article cinematography casino 1995 robert richardson

We managed to really fuck it all up.” It is a bitter and cynical ending to the American fairytale.I watched 'Casino' again the other day. Instead, his punishment is more spiritual and existential. He has avoided the sort of punishment mandated by the Hays Code in the classic gangster movies that influenced Scorsese. Ace has returned to his life as a sports handicapper. Somebody is always watching.Īt the end of the film, Nicky and Ginger are both dead. And the eye in the sky is watching us all.” It is a none-too-subtle religious parable. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses.

The pit bosses are watching the floormen. “The dealers are watching the players,” he tells the audience. Scorsese is an inherently Catholic filmmaker, and as much as critics might argue that his films “ glamorize” violence, there is always a strong moral component to them.Īt one point, Ace explains how the system works in the casino. As the film builds to its climax, both Ace and Nicky discover that they are subject to the rules that they thought they could ignore. “But he was wrong.” It turns out that the authorities are watching Ace and Nicky. “Nicky thought nobody was watching him,” Ace recounts. John Winthrop evoked this idea in his sermon in which he described America as “ a city upon a hill,” which Ronald Reagan repurposed in his invocation of a “ shining city on a hill.” Many of the early settlers believed that God had provided them with the continent as a mark of their exceptionalism. The American fantasy of manifest destiny is rooted in religious imagery and ideology. In broader religious terms, he followed Casino with Kundun, a film about the Dalai Lama.Ĭasino is not just a retelling of the classic western mythology. He is reportedly working on another movie about Jesus Christ. He would make Silence later in his career. The director spent most of the 1980s struggling to get The Last Temptation of Christ made.

Scorsese’s religious interest permeates his filmography. Scorsese is one of the great Catholic filmmakers. However, Casino ties this mythmaking into another of Scorsese’s recurring interests.

Article cinematography casino 1995 robert richardson