Casino (1995)
Actors:
Richard Riehle (actor),
Steve Schirripa (actor),
Don Rickles (actor),
Joe Pesci (actor),
Alan King (actor),
Bob Pepper (actor),
Robert De Niro (actor),
Kevin Pollak (actor),
Carl Ciarfalio (actor),
Paul Herman (actor),
Steve Allen (actor),
Frankie Avalon (actor),
L.Q. Jones (actor),
Vinny Vella (actor),
Dick Smothers (actor),
Plot: This Martin Scorsese film depicts the Janus-like quality of Las Vegas--it has a glittering, glamorous face, as well as a brutal, cruel one. Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro, mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark, live and work in this paradoxical world. Seen through their eyes, each as a foil to the other, the details of mob involvement in the casinos of the 1970's and '80's are revealed. Ace is the smooth operator of the Tangiers casino, while Nicky is his boyhood friend and tough strongman, robbing and shaking down the locals. However, they each have a tragic flaw--Ace falls in love with a hustler, Ginger, and Nicky falls into an ever-deepening spiral of drugs and violence.
Keywords: 1970s, 1980s, abusive-mother, actor-shares-first-name-with-character, adultery, alcohol-abuse, anti-semitic-slur, ballpoint-pen, baseball-bat, based-on-book
Genres:
Biography,
Crime,
Drama,
Taglines: You don't stay at the top forever No one stays at the top forever. Luck has nothing to do with the games they play. They had it all, they ran the show, and it was paradise...while it lasted. Don't Push Your Luck. Winner loses all.
Quotes:
Nicky Santoro: We're supposed to be robbin' this place, you dumb fuckin' Hebe.
Ace Rothstein: [voice-over] 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.
Ace Rothstein: [voice-over] In Vegas, everybody's gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I'm watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all.
[first lines]::Ace Rothstein: [voice-over] When you love someone, you've gotta trust them. There's no other way. You've got to give them the key to everything that's yours. Otherwise, what's the point? And for a while, I believed, that's the kind of love I had.::[Ace's car explodes]
Nicky Santoro: Listen to me Anthony. I got your head in a fuckin' vise. I'll squash your head like a fuckin' grapefruit if you don't give me a name. Don't make me have to do this, please. Don't make me be a bad guy, come on.::Tony Dogs: Fuck you.::Nicky Santoro: This motherfucker, you believe this? Two fucking days and nights! Fuck me? *Fuck me?* You motherfucker! [turning the crank] Fuck my mother? That's what you fucking tell me? You motherfucker you!
Nicky Santoro: [voice-over] 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.
[repeated line]::Ace Rothstein: I can't do that.
Ace Rothstein: You guys have to be kidding, adjourned? What do you mean adjoured? Mr. Chairman, Senator. You promised me a hearing, you won't allow me a hearing? You didn't even look at the FBI reports. When you were my guest, Mr. Chairman, Senator, at the Tangiers hotel, did you not promise me that I would have a fair hearing?::Senator: I was never... I was never your guest at the Tangiers...::Ace Rothstein: You were never my guest?::Senator: ...that's right.::Ace Rothstein: I never comped you? I don't comp you at least 2 or 3 times a month? At the Tangiers?::Senator: I... I'd like to answer that at this time, Mr. Rothstein is being very typical to this point. He's lying. The only time I was at the Tangiers was when I had dinner with Barney Greenstein.::Ace Rothstein: Was I at that dinner? Tell me, was I at that dinner?::Senator: You were wandering.::Ace Rothstein: Was I at that dinner? Was I?::Senator: You were wandering around. You were in the... you were in the building.::Ace Rothstein: I was in the building? You know damn well I was at that dinner, and you swore to me I would have a fair hearing. Did you not? Did you not? Well, tell me I was at least at the dinner. Allow me that much. Give me that much at least!::Senator: Yes, you were.::Ace Rothstein: Yeah. Thanks for not calling me a liar. You son of a bitch.
Flirting Executive: Hello Mrs. Rothstein, how are you? [kisses her hand] You're one of the most gorgeous women I've ever seen, you're a lucky man Mr. Rothstein.::Ace Rothstein: [hesitant] Thank you, thanks for that compliment.::Ace Rothstein: [voice-over] He was a young kid from the casino. Nice kid, bright boy. What balls on this fuckin' kid. The next day I fired him.
Nicky Santoro: [voice-over] When it looked like they could get twenty-five years to life in prison just for skimming a casino, sick or no fuckin' sick you knew people were going to get clipped.