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Order a copy of the new Casino 10th Anniversary DVD at
Amazon.com
Robert DeNiro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci
No One Stays at the Top Forever ...
Sam 'Ace' Rothstein (Robert DeNiro) the the casino manager of The Tangiers in Las Vegas. While attempted to stay on the right side of the law and casino gaming regulations, his longtime friend Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) shows up and is now a Made-Man in the Mob. Ace's wife Ginger (Sharon Stone) has difficulty leaving behind her drug problem and her old boyfriend, Lester, (James Woods), and the triangle, along with her affair with Nicky, puts Ace in a difficult position.
Director Martin Scorsese reunites with members of his GoodFellas gang (writer
Nicholas Pileggi; actors Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Frank Vincent) for a
three-hour epic about the rise and fall of mobster Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a character
based on real-life gangster Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, while Nicky Santoro was based on the
real-life gangster Tony "The Ant" Spilotro.
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Casino was filmed entirely in the Las Vegas Valley. The casino scenes were filmed in the Riviera Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip between 1 am and 4 am so as to not get in the way of the real gamblers and guests. The driving scene at the beginning of the movie was filmed on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas.
Robert De Niro .... Sam 'Ace' Rothstein
Sharon Stone .... Ginger McKenna/Rothstein
Joe Pesci .... Nicky Santoro
James Woods .... Lester Diamond
Don Rickles .... Billy Sherbert
Alan King .... Andy Stone
Kevin Pollak .... Phillip Green
L.Q. Jones .... Pat Webb
Dick Smothers .... Senator
Frank Vincent .... Frank Marino
John Bloom .... Don Ward
Pasquale Cajano .... Remo Gaggi
Melissa Prophet .... Jennifer Santoro
Bill Allison .... John Nance
Vinny Vella .... Artie Piscano
Nicky Santoro: A lot of holes in the desert, and a lot of problems are buried in those holes. But you gotta do it right. I mean, you gotta have the hole already dug before you show up with a package in the trunk. Otherwise, you're talking about a half-hour to forty-five minutes worth of digging. And who knows who's gonna come along in that time? Pretty soon, you gotta dig a few more holes. You could be there all fuckin' night.
Nicky Santoro: So in other words - I'm fucked.
Ace Rothstein: In so many words, yes.
Ace Rothstein: [narrating] Nicky's methods of betting weren't scientific,
but they worked. When he won, he collected. When he lost, he told the bookies
to go fuck themselves. I mean, what were they going to do, muscle Nicky? Nicky
was the muscle.
Nicky Santoro: You said I'm bringin' heat on you? I gotta listen to people because of your fuckin' shit?! You're ordering me out?? You'd better get your own fuckin' army, pal!
Ginger: I should've never married Sam. He's a Gemini, TRIPLE Gemini. Gemini's a snake, you can't trust the snake.
[after a plane just crash-landed on the golf course]
Ace Rothstein: The feds were watching Nicky play golf for so long that
they ran out of gas.
Nicky Santoro: The coppers blamed me for every little thing out here, and I mean every little fuckin' thing. If a guy fuckin' slipped on a fuckin' banana peel, they blamed me.
Ace Rothstein: Running a casino is like robbing a bank with no cops around. For guys like me, Las Vegas washes away your sins. It's like a morality car wash.
Nicky Santoro: Peek-a-boo, you fucks, you!
Ace Rothstein: No matter how big a guy might be, Nicky would take him on. You beat Nicky with fists, he comes back with a bat. You beat him with a knife, he comes back with a gun. And you beat him with a gun, you better kill him, because he'll keep comin' back and back until one of you is dead.
Nicky Santoro: Don't be such a fucking smartass, will ya!? I mean, I've known the fucking guy 35 years and I'm gonna fucking whack him for you?
"You got to remember one thing when you're dealing with these guys. The only reason they're talking to you is they think they're going to earn off of you ... It's that cold, that deadly." (Nicholas Pileggi, writer)
Joe Pesci's character Nicky Santoro was based on real-life Chicago gangster Tony Spilotro. As portrayed in the movie with Nicky and his brother, Spilotro and his brother really were beaten and buried in an Indiana cornfield together in 1986.
While the movie begins by stating it is based upon a true story, it never names the actual casino involved. The Tangiers casino is fictional. The story is actually based upon the history of the Stardust casino, a fact well documented in the Vegas history books.
The word "Fuck" is said 422 times, including in the narration - 2.4 times per minute on average.
When Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) is pushed into the hole in the cornfield, Pesci broke the same rib he broke during Raging Bull (1980).
Martin Scorsese stated before the film's release that he created the "head in the vise" scene as a sacrifice, certain the MPAA would insist it be cut. He hoped this would draw fire away from other violent scenes that would seem less so by comparison. When the MPAA made no objection to the vise scene, he left it in, albeit slightly edited.
When James Woods heard that Martin Scorsese was interested in working with him, Woods called Scorsese's office and left the following message: "Any time, any place, any part, any fee."
Sharon Stone: "When we started Casino, Marty asked me what my favorite movie was and I told him it was The Jungle Book. He said he had a print, which I couldn't believe, because prints like that are in a vault in Tennessee.you want to screen it it's a big deal—I've tried. I said, ‘If I do a really good job can I have it?' Five months later we finish the movie, which was an arduousprocess, and at the end I walked into my trailer and the film cans were stacked on my chair."
The casino scenes in the movie Casino were filmed in the Riviera, probably because it had not changed much since the 70s - the era that the film depicted.
One the first day of filming in Vegas, Joe Pesci sent Scorsese a gift - a bullet. The Card said: "Everyone should have one of these with your name on it. Here's yours!"
Sharon Stone said deliberately held back during her audition for "Casino" because she didn't want to out-act co-star DeNiro: It's a fine line to tread. You want the part, but you don't want to beat the crap out of De Niro, who was in the room, because if you beat him, you don't get the job. So I didn't think I did a great audition because I kept withholding."
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Martin Scorsese and editor Thelma
Schoonmaker
at the London Film Festival for "Casino" 1995 |