With its flashing lights, music blaring and gambling tables everywhere, a casino is a place where people come to let off steam. It’s also a place where people socialize and try their luck at games ranging from poker to roulette. There is no telling when luck will strike, which gives casinos an adrenaline rush that can’t be found anywhere else.
Unlike most movies that show Las Vegas in a rosy light, Casino shows its seedier side. It exposes the city’s past ties to organized crime, while at the same time laying bare its present opulence and neon signs. It also exposes the corruption and greed that characterizes many of its operators. There are no good guys in Casino, and everyone is mired in treachery and avarice. This makes the film all the more compelling. Sharon Stone is especially effective as Ginger, a seductive hustler who boasts of her ability to keep men captive for days. Her performance builds on and inverts her star-making turn in Basic Instinct.
Martin Scorsese’s ambivalence is on full display here. He’s at once fascinated and disgusted by the exploitation of these gangsters, which is evident in his choice to include truly hellacious violence, including a popped eyeball and a baseball bat beating. Yet, he never loses control of the film, and it remains lean and mean throughout its almost three-hour running time.
