Casino: Special Edition (1995) |
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Casino: Special Edition (1995) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Drama |
Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Moments With Martin Scorsese, Sharon Stone And More Production Notes Featurette-Casino: The Story Featurette-Casino: The Cast And Characters Featurette-Casino: The Look Featurette-Casino: After The Filming Deleted Scenes Featurette-Vegas And The Mob Featurette-History Alive: True Crime Authors: Nicholas Pileggi |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1995 | ||
| Running Time | 170:57 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper |
RSDL (87:29) Dual Disc Set |
Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Language Select Then Ads Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4,5 | Directed By | Martin Scorsese |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Universal Pictures Home Video |
Starring |
Robert De Niro Sharon Stone Joe Pesci James Woods Don Rickles Alan King Kevin Pollak L.Q. Jones Dick Smothers Frank Vincent John Bloom Pasquale Cajano Melissa Prophet |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $34.95 | Music |
Johann Sebastian Bach Eric Burdon Hoagy Carmichael |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English for the Hearing Impaired Hungarian Danish Finnish Hebrew Icelandic Norwegian Swedish English Audio Commentary Danish Audio Commentary Finnish Audio Commentary Norwegian Audio Commentary Swedish Audio Commentary English Titling Hungarian Titling |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Ten years after its initial release, Casino gets a long-awaited Special Edition treatment on DVD, with the release of a fantastic Two-Disc package. A searing morality play about greed, excess, and self-destruction, both the film and the DVD are first rate.
As I've noted before, originally studying to be a Catholic Priest, Scorsese left the Seminary in the 1950s to study film-making at New York University. With a directing career beginning at the end of the 1950s, some of Scorsese's more notable films include Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), The Color of Money (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995), and Kundun (1997).
As I've noted in other reviews, Scorsese's films tend to be set in the dark under-belly of New York, often featuring characters and locations of his home town of Little Italy, New York. His movies often focus on anti-social loner protagonists, struggling with the difficult circumstances that they find themselves in. Scorsese has teamed up with actor Robert De Niro eight times, and for both of them these tend to be their better films. Other actors who seem to shine under Scorsese's direction include Harvey Keitel and Joe Pesci.
Scorsese's far-reaching influence on other writer/directors over the last 30 years is obvious with the constant referencing and imitating of his work. Along with Francis Ford Coppola, he has helped define what a modern gangster movie should look and feel like, and along with Woody Allen, Scorsese has helped define New York's image in popular culture and film throughout the twentieth century.
With Casino, Scorsese teams up again with Goodfellas author and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi to take an absorbing and searching behind-the-scenes look at how organised crime controlled Las Vegas casinos in the 1970s.
Based on the true story of the Stardust Casino, the plot revolves around the love and ultimately hate between two street-smart wise guys from the Midwest; the cool-headed "Ace" Rothstein (Robert de Niro), and the hot-tempered Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), who both find fortune and power in the Towers of Babel built in the desert.
Using funds from the Teamsters Union Pension Fund, a group of Chicago Mob Bosses build a casino, The Tangiers, which under Ace's exceptional management, turns into a cash cow. The greedy mob bosses skim millions from the takings, and happily leave Ace to run everything.
Ace is a methodical control freak, with an incredible attention to detail, and he is exceptionally good at keeping the coffers overflowing. But Ace soon finds himself in over his head when he falls hopelessly in love with a local hustler and socialite, Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone). Against his better judgement, Ace marries the former hooker, fooling himself that his trophy wife will grow to love him, and settle down to become a good mother.
Matters are complicated further when Ace's boyhood friend and mob enforcer Nicky decides to follow Ace to Las Vegas. Nicky is overly ambitious and cruel, and he continually clashes with the level-headed business-like Ace. Soon, however, the self-destructive Ginger will be the catalyst for their downfall.
I have enjoyed Casino countless times at the movies, on VHS, and now on DVD. Even though it runs for about three hours, Casino never tries my patience. The pacing of the story is perfect, and the three hours always pass too quickly. The look and the feel of the film is all Scorsese, and in terms of the production values in its lighting, filming, editing, sets and costumes, the film is truly faultless.
Indeed, like many Scorsese films, the overall production is sublime. The story and script are excellent, and the amount of research that went into Pileggi's non-fiction book and script is obvious. The characters are absorbing, and the acting performances, especially by the Oscar-nominated Stone, are some of these actors' very best. For example, De Niro's dignified portrayal of Ace features a magnificently understated and reserved performance, where the character is played out with every slight facial gesture or nuance. Also, in what is almost a reprise of his Oscar-winning Tommy DeVito character in Goodfellas, Pesci brings to life the explosively violent and volatile Nicky. Despite being given a character that audiences will find it hard to sympathise with, Stone manages to temper her raw intensity with genuine vulnerability. There's also a great supporting cast, including James Woods, Kevin Pollak, Alan King, Frank Vincent and Don Rickles.
By the end of the film, and our turbulent emotional journey, one can't help but share Ace's lament of the mob's loss: “The town will never be the same. After the Tangiers, the big corporations took it all over. Today it looks like Disneyland. And while the kids play cardboard pirates, Mommy and Daddy drop the house payments and Junior’s college money on the poker slots. In the old days, dealers knew your name, what you drank, what you played. Today, it’s like checkin’ into an airport. And if you order room service, you’re lucky if you get it by Thursday. Today, it’s all gone. You get a whale show up with four million in a suitcase, and some 25-year-old hotel school kid is gonna want his Social Security Number. After the Teamsters got knocked out of the box, the corporations tore down practically every one of the old casinos. And where did the money come from to rebuild the pyramids? Junk bonds.”
