'Casino' didn't need facts to be great
Mob trial shows movie 'adapted' story into its own

July 25, 2007
BY RICHARD ROEPER Sun-Times Columnist
"The coppers blamed me for every little thing [in Las Vegas], and I mean every f - - - - - - little thing. If a guy f - - - - - - slipped on a f - - - - - - banana peel, they blamed me."
-- Joe Pesci as "Nicky Santoro" in "Casino," which contains 422 uses of the f-word.

As we learned from testimony in the Family Secrets mob trial last week, Tony "the Ant" Spilotro and his brother Michael were not beaten with aluminum baseball bats and buried alive in an Indiana cornfield, as was portrayed in Martin Scorsese's 1995 film "Casino."

According to mob turncoat Nicholas Calabrese, the Spilotros were killed in a basement in suburban Bensenville a little more than 21 years ago -- and then their bodies were dumped in that field in Newton County, Ind.

As Sun-Times ace reporter Steve Warmbir wrote, the movie got the details of the twin killings wrong -- but it's highly unlikely Scorsese would have adhered to a literal re-telling of the tale even if he had known about the Bensenville locale when he made the film.


Adapted from a true story
"Casino" is one of the best films ever made about Las Vegas -- and one of the best films of the 1990s, period. I watched it again on DVD the other night, and I was once again dazzled by Scorsese's amazing camera work, his pitch-perfect use of music -- everything from "Contempt: Theme De Camille" to "Hoochie Coochie Man" to "Nights in White Satin," and his ability to capture great acting from the expected (Robert De Niro, Pesci) and the unexpected (veteran funnyman Alan King is sharp in a supporting role as a Teamsters boss, and Sharon Stone gives the performance of her life in this film).
Though well-reviewed at the time by most critics, "Casino" is probably a bit underrated because of similarities in tone and subject matter to Scorsese's "Goodfellas," perhaps THE best film of the 1990s. Still, "Casino" is a jolting, bloody mob-opera, as well as an expert anthropological examination of Vegas in the transition period between the old-school days and the "Disneyland" era. There's fiercely funny dialogue -- and cringe-inducing violence. It's "Goodfellas" on a bigger, bolder canvas.

It's also a detailed tutorial of how the mob could control the entire operation of a casino, with the "relics" in the Midwest telling the muscle guys and the oddsmakers in Vegas exactly how to run things.

But it's not a documentary, nor is it even a fictional but faithful-to-the-facts procedural. As the opening titles tell us, "Casino" was merely "adapted from a true story." Like hundreds of other movies -- some "adapted," some "based on," some "inspired by" -- it uses elements of the truth as ingredients for creating a fictional, parallel universe.

The details of the Spilotro murders would be just one example of how the movie veers away from the facts. There are literally dozens of others.


When Lefty becomes 'Ace'
Based on the book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi (who also authored Wiseguy, the source material for "Goodfellas"), "Casino" is a sprawling, nearly three-hour, street-level epic that covers the Vegas scene in the 1970s and the 1980s. It begins with a stylized shot of De Niro's Ace Rothstein literally flying through the air after his car explodes upon ignition. Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" accompanies the flames -- and then we transition to Ace overlooking a casino, lighting a cigarette.
"Before I ever ran a casino or got myself blown up, Ace Rothstein was a hell of a handicapper," says Ace.

The story is on. But from the jump, "Casino" strays from the actual history.

You start with the names. Everybody gets a new name.

Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal becomes Sam "Ace" Rothstein.

Tony "the Ant" Spilotro becomes Nicky Santoro. His brother Michael is renamed Dominick.

Geraldine McKenna, the beautiful show girl/hustler/addict who became Lefty's wife and reportedly had an affair with Tony Spilotro, is Ginger McGee.

Frank Cullotta is Frankie Marino.

Allen Dorfman, the insurance king and Teamsters lieutenant who was gunned down in the parking lot of the Hyatt Lincolnwood Hotel in 1983, is Andy Stone.

And so on. Even the casino featured in "Casino" is a fictional creation. In real life, Lefty ran a number of casinos. In the movie, Ace runs the Tangiers, loosely based on the Stardust.

More tomorrow.