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The Ultimate Gangster Collection: Casino Edition

The quality of the features offered in this selection lends well to the nature of the ultimate characterization. The films included in this selection are American Gangster, Scarface, Casino, Carlito’s Way, and Mean Streets. Ridley Scott’s American Gangster may be an enjoyable romp, but it has tendencies of staggering under the weight of the film’s own perceived epic stature. The other four films, however, are bona fide classics, making this selection of movies an excellent primer for some of the best gangster movies ever committed to film.

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American Gangster

In American Gangster, the real-life character Frank Lucas starts out as a quiet driver for his boss, but exploits an opening in the power structure when his boss dies to build his own empire, creating his own version of the American Dream. Lucas outplays others in this field through ingenuity and a strict business ethic, even entering the circle of legit civic superstars in the city. Lucas has a nemesis in the character of Richie Roberts, an outcast cop that knows the pulse of the streets and begins sensing the dominance of Lucas and his influence in the city. Both characters share in a rigorous ethical code that truly sets them apart from their own colleagues on their respective sides of the law. They are lone figures in their own worlds whose destinies become intertwined. Their inevitable confrontation means that only one of them can come out the other side on top.

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The scene in the movie that best exemplifies this notion is where Roberts explains to Lucas exactly how much trouble Lucas is in and that there is no way of him getting out of it. In this moment the cocky and overconfident attitude of Lucas drops away as he realizes Roberts is right. The plot shifts and twists as Lucas then agrees to help Roberts.

Scarface

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One of the most interesting aspects of Scarface is how the character Tony Montana takes on the dimensions of a real, tortured person. While other thrillers use interchangeable characters and action is the focus of many other gangster movies, Tony Montana sticks in our memories because his personality as a flawed man allows him to be human. Maybe this is the reason the character was played by Al Pacino, who also masterfully played Michael Corleone in The Godfather movies.

The first scene in this film tries to educate the viewers by informing them that Cuban refugees were permitted to come to America in 1980 by Fidel Castro. Of course, the viewer is told that Castro took this opportunity to send all the Cuban miscreants to American so they would no longer be his problem. Tony is seen trying to bluff US federal agents in an interrogation, a behavior he carries through the entire movie – bluffing and having no real character and no real courage to speak of. The title of this movie is taken from the 1932 Howard Hawks movie, the latter of which was inspired by the career of Al Capone.

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The 1983 Scarface film by Brian De Palma exemplifies a sort of harrowing lesson about self-destruction as depicted through the lives of the characters. One of the scenes in the movie that stays with the viewer is that of Tony Montana lounging in an enormous hot tub. However, the most memorable scene may be the final one that shows Tony Montana taking his last stand; viewers truly get a realistic feel of this scene and therefore the genre itself. Will the remake be just as good? This classic would certainly be hard to top.

Casino

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This movie depicts a bit of the history of the Las Vegas casino beginnings. Las Vegas has been and still is a place that thrives on hope; where people can be lucky and even go home a millionaire. Martin Scorsese made this fascinating film that is one of the best ever made about Las Vegas, basing it in part on the book by Nicholas Pileggi.

Pileggi actually had full access to a man who ran four casinos in the early days of Las Vegas. It is this element of a true story that really inspires the plot of the film. The viewers of the film feel almost like eavesdroppers in a secret place, getting an inside scoop of the underpinnings of the early casinos. The first hour of this movie seems a bit like a documentary because of the narration by the character Sam “Ace” Rothstein played by Robert De Niro as well as commentary by other characters. Viewers really get a feel of how people got very rich from operating casinos at that time.

Unlike other genre related films from Scorsese, Casino is just as concerned with the history of Las Vegas as it is with the plot and the characters. One of the most memorable scenes in the movie that shows how casinos have changed over the years depicts the character Nicky going on tilt as a he mutters during a blackjack game that he has dealt him “20 paints in a row.” Modern day casinos would never allow this kind of behavior, so it’s fun to watch how connected characters like Nicky were tolerated back in the day.

Check out this clip from the movie below.

Carlito’s Way

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Carlito’s Way is a film directed by Brian De Palma that came ten years after the making of Scarface, but featured Al Pacino once again. However, Carlito Brigante is older and wiser than his Scarface counterpart Tony Montana, and Carlito seems a bit luckier as well. Carlito is a New Yorker with a Puerto Rican background who is seen giving a speech to a judge that paints Carlito as a self-righteous blowhard and a bit of a showboat. However, as Carlito returns to the business of the streets, the viewer begins to see a deeper side to the character. With a desire to go straight, Carlito is offered a share in a car rental business in the Bahamas. Unfortunately, in order to gain the money for the investment into the legitimate business he has to take a job that puts him in contact with all the people he should be avoiding.

Carlito ends up meeting another character, Benny Blanco from the Bronx, who ends up bringing the worst out of Carlito. The movie is actually narrated by Carlito as he explains his hopes and strategies throughout the movie. This is a film that may be known more for its quotes from Carlito than any particular scenes. Some of these memorable quotes include:

“It’s who I am Gail, it’s what I am. Right or wrong, I can’t change that.”
“Never give up your friends, Dave, no matter what.”
“Adios Counselor.”
“You don’t get reformed, you just, run out of wind.”

Mean Streets

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This is a film that actually lacks the unspoken confidence and the headlong flow that are the hallmarks of other Scorsese films. Mean Streets was actually made on a tiny budget and with actors who really had not found their way in the film industry yet. Much of the film was not even shot on the “mean streets” as the title suggests, but rather in disguised Los Angeles locations. Despite these facts, the film has an elemental power and a sense of spiraling doom that would be lacking in a more polished film. The characters are based on people that Scorsese knew and grew up with in Little Italy. The way these characters are seen and heard made this an astonishingly influential film.

Mean Streets inspired the main line of the modern day film in this genre; the film of everyday reality. This film has become one of the source points of many modern movies, leaving a mark on films that followed. A memorable scene from this movie is “The Bar Scene” in which De NIro makes his entrance. Scorsese revels in moments from his own life as the film looks into the lives of a group of friends in the gritty section of New York City known as Little Italy.

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