Casinos are places where champagne glasses clink, and tourists and locals mingle, creating an incredible buzz. But they’re also a place where the odds are stacked against you, and it is very likely that you will walk out of a casino with less money than you entered. This is why casinos spend a lot of time, effort and money on security.
When you’re playing a table game like blackjack or poker, the money you’re using is real, but it doesn’t feel that way. That’s because you change your cash into colorful little chips that represent the same amount of money, allowing you to decouple your losses and wins from the actual monetary value of what you’re spending. It’s a technique that works so well that even some people who know how to play, find themselves losing.
In many ways, Casino is Martin Scorsese’s most violent film, but it doesn’t glorify violence for its own sake. Instead, it merely depicts the reality that exists in a world of organized crime, corruption and illegal gambling.
The film also features one of the best performances by Sharon Stone and the always-reliable Joe Pesci. Moreover, its screenplay and direction is masterful. Its two dominant narrators, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) and Karen Clampton (Lorraine Bracco), create a dichotomy that is as powerful as any in the director’s filmography. It is this polarity that makes the movie compelling, and it’s this contrast that separates it from other crime dramas.