With the release of Casino, Martin Scorsese has firmly established himself as one of America’s greatest filmmakers. The movie is a sprawling epic that exposes the intricacies of organised crime in Las Vegas, with tendrils reaching into politics, the Teamsters unions and the Midwest mafia based out of Kansas City. The film is a nonfiction adaptation of the investigative book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the movie with Scorsese.
In addition to its slew of gangsters and mob bosses, the film depicts the rise of gambling corporations in Vegas, as well as the way they sucked the city dry of its culture and character. It’s a story of power, greed, treachery and violence. But it’s also a morality tale that suggests that no one can escape their past. Whether it’s the gangsters, who all revert to their violent criminal roots, or Ginger, who is still haunted by her pimp Lester, none of the characters can escape their past.
Another of the themes in the film is American identity. It’s clear from the way the mobsters talk about the local Nevadans – “they’re stupid, they don’t know anything” – that these characters are at once a modern day version of cowboys and an archetype for rogues and outlaws on the fringes of civilisation.
This is a theme that Scorsese explores throughout his career, most famously in the film Age of Innocence. There, he suggests that New Yorkers have inherited rigid social structures and rituals from their European forbearers, and that this new world has become a modern version of the old one. This idea is also reflected in the way that the cast of Casino are portrayed. Scorsese often enters scenes from a high-vantage point, giving the impression that he is looking down on his cast, almost as if from a divine throne.
While the film is centred on three main characters, it is a massive study of a city and an empire. It’s a story about how the Mafia was allowed to flourish in Vegas – and then spit out – as huge gambling corporations grew more profitable than the mob ever could have dreamed of. The film shows that vice cannot be tolerated, and that even the most ruthless and corrupt criminals will eventually be undermined. This is evident in the fact that, as the mobsters grow more convinced that they are unwatched, they become more brazen in flaunting their sins – whether it’s Sam hosting a show on local TV or Ace itemising his expenses.