Put it all on black! There are few more exciting scenes in film than those set in the casino – whether we are about to watch a heist be undertaken and wonder if our characters will achieve it, or whether our protagonist’s chances on the game reflect their current predicament in the plot. The film centred around the casino provides not just aesthetics for us to watch play out on screen, but gives a deeper meaning to whatever action is taking place. The casino is a place of tension and excitement and this can easily be conveyed to an audience. So why has the casino film fallen out of favour? Has the casino come out of fashion – or could we expect a reversal of fortune?
Source: Pixabay
Has the casino film died out?
The Casino in Film
Some of the most famous casino-based films are remembered solely for their casino scenes. The Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman squabbling sibling movie Rain Man (1988) features Cruise using his brother’s ability to play cards, despite the factitious relationship between the pair. A similar plot is followed in the semi-true story of 21 (2008) about a prodigy who is skilled at playing cards. In German cinema powerhouse Run, Lola, Run (1998), Lola needs to find 100,000 Deutsche Mark in order to save her boyfriend’s life and she chooses (and, spoiler alert, loses) the casino as one possible option. The George Clooney as Danny Ocean film series featured a casino in the first film, Ocean’s 11 (2001), while its predecessor, the Rat Pack-focussed Ocean’s 11 (1960) followed a similar plot, with less technology. The casino gave the heroic characters the perfect backdrop to look suave and strategic as they plotted these elaborate heists. The 1995 film Casino perhaps used the theme the best, focusing the entire plot around the casino, while Atlantic City (1980) used the populous casino district as the backdrop to the romance between Susan Sarandon and Burt Lancaster.
Bond’s most famous line premiered in 1962
There is still hope for the trope of casino in film. 2019’s The Hustle starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson features a scene in a casino on the French Riviera. The casino likely to showcase the luxury and lifestyle that belongs to those who live on the south coast. Casino in film can’t be discussed without a mention of James Bond. We first meet Sean Connery’s Bond in Dr No (1962) in a casino, where he utters the illustrious line “Bond. James Bond,” for the first time. He returns several times throughout the course of the series. Whether this is to chase down a villain in Diamonds Are Forever (1971), to visit a potential ally in The World Is Not Enough (1999), to woo the villain’s mistress in For Your Eyes Only (1981) or to show the villain how rich he is in Licence to Kill (1989). The most famous of Bond’s forays into the casino are in 2006’s Daniel Craig debut of Casino Royale. As the title suggests the film is centred around the casino match Bond plays against villain Le Chiffre. The casino backdrop fits the tone of the film perfectly – but this was probably one of the last casino films we saw.
What Are We Watching Instead?
So, if we’re not watching films centred around the possibility and tension of the casino, what are we watching in the cinema? Superhero movies have dominated in recent years, taking the classic hero story and the special effects available by modern technology and combining them to tell stories with heart wrapped up in special powers. Horror movies have also increased in popularity, with franchises bringing back cheap scares and quick turnaround plots to bring in both a dedicated and casual audience. Indeed, this could show that people don’t want to think too much when they do go to the cinema and would rather watch something that is wholly taking them out of their real life. As the graphs plotted of popular films show, there is a range of film genres that have fallen out of favour – from Westerns dropping off after the 1970s to war films spiking in the 1940s and musicals booming after the advent of sound in cinema and trailing off.
2019 looks set to put the superhero genre to bed for now, so what is likely to dominate the cinema this year? Reports indicate that internationally, people are interested in watching stories based in England, as shown with the release of Downton Abbey’s film or the success of Mary Queen of Scots and The Favourite in 2018. It stands that British-themed films may do very well abroad. Netflix and other Hollywood production companies have begun to migrate to the UK to create their films. The biopic film has also grown in popularity as artists are more open to having their stories told. Queen’s and Elton John’s biopics tell the story of two of the biggest artists in the world and helped a new audience become acquainted with their music. 2019 also gave us Stan and Ollie about Laurel and Hardy, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile starring heartthrob Zac Efron as serial killer Ted Bundy, and Best of Enemies, starring Taraji P Henson and Sam Rockwell as a civil rights protestor and a member of the KKK as they discuss desegregation in North Carolina. People enjoy the true-to-life aspect of these films as they are often shrouded in the history of the era they are set in. By watching something that aims to be as honest as possible, we can learn from a cross section of history. Though some argue that it’s not even cinema films that we are watching as much anymore and that instead we are giving more focus to TV events such as Game of Thrones, whose hour-and-a half episodes featured enough fodder to be a small movie. Whatever we’re watching in 2019, it’s safe to say that a huge flick about a casino definitely won’t be making the cut.
Source: Pixabay
Slots increasingly take more influence from cinema than they offer to cinema.
The Influence of the Casino
But why has the casino film gone out of favour? Even if you’ve never stepped foot in a casino, you know exactly what to expect, and this is largely due to the representation of the casino in film. Most of what people understand about a casino and how it works comes from cinema, so it’s clear how important casino is to filmmaking. Perhaps it is this level of importance that has elevated the casino from being in the films to being related to the film on a deeper level. If you stepped in a casino nowadays, you’d seen references from films in the form of slot games based on film franchises. So as the casino once informed the movie, now the movies are informing the casino and what is in it. The availability of online casino offerings may also shed some light on the casino’s disappearance from the big and small screens. Online slots form one of the most popular forms of gameplay from many online casino providers. A lot of these slot machines are based on superhero and TV shows: from Jurassic Park to Bridesmaids and from Games of Thrones to A Nightmare on Elm Street, there is a slot machine for every taste. So perhaps casino serves better taking influence from films rather than giving influence for an onscreen adaptation. People’s interests have also changed and the world has become more mobile. Films reflecting this and being more out of this world and fantastical than realistic are more common. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, they are historical and period films that would negate the need for a casino. A casino represents a very realistic aspect to a film that filmmakers are increasingly steering away from. We are attending he cinema in order to see a slice of someone’s imagination tied together with special effects and premises and plots that go beyond the realm of reality. Game of Thrones – which combines period with fantasy – is a good example of where people want to direct their attention and it just happens that a standard casino doesn’t fit into the role that this requires. Especially when there are other ways in which we can interact and engage with the casino and what it has to offer its guests.
There will always be a place in cinema for casino films. Perhaps the tone that the future of filmmaking will be taking may bring casino films back into the fold in a different way. The backdrop of the casino screams both wealth, luxury, and sophistication as well as excitement, tension, and limitless possibilities, so works well in terms of the stories that can be told onscreen. While the casino film has some classics to speak for how well audiences responded to it, we haven’t had a good casino based film in more than a decade. Audiences tastes for what they want to watch have changed, but like the film reel spinning around, the revolution of the casino film will likely come back around again. Instead, we have many other ways of engaging with casinos and everything that they offer to us.