Believing in De Niro as a Jew is a bit of a stretch, however he’s good enough that you don’t dwell on how you can take the goy out of Little Italy but …. Then, of course, it is always a pleasure to watch De Niro at work, especially when at work in a juicy role like that of Sam “Ace” Goldstein, the Mob’s consummate bookie chosen by the bosses to front their “legit” Vegas casino. Eye-opening material like this is peppered throughout the movie.
Leave it to Scorsese to expose the Vegas gestalt in a new and original manner. The term “failure” would also negate the novelty of certain shots and scenes, like the overhead shot of Las Vegas that presents the city as a mecca of light in an otherwise barren sea of darkness. Because, then, I’d have to revoke my love relationship with the film’s spectacular opening sequence (let’s just say it begins with a magnificent bang).
Yet, while certainly less than successful, I’m reluctant to call it a failure. Casino, however, cannot be viewed as one of Scorsese’s masterpieces. He always struggles to find new strategies for seeing beneath the surface of things and for new approaches to the telling of stories. That Martin Scorsese is one of the modern masters of cinema is a fact that is reiterated through each of his movies.
