It majors in hotel management and minors in gambling. And yet, Casino is not a Vegas movie-it is a mob movie with with a concentration in gaming. This time around, Marty strode in foreign territory compared to the genre’s conventional habitat and, indeed his own Casino‘s grander scale is now befitting of an epic’s runtime if not an anointment as one. The Strip is a rare sighting of a Las Vegas landmark in Casino Yet time and again, they re-up and buy in. Sam’s license is rejected Ginger marries into money and out of convenience and Nicky is blacklisted from the city’s casinos. pushed their luck at numerous junctures, their Casino counterparts were repeatedly given an out on a silver platter. If the earlier film’s cast withered away quietly behind bars, or swiftly thanks to a bullet to the head, Casino‘s aftermath was a more immediate demise with Ginger and Nicky Santoro perishing on the screen and center-frame.
Casino hit plenty more of its dramatic beats, with its lows lower, and its falls harder, more pronounced, fatal and tragic. I cannot articulate if Goodfellas is better than Casino, nor justify that it should be, simply because it is more enjoyable-not succinctly, at least.