In this analysis, we take a closer look at how Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi’s Las Vegas-set crime epic was adapted from its true-crime source…

Director: Martin Scorsese

Screenwriters: Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese

Based on: The non-fiction book, Casino: Love and Honour in Las Vegas, by Nicholas Pileggi.

Script source: Daily Script

Synopisis: Las Vegas, 1970s. Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein, a Chicago-based expert gambler with Mob ties, is given the opportunity to run Las Vegas casino The Tangiers. In Vegas, Ace quickly rises to prominence. He meets and marries beautiful hustler Ginger, who is still close with her lowlife pimp. Meanwhile, the arrival of Ace’s childhood friend, Nicky Santoro, a violent criminal and loose cannon who has plans to take over Las Vegas, spells trouble for Ace.

*Spoilers throughout*

Introduction

Described as ‘Goodfellas in Vegas’, Casino is a sprawling gangster narrative that covers multiple years and is set to a typically evocative and overlapping soundtrack that includes everything from Louis Prima and Muddy Waters to Cream and Fleetwood Mac. The film stars Robert De Niro as Ace Rothstein and Joe Pesci as Nicky Santoro, with Sharon Stone as Ginger. The screenplay was adapted from Nicholas Pileggi’s non-fiction book, with certain elements changed. Indeed, Ace Rothstein is a fictionalised version of Frank ‘Lefty’ Rosenthal, while the real-life Anthony Spilotro becomes Nicky Santoro and Geri Rosenthal becomes Ginger Rothstein. The real-life Stardust hotel/casino becomes The Tangiers. However, much of the screen narrative is taken from the book and has been adapted to create what Martin Scorsese described as:

“…three hours… a lot of action, a lot of story, but no plot”.

Quote: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112641/trivia/?ref_=tt_trv_trv

The source material

For the true-crime book, author (and co-screenwriter) Nicholas Pileggi conducted extensive interviews with Lefty Rosenthal and other key players in the real-life saga. As such, the book is a detailed portrait of the events that unfolded, starting with Lefty’s childhood in Chicago (he was born in 1929) and ending in the mid-1980s, after the dust had settled and Lefty had left Las Vegas. The majority of the 400-page book is concerned with Lefty’s Vegas years, starting in 1967 and extending through the 1970s, when the Mob controlled the Stardust, among others.

While Lefty is the focus of the book, the chapters alternate between his story and those in his orbit. There are lengthy sections detailing Lefty’s run-ins with the law back in Chicago and his long-running attempts to secure a licence from the Gaming Control Board to allow him to work at the Stardust. We also learn about the backstory of the Stardust, including the way in which its financing by the Teamsters’ pension fund was facilitated by the Mob, much to the consternation of Allen Glick, the non-Mob-connected businessman who bought the place. There is also a detailed account of Anthony Spilotro’s time in Chicago and Vegas, even though he had died by the time the book was written (or was beaten to death and buried in a field, to be more accurate). Much space is also devoted to the tumultuous and destructive relationship between (the also deceased) Geri and Lefty. A further aspect the book covers is the scandal involving Spilotro’s affair with Geri. During his time in Vegas, Lefty became a high-profile figure and even hosted a dodgy TV talk show for a while, so his wife’s infidelity generated tabloid interest (Lefty wasn’t exactly faithful himself and the book covers this, too).  Finally, much time is devoted to the Mob’s activities, with a focus on the sophisticated ‘skim’, in which cash was taken from the casino’s operations and delivered to the Mob bosses ‘back east’.

The adaptation

The far-reaching narrative (extending to around three hours of screen time) covers many of the same bases covered in the book:

• Ace’s background as an oddsmaker
• Ace’s move to Vegas to take over the casino
• The Mob’s Las Vegas connections (including the lucrative ‘skim’ of the casino’s cash takings)
• The involvement of the Mob-controlled Teamster Union and its pension fund (the source of casino investment)
• Nicky’ increasingly violent and off-the-grid Vegas operations
• The volatile relationship between Ace and Ginger
• Ginger’s affair with Nicky and her drug-fuelled relationship with her lowlife ex-boyfriend Lester

One aspect that is minimised in the script is the wide-ranging attempts by law enforcement to shut down the Mob’s activities in Vegas and to put all the criminals away. This included raids, extensive wiretapping, and all kinds of arrests, culminating in many of the figures getting lengthy jail sentences, if they didn’t die first. In the fictional world, Scorsese and Pileggi let the characters dig their own graves (literally and figuratively). As Nicky says at the beginning:

‘…we f***** it all up’.

As you might guess, Pileggi and Scorsese don’t shy away from the brutality. If anything, the script and film tone down the real-life goings-on.

It’s interesting that several things in the Casino script you would image are Hollywood inventions actually happened. However, these built-in ‘movie’ moments are recreated to enhance the story: generate conflict, illuminate characters and their relationships, move the story forward, etc. For example:

• Ginger at The Tangiers’ craps table throwing the casino chips in the air to get back at one of her ‘clients’ (p79-81 of the book): a real ‘trailer’ moment that in the script/film becomes the moment that Ace falls in love with this free spirit who’s creating chaos in his well-ordered casino (prefacing what she does to his life after they’re married)
• Nicky using the persuasive ‘head in a vice’ method to extract information from some poor sap: adapted from an anecdote relayed as an aside in the source book (p35-36 of the book) that was unconnected to the Vegas storyline but shows the extreme nature of Nicky’s character
• Nicky using his wife’s beehive hairdo to smuggle diamonds from overseas (p50-51 of the book): shows another side of the character as a savvy thief as well as a violent hot-head (echoing the real-life Spilotro)
• Ace ordering The Tangiers’ chef to make sure there is an equal number of blueberries in each muffin (p2 of the book): a good way of underlining his exacting nature, his need to control everything in his life, prefacing everything getting out of control.

The structure

Despite what Scorsese claims about the film having “no plot”, there is a clear structure and plot progression. The main thread is Ace’s journey, from Chicago bookie to taking over The Tangiers to it all going wrong, culminating in the explosion.

The main subplots are the forces working against him, professionally and personally – Nicky coming to Vegas and becoming a loose cannon that threatens Ace’s position at The Tangiers, and Ginger’s self-destructive exploits, including her continued involvement with her lowlife ex-boyfriend, Lester and her affair with Nicky.

As with Goodfellas (1990), we know that the ‘good times’ are going to end but the interest is in seeing how it happens and enjoying the ride, as the internal and external conflicts gather momentum towards the climax and denouement.

Ace ends up back where he started, betting on sports, but older and wiser. Mob-controlled Vegas as he knew it is (literally) blown up and replaced by the tourist-trap resorts that line the Strip today. It is the same kind of bittersweet, or indeed ironic, ending that the fictional Henry Hill found himself facing in Goodfellas. He walked away from the mess with his life and his freedom, but at a cost.

In the next part, we focus on the set-up to show how, in practice, the writers drew on the source material to effectively introduce us to the main characters and the world of the story.