Every summer, audiences flood the theaters for the new blockbuster, which is always just about the special effects. Plots, character development, choice of music, and general notions of taste appear to have stop being a priority. Now it seems as if a movie’s true value depends solely on how astounding their SFX can be. Each year, we go through the same drill. Michael Bay releases a nauseating film overridden with takes from helicopters, mind-blowing explosions, and stereotypical characters that still manage to reproduce offensive commentary even when they’re robots. Watching these chaotic flicks is always an overwhelming experience, but only in the bad sense of the word. While SFX continue to evolve into more jaw-dropping and lifelike, film stories have gone weaker every time. While we’re more impressed by how far these technological advancements have gone, the truth is that these movies don’t make us feel inspired or touched by the work we’re seeing. As a matter of fact, it’s exactly the opposite. It’s as if these films have sacrificed their narrative traits in exchange for an astounding appearance. Hollywood has forgotten that special effects are not what makes a film.
Over twenty years ago, Martin Scorsese released a movie that was truly astonishing and didn’t even need SFX to become a silver screen gem. The film’s name is Casino (1995). Starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone, it’s a story that deals with the last years of the Las Vegas mafia and how it eventually lost its prerogative over Sin City.
To this day, watching Scorsese’s last film with De Niro continues to be a thrilling experience that takes the viewer in a world of ostentation, corruption, violence, and betrayal that, despite being three hours long, keeps the viewer hooked. Yet, most of its depictions of fights and torture, are pretty basic and focus more on the dramatic subtext between the characters. Nevertheless, watching this film is much more dazzling and utterly spectacular than watching the world burn in any summer blockbuster.
How did the director manage to create such a powerful experience while barely using any SFX?
There are three reasons that explain why Scorsese’s tour de force doesn’t require of flashy special effects to grab our attention and still make it a mind-boggling experience. First of all, it was written by Scorsese in collaboration with Nick Pileggi, and the story was based in the latter’s non-fiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. Because of this, the film is not merely a work of fiction: it is actually a docudrama, and as such, it fills the viewer with information of how a casino works and the way the mafia operates. Through this resource, the film extends its dimensions to a more lifelike territory. Besides this, all of the movie’s characters are multilayered, which makes them appear much more like a real person and raises the stakes on drama.
Moreover, De Niro, Pesci, and Stone’s performances are brilliantly multifaceted and complex. On one scene we may see both men interpret violent and ruthless mafiosos, and on the next, they become caring fathers. This richness in detail only makes the film more lavish, and as viewers, we always appreciate such a keen portrayal of detail.
The second reason is Robert Richardson’s impecable cinematography. Even though he’s widely known for being the eye behind Tarantino’s most famous flicks, his works with Scorsese are also something to be seen. His camera movements give the movie the exact pace and perspective it needs, building atmospheres that capture precisely the feeling of the scenes he’s portraying, whether it’s the green and glittery casino table or a desolate factory the gangsters use for violent interrogation.
Last but not least, the third reason that makes Scorsese’s movie so spectacular is that he knows exactly how to increase the power of a scene through editing. Andrei Tarkovsky stated that montage was the most important aspect of any film. However, Scorsese is excellent at editing scenes with a precision that allows him to create sequences that take the viewer into the tension by selecting shot by shot and choosing the precise combination of image and sound to manipulate the viewer’s experience. Through this, Scorsese shows us that the most astounding effect a filmmaker can achieve is telling an unpredictable and compelling story.
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Sources:
The New York Times
Siskel & Ebert
