ROBERT BERRY'S
WEIRD MOVIE STUFF #13
Just saw this fantastic film yesterday, and not willing to outdo
the remarkable reviews already written by several Cinema-Lketeers,
I'm creating a special version of WEIRD MOVIE STUFF devoted to
Scorcese's CASINO!
CASINO QUOTES OF THE DAY
"It was the last time street guys like us were ever given
anything that fuckin' valuable again."
"For guys like me, Las Vegas washes away your sins,
It's like a morality car wash."
"Piscano was a disaster, this guy could fuck up a cup of coffee."
"Paradise. . . we managed to fuck it all up!"
"And where did the money come from to rebuild the pyramids?
Junk-Bonds!"
WEIRD CASINO MOVIE FACTS O' THE DAY
Martin Scorcese's Ma not only played Piscano's Mom, but even occasionally
cooked a meal for the entire crew, just like her character did for the
old bosses. Kevin Pollak says they had to chip in to give her the
money for it each time.
Scorcese was able to start production on the film with no set ending
in the script, and no budget. Apparently he had the same arrangement
when he started with CAPE FEAR.
Martin filmed some obviously gratuitous violence for the film, for
the sole intention of pleasing the MPAA by cutting it out, as there
were many brutal scenes that he intended to keep in. One of
the more notorious fake-scenes was in Nicky (Pesci's) giving the vice
torture. In the final cut, you hear Nicky say, "You made me pop your
fucking eye out for...", but you never see it, as the visual itself had
been cut, and was never intended to be there.
GREAT SCENES IN CASINO
The opening titles rival those in SEVEN for sheer beauty and setting
of tone for the rest of the film. The blurry kaleidoscope of neon,
flashing lights, and the whole face of Vegas is like an unholy acid
trip with operatic angels screaming.
As the titles end, Ace (DeNiro) is falling, flailing around wildly, until
the flames come up, swallowing the whole scene, completing his
descent into past. His delusion is pointed out immediately to the
audience when he says, "I was given paradise on Earth", when in
actuality, he is given the keys to his own personal Hell.
Before Ace has his meeting to refuse reemployment of his Slots Manager,
(played by "Joe Bob Briggs"), notice Scorcese's use of the color
turquoise. Ace's shirt, and tie, are a perfectly matched turquoise
in the opening shot, as is the bottle of milk of magnesia he's chugging
at, before he gets up and walks to the closet. Ace is getting sick,
perhaps with ulcers, and his personal appearance via clothing, is as
like a giant bottle of milk of magnesia. Of course his guest,
is wearing one of the biggest fucking pieces of turquoise around his
bolo tie, too? Throughout this film, color is used fantastically.
Check out the scene with Ace waiting in the gorgeous desert
for his meeting with Nicky. A beautiful full screen shot of Ace's
face shows his sunglasses reflecting the deserts' pristine beauty,
then from the left lens, you see Nicky's car screeching by, dust
kicking up behind it, then going into the right lens. This is
symbolic for how fucked up paradise became. Nicky's entrance into
Vegas, now becomes clear that it's as tainting as blood on white
polyester.
Notice that the first scene where you see violence from Nicky is
in the restaurant where he stabs some poor fuck silly with a
pen in his neck. The song playing is The Rolling Stone's
"Satisfaction." Later in the film, when Nicky is in all his ballsy
violent glory, shooting up the house of a cop with his pals, DEVO's
cover of the song is playing instead. Scorcese uses this song during
two scenes, along with WHIP-IT, in the later portion of the film.
He simply doesn't pluck songs for songs sake in his soundtracks, and
has some good meaning to use the ones he does. I wonder if the use
of the DEVO tunes, is trying to symbolize how artificial and synthetic
everything is becoming in Vegas? Hell, maybe they're just cool songs!
I believe this is the first film to show cocaine being snorted via
the patented "straw-cam" effect. Brief, but effective camera trick.
Another powerful scene is when Ace goes to get his wife back from
Nicky's restaraunt. As he's entering, Nicky meets him at the door.
Ace calls his wife a bitch, and you can just see Nicky's eyes and
face go red (tremendous acting job by Pesci), as he tries to contain
his feelings in front of Ace. He simply says, "You better be nice
in here."
You can't beat the tragic final scenes of the death/birth of old/new
Vegas. As the old bosses sit in the courtroom, many of them holding
oxygen masks over their face (albeit for pity effect in Court) you
see that the way things used to be, ain't any more. Throughout the
film you see all of these beautiful and/or rich players coming in
to Vegas, but at the end, in slow-motion, a shot of old-fat-poorly
dressed-slobs walking through the doors shows you what Vegas has
become, and perhaps what our country has become, too.
Hope this departure from the regular format wasn't too much of
a piss-off (yeah, Robert, whodafukcares?) Anyway, obviously I
liked CASINO much, and fully expected to. Despite warnings of
how long and boring it seemed at times, I perfectly enjoyed the
film throughout, and would not change a thing. I didn't like
AGE OF INNOCENCE a great deal, so I'm not blindly following anything
Scorcese.
CASINO is a great work of art that will endure as a masterpiece
for a long time to come.
Robert A Berry
4019149@mcimail.com
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