Overall the transfer is very good.
The transfer is presented in a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.
The sharpness is generally good, but the image can appear a little soft at times, such as Sharon Stone's eyes at 37:54. The black level and shadow detail are excellent. For example, consider the scene inside the shadowy bar at 62:36.
Colour is a very important aspect in this film, and it is used extensively in the story telling. Furthermore, Dante Ferretti's brilliant production design captures the glitz and glamour of 1970s Las Vegas. The transfer exhibits a beautifully saturated colour palette, with accurate skin tones.
There are no problems with MPEG artefacts, but at times various film stock appears to have been used, some with grainy results, such as at 120:06.
Some slight film-to-video artefacts were noticeable, such as some very minor aliasing, for example the car grille at 160:09. Occasionally there was also some slight telecine wobble.
Tiny film artefacts, such as black or white flecks appear throughout, but they were never distracting.
The following subtitle streams have been encoded on this DVD: English for the Hearing Impaired, Hungarian, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, English Audio Commentary, Danish Audio Commentary, Finnish Audio Commentary, Norwegian Audio Commentary, Swedish Audio Commentary, English Titling, and Hungarian Titling. The English subtitles are accurate.
This is a Dual Layer disc, with the layer change well placed at 87:29. The feature has been divided into 17 chapters.
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There are three audio options on this DVD: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s), Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s), and English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).
The dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent on the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.
Instead of a traditional orchestral score, Scorsese opted to use contemporary songs of the era. This music adds a lot to evoking a sense of the time and atmosphere. Furthermore, the constant shifts musically create a jarring effect, which underlines the confusion and chaos on-screen. Perhaps due to his experience in the seminary, Scorsese is well-schooled in classical music and its role in religion, and as a morality play he opens the film with Bach's chorus from Matthäus-Passion, with an image of Ace symbolically tumbling into the flames of Hell. Absolutely superb!
The surround presence and activity suits this dialogue-based drama. While the surround sound mix is quite front-heavy, the rear speakers are used effectively to help carry the score and provide ambience, such as the background hum of chatter in the restaurant at 61:28. This maintains an immersive soundfield while keeping the viewer firmly focussed on the screen.
The subwoofer is also utilised when appropriate, for example during the film's opening explosion at 1:07.
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This Two Disc Set is loaded with genuine and fascinating extras.
Animated with audio.
Disc One
Forced Anti-Piracy Advert
This automatically plays when Disc One is loaded.
Audio Commentary
This is not a screen-specific commentary, but seems to be a collection of comments taken from interviews, recorded separately, with the likes of Scorsese, Stone, Schoonmaker, and Pileggi. You will often hear the same remarks included in interviews contained in the other extras. That said, the comments are fascinating, and I especially enjoyed Pileggi's account of how a newspaper story about a car bomb hooked his interest in this true story originally. Scorsese is as adroit and articulate as always, and interestingly, likens the casino business to the film industry. His discussion of modern day studios' desire to make bland, inoffensive films which do not take risks at the box office is quite thought provoking.
Text about the film's production.
Casino's Author and Screenwriter Pileggi, Producer Barbara De Fina, and Director Scorsese discuss how Pileggi's book outline was simultaneously turned into a book and the film's script.
Scorsese discusses the film's characters and casting. There is also some behind the scenes footage of Scorsese working with the actors.
An exploration of how the film tried to capture 1970s Las Vegas visually. Production Designer Dante Ferretti also discusses some of the film's locations, costumes, and sets.
Scorsese's long-time Editor Thelma Schoonmaker discusses her working relationship with Scorsese, and how he 'pre-edits' in the camera. We also have a look at Saul Bass' excellent opening title sequence.
These five deleted scenes are actually more like out-takes from the film.
A look at how the mob built Las Vegas in 40 years. The featurette also features an interview with Las Vegas' Mayor Goodman, a former criminal attorney, who appears in a small cameo role in the film as himself, representing Nicky in court.
A genuine History Channel documentary looking at the true story behind Casino. It includes interviews with Pileggi and some of the real-life characters. There is also a lot of news footage included, and I was surprised by Pesci's likeness to the real 'Nicky' (Anthony 'the Ant' Spolottro).
There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Casino has been released twice on DVD in Region 1 and Region 4. The comparison below is for the second release in R1 and R4 - the 10th Anniversary Edition.
The Region 4 DVD misses out on:
The Region 1 DVD misses out on:
It's pretty even, but the R1 AE is a double-sided disc whereas the R4 SE is a Two-Disc Set. For that reason, plus the fact that all things being equal, I much prefer the superiority of a PAL transfer, I favour the local R4 edition.
With Casino, Scorsese reminds us why he is the master of the modern mob drama.
The video quality is very good overall.
The audio quality is very good.
The extras are genuine.
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| Extras | |
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using S-Video output |
| Display | Grundig Elegance 82-2101 (82cm, 16x9). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Sony STR DE-545 |
| Speakers | Sony SS-V315 x5; Sony SA-WMS315 subwoofer |