Casino: The Story

Casino: The Story (2005)

*** (out of 4)

Director Martin Scorsese, writer Nicholas Pileggi and producer Barbara De Fina are interviewed for this first of a four part series that takes a look at the making of CASINO. This first part clocks in at just over eight-minutes and features the three talking about how the project came to be and this includes stories about how the book wasn't done when they decided to turn it into a movie. If you're a fan of the film then you'll enjoy this featurette, which is basically a promotional piece but at least we've got three important figures here. The three obviously tell some terrific stories and they give you a great idea of the pre-production process including how more doors can open when they know someone like Robert DeNiro is going to be in the picture.

This is one of the six featurettes(four of them having their own pages here on IMDb) on the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD of Casino, and, well, you can tell from the title what it goes into. It consists of interviews, clips of the movie inter-cut with them, and behind the scenes footage. This is all edited remarkably well, with the bits from the film itself responding directly to what is said at several points, making it a lot more dynamic and interesting. The pacing is spot-on, this never stands still, without being overwhelmingly fast, either. Pileggi tells us about how the actual person that DeNiro plays came to be more forthcoming, and details about the countless excellent lines of dialog. Scorsese admits that the picture is similar to Goodfellas, and talks about the amount of narrators in it. In 8 short minutes, this tells you a good deal of information about its specific area, meaning, the plot and how it's told. There is strong language in this, though even for how short it is, it's not very much at all. Marvelous documentary. I recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about the subject. 7/10