Arts
What do you get when you take Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone, the Mob and director Martin Scorsese and put them all in a blender?
The result is "Casino," an ambitious three-hour chronicle of the decadence of 1970s Las Vegas that will be showing tonight in Spaulding as part of the Film Society's ongoing series on auteurs.
"Casino" follows the actions of Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a mob-connected gambler, played by De Niro operating a Las Vegas casino in 1970s Las Vegas.
He falls hard for and marries Ginger McKenna, a showgirl played by Sharon Stone, but her gold-digging nature ultimately sends them both on a downward spiral.
Joe Pesci portrays Nicky Santaro, a childhood friend of Ace's who comes to Las Vegas a "made man" with his own personal agenda.
While on the one hand, "Casino" is a portrayal of the people involved in the gambling business, it is also an attempt in a broader fashion to tell the story of Las Vegas as an entity, focusing on murder, cheating, greed and lust in a way that is unwavering Scorsese.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times calls the film's culminating scene "a riotous, terrible meltdown that makes for one of the most scorching episodes Mr. Scorsese has ever filmed."
Scorsese comes from the first generation of American directors who were aware of their identities as auteurs.