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This Martin Scorsese film depicts the Janus-like quality of Las Vegas--it has a glittering, glamorous face, as well as a brutal, cruel one. Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro, mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark, live and work in this paradoxical world. Seen through their eyes, each as a foil to the other, the details of mob involvement in the casinos of the 1970s and 80s are revealed. Ace is the smooth operator of the Tangiers casino, while Nicky is his boyhood friend and tough strongman, robbing and shaking down the locals. However, they each have a tragic flaw--Ace falls in love with a hustler, Ginger, and Nicky falls into an ever-deepening spiral of drugs and violence.
In 1975, bookie and expert handicapper Sam Rothstein - Ace to his friends - goes somewhat legitimate when the Chicago based Italian Mafia hires him to run the Tangiers Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Ace can do the job, applying for his gaming license despite his past, while having his ever changing job title be anything but running the casino and the actual license getting lost in the never ending process. Aces best friend from childhood Nicky Santoro, eventually comes along for the ride, he who the Mafia hires to be Ace and the organizations unofficial protector. Ace is able to make a success of the casino, which includes the process of the Mafia bosses being able to skim profits off the top, while making the entire business look legitimate to the authorities. Aces success is placed into jeopardy by Nicky, not only by his reckless, violent, volatile and ruthless behavior, but also by his want to eke out his own gangster fiefdom in Las Vegas. It is also placed into jeopardy by who becomes Aces wife, Ginger McKenna, who he knew was a hustler when he married her and who he wants to trust in every aspect of the word in his love for her. She ends up being a self-destructive woman, her primary weakness being in wanting to help a friend, a hanger-on and loser named Lester Diamond.
Robert De Niro
Sam 'Ace' Rothstein
Sharon Stone
Ginger McKenna
Joe Pesci
Nicky Santoro
James Woods
Lester Diamond
Don Rickles
Billy Sherbert
Alan King
Andy Stone
Kevin Pollak
Phillip Green
L.Q. Jones
Pat Webb
Dick Smothers
Senator
Frank Vincent
Frank Marino
John Bloom
Don Ward
Pasquale Cajano
Remo Gaggi
Melissa Prophet
Jennifer Santoro
Bill Allison
John Nance
Vinny Vella
Artie Piscano
Philip Suriano
Dominick Santoro
Erika von Tagen
Amy Rothstein (Older)
Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon
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