being blown up in his car? Then at the end, he escapes. How could Scorcese do that to us? That’s a criminal act in a movie- showing one thing and then saying something else happened. Only a dream sequence or funny scene can get away with such a move.

Casting/Acting

Joe Pesci’s narrations are all with the Chicago accent- and it’s pretty good. But all his dialogue in the actual film is NY Italian.

DeNiro is great, BUT… I would overlook the fact that he’s playing a Jewish character if the movie wouldn’t press that point so much, especially at the end when Pesci goes on an anti-Semetic tirade. The comments are way overboard and actually cheapen the movie. The lesson to learn? Don’t remind the audience when an actor is playing something foreign to him.

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