Casino Critique Essay, Research Paper
Casino, one of the most prolific movies of the mid nineties. This is a movie of betrayal, money, sex, lies, videotape, and yada yada yada. No, seriously, this is an excellent movie. This is why I picked this movie for my major critique.
This movie is coming from the point of view of Sam (Robert Dinero) and Nick (Joe Pesci). There is certain parts of the movie were Sam is the narrator and there is others were Nick is the narrator. For instance, the scene were Sam was trying to get his gaming licensees. He starts talking about how he is being questioned by people about his connection with mob connected Nick. A scene were Nick was a narrator was the one were he was talking about the FBI being on his tail, but, he is not worried because he paid top dollar for scanners, debuggers, and etc. You can feel what the characters are going through at the parts were they were also playing narrator.
Lets go back to one of the before mentioned scenes; The scene were Sam was trying to get his gaming licensee. While the hearing was going on, the editor must have decided that it would be a good idea if they cut from the hearing room to the anchorwoman. Telling what was going on while this was going on. Normally, they would have showed the hearing then the anchorwoman but in this case they didn t. This part wasn t in any particular order. This type of continuity editing is called sectional. Another scene were this evident is the scene after they see each other in the nightclub and Nick is at Sam s casino acting an ass. One of Sam s assistants calls him and as he talks to Sam they show what Nick did then they would cut back to what he was doing at that particular time the assistant was on the phone. In this scene they showed three different time frames in one scene. Making it sectional and also sequential because the assistant told him every thing that happened in chronological order.
With all the violence going on in this movie, it is nothing but intense. As a matter of fact this movie should have been called Casino Intensity . Lighting can create certain moods and emotion in movies. For instance, cameo shots, were the object is lit and the background is dark and there are many cameo shots in this movie. Like the scene were the head mob boss talks to Frankie (one of Nick s friends) about Nick having sex with Sam s wife. In this scene the two faces were fairly lit. The background was mostly lit. This was an appropriate style of lighting for that scene because having sex with someone s wife is a serious and personal matter. I felt that it emphasis that mood of the scene.
Music and sound is another way you can show emotion in a movie. It can show fear, sensuality, suspense, grief, etc etc. One example of this is the scene were they show Ginger (Sam s wife; Sharon Stone) having oral sex with Nick. If you haven t seen this movie, you should know that Sam and Nick was friends for thirty-five years. In the scene before Sam and Ginger got into a big fight. In the scene fore mentioned, which is the day after the fight, they played a song by B.B. King, The Thrill is Gone . This showed me that Ginger didn t care any more. Then she had oral sex with Nick.
There are also ways of looking into and looking at a situation by how close or how far away a shot is. One shot they did that really impressed me was the ECU (Extreme Close Up Shot) shot of Sam s glasses as he watched his friend Nick pull up. This shot would have given any viewer the impression that something serious was pulling up on Sam. Another shot that impressed was the one were Nick was coming out of the jewelry store to get into his car. It showed unnatural masking because the whole screen was black except for the area were Nick was, making the viewer focus on him. The last shot that impressed me was the shot that switched from the FBI watching him to Nick watching the FBI The shot didn t change, just the focus of the shot did. It went from the focus on the police to the focus being on Nick s reflection in the window.
The last part of the movie I want to talk about is the one were Ginger dies. Before she dies the camera zooms down a dim yellow-lit hallway. The left two thirds of the screen was filled with the one of the walls in the hallway. She comes out and then fills up the rest of the screen as she slides across the wall down the hallway. This particular framing of this shot gave me the impression that there was nothing left and with the condition she was in there wasn t anything left. Then she collapsed and died.
This is an excellent movie so go and rent it.
The End