Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas

Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas

Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas

The author of the best-seller, Wiseguy, traces the alliance of Lefty Rosenthal and Tony Spilotro, which ran the Mafia in Las Vegas and ended in adultery, murder, and revenge. 200,000 first printing. National ad/promo. Movie tie-in.The author of the best-selling Wiseguy gives us this true and brilliantly-told story of love, marriage, adultery, murder, revenge, and how it led to the Mafia’s finally losing its stranglehold on the Las Vegas casinos.

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3 thoughts on “Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas”

  1. 74 of 77 people found the following review helpful
    4.0 out of 5 stars
    New version of last year’s Anniversary Edition that actually works…, February 20, 2006
    By 
    bunkaroo “bunkaroo” (Chicago West Suburbs, IL United States) –

    This review is from: Casino – Special Edition (DVD)
    This new “Special Edition” is a watered down version of last year’s Anniversary Edition. Usually this is a bad thing. However, since Universal can’t seem to figure out how to make a DVD-18 work properly, it’s actually good they have seen fit to release this title as a single-sided, dual-layered DVD. Unfortunately, in doing so they have dropped most of the extras found on the Anniversary Edition. Still found on this release are the deleted scenes, the commentary and one of the featurettes.

    Why they didn’t decide to do 2 DVD-9’s for this is beyond comprehension, but at least they’ve dropped the list price a few dollars.

    My rating is for the overall the release, although in my opinion both the film and the transfer on this release get 5 stars. Colors are vivid and rich, and detail is very fine.

    In closing, if you’re not a “special features” junkie, definitely get this release, as it’s much more likely to play properly. If you must have the Anniversary Edition, make sure you play the disc right away, because most likely, it will have problems.

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  2. 35 of 35 people found the following review helpful
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Great piece on the mob and its Vegas heyday, May 21, 2006
    By 
    Scott Hedegard “Scott” (Fayetteville, AR USA) –

    This review is from: Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas (Hardcover)
    Perhaps a little more well known for “Wiseguys”, the book that became the movie “Goodfellas”, Nicholas Pileggi is as good as they get when it comes to writing about the Mafia, its people and the drama of living the life. It is unfortunate that he doesn’t work very fast – more books would be welcome.

    “Casino” is the true story of Vegas in its heyday prior to the mega resort/casinos we see today, like Excalibur, New York New York, The Luxor, etc. Before large corporations turned Las Vegas into a theme park with casinos, the Chicago mob pretty much controlled the then famous casinos of the day, like the Stardust, where the movie “Casino” disguises it with the fictional name of The Tangier. Skimming the profits was the mob’s business. Perhaps the greatest handicapper of all time, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, ran three major casinos and ran them well. Chicago sent out the legendary Tony Spilotro to keep an eye on “Lefty” and protect him and the moolah. Spilotro, however, had ideas of his own and soon became mired in a horrendous mess, dragging Rosenthal and eventually all the mob controlled casinos to their demise with him. Rosenthal still lives, and even has a web site, but Spilotro at books’ end learns the hard way that being insubordinate to the mob and skimming their skim has dire consequences.

    Pileggi is a master at showing a picture of the lives of these people, the shady deals, the threats from every corner, from the state, other criminals and the Mob, and how difficult life is for those who choose the gambling scene as a way of life.

    It’s morbid but fascinating reading. A must for fans of organized crime books.

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  3. 67 of 76 people found the following review helpful
    4.0 out of 5 stars
    Stupid criminals in paradise, March 17, 2004
    By 
    M. G Watson “Miles Watson” (Los Angeles) –
    (VINE VOICE)
      
    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)
      
    (REAL NAME)
      

    This review is from: Casino (DVD)
    I was born in Chicago, and my father went to Stienmetz high school with Tony Spilotro, the mobster portrayed in this film by Joe Pesci. I grew up listening to stories about “the Ant” (not flattering), and when he was finally whacked, my old man (a reporter for the Chicago Sun Times) wrote what amounted to his obitiuary. In it he recalled such charming Spilotro antics as the time he threw acid at a girl who had rebuffed his advances and the time he tried to split open my dad’s head, and thus prevent my birth, with a T-square during shop class. To top it off, I recently discovered my Dad’s old yearbook (1955 or so), in which he and the future boss of Las Vegas are standing in true 1950s glory (slicked hair, plaid shirts, everybody wearing horn-rimmed glasses) next to each other on picture day.
    So I guess you could say I had a personal interest in seeing how Marty Scorcese and his “Goodfellas” crew would tackle the subject of transplanted Chicago mobsters in the neon desert. My final verdict: they all did a hell of a job.
    Pesci, as “Nicky Salerno” (all the names have been changed to protect the guilty) is just as horrifying and vicious here as he was as “Tommy DiVito” in “Goodfellas”; Pugnacious, bloodthirsty, bad-tempered, arrogant, and paranoid, but also capable of humor, loyalty and a certain weird charm. Some would say he was just playing the same character again, and yeah, he is, but he’s so damn good at it, who cares?
    Bobby D is superb (what else?) as “Ace Rothstien” — the micro-managing, ego-maniacial Chicago handicapper and casino boss who trades in on his friendship with mobsters to become a big time player in Vegas, and promptly realizes he’s let the snake in the manger. Nicky is what mobsters call a “Cowboy” — a crazy, reckless hoodlum who thinks with his fists (or his gun, or the sharp end of a pen, or a telephone, or whatever’s handy) and creates more wreckage than profit. He also attracts the attention of the Feds and the Nevada Gaming Commission, who soon make Ace’s life miserable, and more importantly, begin to interfere with the Mob’s ability to “skim” Casino profits back to Chicago. And if you know anything about the Outfit (as it is called there), you know N – O – B – O – D – Y is going to interfere with their profits and get away unscathed.
    “Casino” is one of those movies where you watch bad guys get their hands on something really big, and drive it straight into the ground. Things blow up, people get beaten and whacked, fortunes are made and squandered, and monster egos crash against each other like bumper cars. There are many similiarities to “Goodfellas” except the stakes are much higher, and like “Goodfellas” there is not a character you really can root for — Ace is miserly, controlling, egocentric and arrogant, Nicky is a straight up homicidal maniac, and Stone’s character is your typical scheming, treacherous hooker-hustler. A lot of people felt this movie was the same thing, with the same cast, done not quite as well, and indeed, “Casino” is not as good as “Fellas” but it is a very good movie all the same. If “Fellas” had never been made, this might be a top-5 Mob movie of all time. I recommend it to anyone with a gangland fetish, 80’s nostalgia and strong stomach.
    And by the way, the actor Frank Vincent, who gets revenge on Pesci in this film (with a baseball bat) for twice getting the best of him in previous Scorsese movies (“Raging Bull” and “Goodfellas”), actually bears a stronger resemblance to the real Tony Spilotro than Joe Pesci does….wierd.

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