Casino (Blu-ray) (1995) |
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Casino (Blu-ray) (1995) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Drama |
Audio Commentary Deleted Scenes Featurette-Vegas And The Mob Featurette-History Alive: True Crime Authors: Nicholas Pileggi Audio-Visual Commentary |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1995 | ||
| Running Time | 178:20 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Martin Scorsese |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Universal Pictures Home Video |
Starring |
Robert De Niro Sharon Stone Joe Pesci James Woods Frank Vincent Pasquale Cajano Kevin Pollak Don Rickles Vinny Vella Alan King L.Q. Jones Dick Smothers Joseph Rigano |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music | None Given |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 Spanish dts 5.1 French dts 5.1 Chinese dts 5.1 German dts 5.1 Italian dts 5.1 Catalan dts 5.1 |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 1080p | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | English | Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Fourteen years after its initial release, one of my favourite Scorsese films, Casino, has arrived in high definition. A searing morality play about greed, excess, betrayal, and self-destruction, both the film, and the Blu-ray are first rate. Although Casino never won the same critical acclaim and audience as Goodfellas, it remains a sobering and cold examination of organised crime as a sordid business, set amongst the glittering, lavish and decadent, pre-theme-park Las Vegas of the 1970s.
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), Kundun (1997), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), and The Departed (2006).
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 shine under Scorsese's direction include Harvey Keitel, Joe Pesci, and Leonardo DiCaprio.
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 judgment, Ace marries the former-hooker Ginger, 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, on DVD, and now in high definition on Blu-ray. 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 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.”
Based on the restored master used to author the 2006 HD DVD, the high definition transfer is excellent for a film of this vintage.
The transfer has been expertly authored in 1920 x 1080p. It has been encoded using VC-1 compression, and presented in a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1, in a native 16x9 frame. This is the film's original theatrical ratio.
The sharpness is excellent, and much improved over the previous standard definition DVD release, for example note the depth and detail now in the crowded casino scene at 33:47. The black level and shadow detail are excellent, for example consider the scene at the phone booth at 92:16.
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 tiny film artefacts, such as black or white flecks appear throughout, but they were never distracting.
40 subtitle streams have been recorded for this BD. The English subtitles are accurate.
This is a BD-50 (50 GB dual-layer disc). The feature is divided into 16 chapters.
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The DVD provided English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s), and the HD DVD provided Dolby Digital-Plus, but the Blu-ray goes one better and provides English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround.
The dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent.
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. This maintains an immersive sound-field while keeping the viewer firmly focused on the screen. As I have noticed with other BDs, there is also a very noticeable improvement in the clarity of the sound in the rear speakers, and this is particularly noticeable during the crowded casino scenes.
The subwoofer is also utilised when appropriate, for example during the film's opening explosion.
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The BD has some of the same genuine and fascinating extras as the previous DVD SE release, but disappointingly Universal has needlessly cut up and reassembled the extras from Disc Two as a PiP track.
As with other BDs, the menu can be accessed while the film is playing
Audio Commentary - Moments with Martin Scorsese, Sharon Stone and Nicholas Pileggi,
This is not a screen-specific commentary, but seems to be a collection of comments taken from interviews, recorded separately, with 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 days studio's desire to make bland, inoffensive films, which do not take risks at the box office remains timely and thought provoking.
These five deleted scenes are actually more like out-takes from the film. This extra is presented in standard definition.
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. This extra is presented in standard definition.
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). This extra is presented in standard definition.
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 BD has been released in both Region A and B, and our versions are identical - we even get the US FBI copyright warning at the beginning.
With Casino, Scorsese reminds us again why he is the master of the modern mob drama.
The video quality is excellent for a film of this vintage, and an improvement over the DVD.
The audio quality is very good.
The extras are genuine and interesting.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Sony Playstation 3 (HDMI 1.3) with Upscaling, using HDMI output |
| Display | Panasonic High Definition 50' Plasma (127 cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Samsung Pure Digital 6.1 AV Receiver (HDMI 1.3) |
| Speakers | Samsung |