The casino has been a major location for films since the advent of cinema. It has been used as a setting due to its familiarity, but also because it is well known for being a place of excitement. It has served as not only a backdrop but as the main theme for movies like Martin Scorsese’s Casino in 1995 and Lewis Milestone’s Ocean’s 11 in 1960, while it has been used as a minor setting in countless pictures from Peter Berg’s Very Bad Things in 1998 to Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther in 2018. It has even become a long-running cliché in the Eon Productions Bond films that James Bond will enter a casino and play a table game at some point.
Casino scenes have often been enjoyable and have provided excitement for the viewer, but just how realistic are they?
High Stakes and High Danger
Casinos have long been recognized as places to go if you want an action-packed evening. Betting in high stakes games provides an exhilarating, hard to match rush and when featured in films this needs to be reflected to the viewer. But because those people watching the flicks aren’t actually betting with their own money, the gameplay often needs to be exaggerated or complemented with something else such as an intense action scene. This is why casinos are often used as the setting for showdowns between the good guys and the antagonists.
In Black Panther, one of the most memorable scenes was when the heroes traveled to a casino in Busan, South Korea. During a regular evening of games in the gambling house, a ferocious firefight took place. Coogler, the film’s director, said that he took a lot of inspiration from James Bond in the use of gadgets and the casino as a setting. The scene wasn’t realistic in terms of what normally happens in a casino, but it doesn’t really have to be if the casino is purely the setting for an action sequence. It was also possibly a wise choice to use South Korea as a setting, as it is a country known for its gangster and action films.
Bond has been in plenty of fights in casinos, but they have also been used as locations to introduce characters. Sitting around table games like baccarat where anyone can join in gives the secret agent a chance to make it look like he randomly bumped into his target. The casino was also the spot where Sean Connery’s Bond was introduced for the first time. In an incredibly cool scene in 1962’s Dr. No, 007 first appears as he cleans up in a game of baccarat. Bond films since then have always given the sense that as the stakes get higher in a casino, the danger levels rise in tandem.
What are the Most Famous Scenes?
One of the most famous casino scenes of all time was in Martin Campbell’s 2006 picture, Casino Royale. Much of the film takes place at the Casino Royale in Montenegro, where Daniel Craig’s Bond enters a high stakes poker tournament against a number of high profile opponents including his target, Le Chiffre, played by Mads Mikkelsen. Although the action followed the rules of Texas Hold’em perfectly, the hands that were dealt were quite unrealistic. In the final scene, nearly every player at the table was holding a low probability hand. Two players had full houses, while Bond had a straight flush which has a 0.0032% probability of appearing. Taking all the odds into consideration, we’re talking about a very unusual round indeed – some would say unrealistic.
Another classic Bond moment was when Timothy Dalton’s MI6 agent entered a game of blackjack in 1989’s License to Kill by John Glen. Similarly to in Casino Royale, the game of blackjack follows the rules perfectly, but Bond ends up getting incredibly lucky when he wins £250,000. Although Bond’s favorite game from the original books is baccarat, blackjack was chosen here because it’s arguably easier for viewers to follow the action. Since the goal of blackjack is to reach a combined total of 21 without going over it, as Betway Casino’s blackjack rule breakdown explains, the gameplay is very easy to understand. On the contrary, baccarat has the player bet on their hand, the dealer’s hand or even a tie, which is more complicated information to communicate visually. In terms of casino-based films, 1995’s Casino by Martin Scorsese is renowned for being a gritty take on the gambling establishments where there is danger lurking in every corner and everyone is watching everyone. More contemporary offerings, such as the Hangover, prefer to show the glitzy and glamorous side to casinos.
When it comes to realism, films based in casinos tend to stay true to the games and depict them as they are played in real life. Obviously, for the sake of excitement, a lot of unlikely scenarios often occur within the games. In addition to that, there are perhaps more outbreaks of violence within casinos that exist in the cinematic world. Despite the rise of online casinos, real-world gambling houses are likely to continue to be used as settings in movies due to the sheer thrill that is associated with them and the fact that they are so familiar to many. Viewers can accept a few fairly unrealistic things happening if it is done to add to the overall excitement of the scene or movie.
