I just saw Martin Scorsese’s Casino, shortly after seeing Goodfellas for the first time. I know, I know, how can a 23-year old male not have already seen these movies???? It’s summer vacation and I like to draw with a movie in the background, so I’m seeing a bunch of things I “shoulda” seen earlier.
It’s so weird how similar these movies are. They’re both about mid-level players in the Mafia. Joe Pesci plays the exact same character. Robert De Niro isn’t a gangster in Casino but his personality is awfully close: experienced, savvy, unafraid to get his hands dirty, even if he’s not a downright crook. The wives in each movie – Lorraine Brasco in Goodfellas and Sharon Stone in Casino – are different, interesting characters, but though Brasco is more empathetic and effective, the movie is still about the men. “99 problems” is all they are. The rotation of gangster friends and fat bosses (acted by the same dudes) doesn’t matter: their roles and fates are virtually identical. New York, Las Vegas, what’s the difference.
Goodfellas is about rich thieving murdering mobsters trying to make it to the top of their organization. Casino is about a big time player who has to deal with rich thieving murdering mobsters trying to make it to the top of his organization. They’re different when you go into the details, but the fun of watching both movies is the same. Their worlds are totally glamorous and awesome. There’s lots of cool heists and murders pulled off with bravado and ease. The goodfellas are respected by everyone and can do what they want and can tell anyone to go fuck himself. When someone fucks with them they don’t back down. How cool! In the casino you’re making millions of basically free money, legally, and in that world you can do whatever you want because no matter what, you’re going to keep making more money. How cool!
The narration is similar. The way they repeat their own obvious devices (freezeframes, taking turns with the narrators) is similar. The endings are similar. They’re both pretty long. And they’re both really good movies. The plots are twisty and intricate enough but the point is that they really are fun.
I wonder what’s Scorsese’s take on the closeness between the two movies, especially considering how celebrated they both are, especially the first, Goodfellas. I mean, how obvious or deliberate is it supposed to be? How much irony does he take into it? I think it’s pretty lame, and I think he’s “just” repeating a cool formula. Again, they’re both good movies. But Casino isn’t a great movie, and I’d love to hear someone defend it as an artistically valuable work. What human experience does Casino explore that Goodfellas didn’t? I’m skeptical but there must be an answer.
If I google a few opinions about the movies… then that’ll be all I’ve ever read about them. I’ve only looked at two: these two really nice essays on what seems like a really interesting site. As for Pesci, yeah, come to think of it, it’s not just in these two movies that he plays the same annoying ugly foulmouth. Huh. As for for Casino‘s value, the essay on Scorsese says something about the importance of how the old way of running casinos was destroyed before corporations took the industry over. This doesn’t ring true to me. The only part in that movie about corporations “taking over” was in the last five minutes, in which De Niro reads that from a script. What a lame tacked-on theme.
These movies are both praised as “great crime movies” in most of the lists on the front page of google. But, I think there aren’t enough good crime movies in this world if both of these can land on the same top 25… maybe even top 10 list. I think a lot of “bros” love anything like Goodfellas, because, yeah, it’s fun to watch a good movie about gangsters. Scorsese is cool. But it seems inappropriate to me.
Oh and one last though before going to bed… I haven’t seen Mean Streets, which through what little google searching I did while posting my thoughts, I’ve read is like the first part of a ““prequel”:http://www.filmsite.org/crimefilms2.html.” Okay, so that begins to answer my question about how “aware” is Scorsese. Jeez, maybe it was a trilogy the whole time. So, I’ll watch that one soon. Like I said in the beginning I don’t know anything about these movies.