Tonight on Amazon: Rated 4.3/5 – One of the Greatest Thrillers Ever!

Explore one of the all-time greatest thrillers, a masterpiece directed by Martin Scorsese that delves into the Italian mafia’s expansion into the slot machine business. Rated 4.3 out of 5 by viewers on AlloCiné, the film, of course, is the classic “Casino,” starring Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci.

Place Your Bets!

“Casino” illustrates the rise and fall of Sam Rothstein (De Niro), who, in 1973, is entrusted by the Italian mob to manage one of Las Vegas’s biggest casinos, the “Tangiers.” Surrounded by his best friend Nicky Santoro (Pesci) and his partner Ginger (Stone), Sam rakes in money for the mafia. However, as Nicky begins to draw too much attention with his aggressive tactics, the entire operation starts to falter.

Based on “Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas” by writer and journalist Nicholas Pileggi, the movie adapts the real-life story of Tony Spilotro, who inspired Pesci’s character. By choosing this book, Scorsese revisits the gangster film genre five years after “Goodfellas,” which was also notably led by the De Niro-Pesci duo.

A High-Speed Greek Tragedy

The actors in the film, down to the smallest supporting roles, are immediately believable within the film’s context, and the performances by the trio of Stone, De Niro, and Pesci live up to the ambitions of “Casino”: to recreate the buzz of an era and narrate a Greek tragedy at breakneck speed.

Editor Thelma Schoonmaker has given “Casino” a nearly unique tempo with flawless transitions (characters entering a room and exiting in a different outfit, showing that time has passed), subtle cuts, and relying on Scorsese’s dynamic camera, which never loses sight of the fact that to match the crazy life of Vegas, the imagery must never give the audience a break.

You’ll rarely see three hours fly by so quickly!