Las Vegas
& The Movies
by: Iulia Pascanu
Sunny Las Vegas hosted
hundreds of movies or movie-scenes. Some of them got the
Oscar. Others got lost on the way. But Vegas surely
remains a classic attraction for film-makers since the
glory of the Rat Pack days.
To be completely fair,
the early 60's weren't really the first screen action
days in Las Vegas. Frank Sinatra's first movie, Las
Vegas Nights was set back in 1941. However, the Rat Pack
Days are always a good point to start.
The Rat Packs
Five gentlemen in Las
Vegas: Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Joey
Bishop and Frank Sinatra. Good friends. Loved to party.
And of course, they had their own favourite place to
hang out, that was Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas
(which was demolished in 1996, nowadays the site of the
Venitian).
The Rat Pack Days begun
in late 50's, somewhat as a reaction to the Cold War
early days; the guys came up with the ideea of having
their own "summit of cool" in Las Vegas; it lasted seven
years. As the Sands performing scene wasn't enough for
them, the mighty five moved further to movies and
recordings.
The seven years brought
out seven films: Some Came Running, Ocean's 11, Sergents
3, 4 For Texas, Robin and the 7 Hoods, Marriage on the
Rocks, and Cannonball Run II. Ocean's 11 (1960) is the
most famous one, and also benefited from a modern remake
(2001), starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia
Roberts. The action in new Ocean's 11 involves robbery
scenes at Bellagio. The Rat Pack, released in 1998 for
cable TV, includes scenes from The Sands.
The King
The good old days gave
us the classic Viva Las Vegas (1964), featuring Elvis
Presley, who sings his heart out for the beloved "sin
city".
Later, in 1970, the King
starred a documentary filmed at the International Hotel,
nowadays Las Vegas Hilton (Elvis: That's the Way It Is).
The 1979 Elvis, a
memorabilia to The King, stars Kurt Russell. The story
goes on in 1988 with Elvis and Me, inspired by Priscilla
Presley's autobiography. The 1995 BBC documentary The
Burger and the King: The Life and Cuisine of Elvis
Presley seems to have closed the Elvis & Las Vegas
series, up to this moment.
Casino
This one, released in
1995, is the classic. It approaces "sin city" the way
nobody dared before. The story is based on the almost
fabulous life of Frank Rosendhale (impersonated by
Robert de Niro), the best handicapper of all times, and
his beautifull wife Gery (impersonated by Sharon Stone).
Las Vegas made them rich and television made them
famous.
"Casino" hit the
box-offices, but Frank said director Martin Scorsese
brought the spotlights on his own chopped vision of Las
Vegas; blamed him that he was not really interested to
either understand casinos or be faithful to the real
story; thus, Frank Rosenthale would have told it
differently.
The Winner
Las Vegas footage has
proven a good luck charm for Francis Ford Coppola's
famous nephew, Nicholas Cage. He started with Honeymoon
in Vegas in 1992, grabbed an Oscar on the road with
Leaving Las Vegas and made a come-back with Con Air in
1997; literally, Nick Cage forced his landing on the
Hard Rock Hotel guitar...
Just another subjective
list
- 1971 - Diamonds Are
Forever, from the James Bond (Sean Connery) series
- 1974 - The Godfather
Part II
- The Rocky series
(parts III and IV) included brief glimpses from Las
Vegas
- 1987 - Heat, 100% Las
Vegas made, starring Burt Reynolds
- 1988 - Rain Man, with
Dustin Hoffman, action set mostly inside Caesars
Palace
- 1991 - Bugsy, the
story of Bugsy Siegel and the making of the
Flamingo. Casts Warren Beatty and Annette Bening
- 1993 - Indecent
Proposal. Some reviews advice to "save the money for
slots"
- 1995 - Heat, this
time starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, the only
movie the two "monsters" have met
- 1995 - Showgirls,
mostly a movie about... girls, including many scenes
at Stardust
