Review of Casino

Video

Directed by Martin Scorsese, Casino is a gritty portrayal of the Las Vegas gambling dens in the Seventies and Eighties. The film centres on the hotel/casino run by Robert De Niro, aided and abetted by Joe Pesci who can be relied upon to put the boot in as and when the need arises. The whole scenario is a cover for the revenue generating establishments of the Mob.

The DVD presents a 2.35 non anamorphic transfer, which is nearly 3 hours long. Although the movie does not drag and the time passes quickly, only 16 chapters are provided. For a film of this length I would have thought that double this number would not have been unreasonable.

Given a non anamorphic transfer, the image quality is very soft. The picture never seems particularly sharp, and although the flashing colourful backdrop of night time downtown Las Vegas is a good test for the DVD video transfer, the soft picture is quite surprising.

Audio

No problems here. The 5.1 audio allows those ricocheting bullets to whizz around the sound stage and fly past your right ear like some of the best. The rear channels are used effectively throughout the movie, specifically in the crowded casino scenes. The general background din of the punters at the tables and machines is generously fed around the sound stage according to the scene.

The film has a strong music track that is virtually constant throughout the whole film. Loads of familiar 70s and 80s tracks are continually playing in the background and adds to the atmosphere of Mob ruled Las Vegas in the 70s.

Features

The menus are static, and lead the way to the original theatrical trailer, some production notes, and cast and crew notes.

A commentary by Scorsese and De Niro would have been very welcome here, but unfortunately this is not the case. For fans of Scorsese, the production notes are quite detailed and mention the time since ‘Good Fellas’ and also explain how the Casino screenplay came to be written based only on a set of notes penned by Nicholas Pileggi, who was in the process of writing the book.

Conclusion

This is a very violent film in parts (I’m thinking here of the notorious head-in-the-vice scene) and is as gritty and hard hitting as could be done on film. The length of the movie is also about right – if you think to yourself “This film is too long” then you probably are not really enjoying it, or have missed out on a lot of the plot.

Fans of Scorsese, De Niro or Pesci will love it, as it seems to be that the main cast are all in the roles that the public associate with them. The exception being Sharon Stone, who says in her cast notes that this was the first time she has worked with Scorsese, and was quite surprised to be approached by the casting directors as she didn’t think her kind of image would fit in with a Scorsese production. She proves that she was the right choice in her role as De Niro’s love interest and acknowledges that it was good role for her to have.

The DVD was a little disappointing in the video transfer, but could not be faulted with the audio. Extras are light, but hey – this is a Region 2!!