This first section plays as something like a nonfiction prologue to the story proper, a realistic foundation upon which the rest of the film can build.ĭevice reminds of nothing so much as Nicholas Ray’s underrated 1961 “King of Kings,” the first reel or two of which were basically a documentary of the politics of Palestine at the time of Jesus.

through a lot of fast-paced narration laid over descriptive, elaborate, docu-style evocation of vivid specifics.įlashing back, a torrent of voiceover from both Ace and Nicky explains how it worked in their Vegas heyday of the 1970s, while a bunch of wonderfully quick and precise scenes reveal how money played in the casinos was channeled, counted, skimmed, stored, packed and quietly carried by suitcase back to the Midwest, where a small circle of old Italian mobsters happily counted their profits, which increased steadily under Ace’s strict guidance. The film, based on Nicholas Pileggi’s contemporaneous book, covers a large story fraught with telling political, social and economic implications, but Scorsese and Pileggi tell it by concentrating on three central figures: Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a top gambler installed by the Kansas City mob to run their casino, which he does brilliantly Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), Ace’s longtime best friend and impulsively violent enforcer who introduces street thuggery to the Vegas scene, and Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone), a veteran hustler who marries Ace for his money, falls into Nicky’s arms when she becomes unhappy and ends up helping to drag them, and the empire around them, down.īeginning with a startling car explosion that seemingly blows Ace Rothstein sky high, pic expands on Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” technique of introducing his characters, their milieu and m.o. Announcing its far-reaching operatic intentions in a flamboyant credit sequence, the film is a Paradise Lost about low-lifes, a story of the big one that got away, the bookend to “Bugsy,” an ironic tale about how some highly individualistic criminals had the whole world in their hands only to fumble it and blow the game for themselves.

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