Casino Joe Pesci Pen

• Casino – Is This Your Pen? In Martin Scorsese’s crime classic, Ace Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is having drinks with his mob guardian, Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci). When he finds a nice pen laying on the bar, he casually turns to the man next to him and asks if the pen belongs to him.
• The centre of the real story was the Stardust Hotel & Casino (which was still thriving in 1995 when the film was made). To avoid legal complications it was fictionalised as the ‘Tangiers’ – though frequent bursts of Hoagy Carmichael ’s Stardust on the soundtrack provide a cheeky clue.
• Schirripa has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in 'Casino' in the violent scene were Joe Pesci's character stabs a character with a pen. Despite appearing onscreen for a fraction of a second, it.

By David Amoruso

Hollywood loves gangsters. Not because film makers condone their crimes, but because their stories make them lots of money. It’s difficult to name any other genre that has so many titles based on a true story. Yet, despite this label, the true story often gets twisted to fit the silver screen. That is why Gangsters Inc. shares its knowledge of the facts and truth behind these blockbuster gangster flicks.

Released: 22nd November 1995. Director:Martin Scorsese. Stars: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone. Certificate: 18. Reviewer: Luke Walkley. The De Niro/Scorsese partnership begins another chapter with the 1995 film Casino.De Niro stars as Casino owner Sam ‘Aces’ Rothstein, In an era of over-the-top glitz and glamour, Rothstein is flying high as the front man for the Mobs multi-million.

When it comes to epic mob movies director Martin Scorsese outdid himself with Casino. It tells the true story of Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and Anthony “The Ant” Spilotro and how the Chicago Outfit dominated gambling in Las Vegas and is based on the research and eventual book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi.

In the movie the names have been changed. Lefty Rosenthal turned into Sam “Ace” Rothstein while Spilotro was now named Nicky Santoro. Thankfully their actions remained the same and the acting of Robert De Niro as Rothstein and Joe Pesci as Santoro is, as you can expect from these two stars, top notch.

Where Scorsese had shown the gritty streets of New York City mob life in Goodfellas, in Casino he upped the ante and showed us the glamorous lives of the men who controlled a billion dollar industry. And, “how [they] messed it all up.”

The true story of Casino was featured in several Gangsters Inc. stories. Most dealing with the individual players or certain incidents more than with the exact plot of the movie. The men responsible for the Las Vegas skim and the money from the Teamsters were bosses Antonino “Joe Batters” Accardo and Joseph Aiuppa, while capo Joseph “The Clown” Lombardo saw to it their orders were carried out as commanded. We have profiled them all.

Spilotro was sent to Vegas to oversee the skim at the casino. He had made a name for himself back in Chicago after learning the ropes from “Mad Sam” DeStefano, one of the most evil mobsters ever to walk the streets of Chi Town.

Casino Joe Pesci Pen Scene

All in all the violence portrayed in Casino did a good job at showing the capabilities of the group of stone cold killers the real Chicago Outfit had at its disposal. Like when Chicago boss Antonino Accardo needed to send a message to some guys wo burglarized his home.

In the movie Scorsese even cast real mob killer Frank Cullotta to play, essentially, himself as he shoots his way through the final scenes of the movie.

More on Casino:

Casino Joe Pesci Pen Scene

• Mafia hitman Frank Cullotta on movie 'Casino', Tony Spilotro, Killing Informants, Cooperating with FBI
• The lucrative and violent years of Las Vegas mobster Tony Spilotro’s infamous Hole in the Wall gang
• The story behind the documentary: Back Home, Years Ago: The Real Casino

Get the latest on organized crime and the Mafia at Gangsters Inc.'s news section.

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In my opinion, Casino is one of Scorsese’s best films, undeservedly caught in the shadow of Goodfellas, directed five years earlier. The director’s work is excellent. A three-hour film in which there are no intense chases, furious shootings, searches for mysterious killers, full of dialogues and off-screen monologues, looks surprisingly easy. You just don’t notice how the time passes. This is really a story. Moreover, the story is interesting, conveying the splendour and spirit of Las Vegas of the seventies, and at the same time the feeling of a locomotive that has gone out of control and rushing at full speed to the inevitable collapse.

The film is built around the fate of the three main characters: “Ace” Rothstein, Nicky Santoro and Ginger Mckenna. Playing them, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone showed a real acting class. This is probably not the best film by De Niro. Still, his confident and competent Ace, not afraid of any problems, and on the other hand completely unable to understand his wife and talking to her as an accountant, comparing income with expenses, is simply incomparable.

Joe Pesci Casino Penna

Nicky Santoro can lay down and cripple a healthy bull without any gun, but just using a fountain pen. Joe Pesci is gorgeous. His small and tidy Nicky, a psychopath and a ruthless killer, a man without any brakes, wound up from a half-turn, looks really dangerous, like a bulldog who is ready to cling to the throat of a bull 100 times larger without any hesitation. And then he manages to be a caring father of a little boy and an attentive and sensitive interlocutor of an upset Ginger. In my opinion, this is the best role for Pesci, even better than in Goodfellas. I guess that he was not nominated and did not receive any awards for Casino just because he had already won an Oscar in 1991 for his role as Tommy DeVito.

We all know that in real-life casinos always try to improve their marketing with the help of movies. Yes, Casino is not a typical gambling movie, other aspects are worthy of attention, but actually many casinos in the world flourished due to this film. Moreover, the movie greatly influenced the people who had no gambling experience, and Australian citizens were so impressed with the movie that they started Aussie pokies online real money. It was very strange, the film had such a powerful impact because practically there are no scenes showing people playing slots, as I remember, but it turned out to be a powerful driving factor for Australian people.

Casino Joe Pesci Pen

In the movie, Ginger realizes that she can’t stop anything and can’t resist anything. Before, I didn’t consider Sharon Stone to be any serious actress. But after the Casino, I must admit -I was wrong. Here she really played and impressed the audience. And she played very coolly. She succeeded Ginger, gradually turning from a self-confident half-lioness into a troubled, unhappy woman.

Her best scenes in the film are an explanation with Sam, when she begins to realize that she will not be able to stop, a quarrel with Sam refusing to let her into the house, dialogues with Nicky Santoro. As a former top model, who had been noted before by her excellent figure in Total Recall and the lack of underwear in Basic Instinct, she was able to play like that. Both the Oscar nomination and the Golden Globe for this role were received by her deservedly.

The soundtrack of the film deserves a special kind word. Scorsese delighted the audience with an excellent selection of vivid and memorable compositions. Moreover, perfectly combined with what is happening on the screen action. Here you can hear Bach’s St. Matthew Passion House of the Rising Sun from the Animals, the songs of the Rolling Stones and the touching Camille by Georges Delerue. In general, this is one of the best examples I know of combining musical compositions with cinematic action. This is especially well heard on the original soundtrack. Music sounds unusually convex and expressive, and yet it does not interfere with the perception of the speech and actions of the characters.

A general impression of the film

An excellent film made with great skill, in which a talented director, a compelling script and gifted actors come together. If you are a fan of gangster sagas – this film should be in your collection. But viewers who are little interested in criminal showdowns on the movie screen should also watch it. Because a real master made this film.