21 + ROUNDERS + CASINO + HIGH ROLLER: THE STU UNGAR STORY: Which Movie Portrays Casinos and Gambling More Faithfully?
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Casinos have long been a popular setting for movies, with the drama and tension making them ideal for spicing up any type of film.
So, while some use unrealistic plot devices and larger-than-life characters, which movies have managed to capture the genuine casino atmosphere best?
21
This 2007 movie should be realistic, as it’s based on something that happened in real-life. The story follows a team of MIT students who traveled to Las Vegas to test their theory of being able to win at blackjack through card counting.
You might have seen the same subject covered in the book called Bringing the House Down, on which this film is based on. 21 got mixed reviews at the time of its release, with some critics feeling that it had glossed over the original story and replaced important details with personal dramas created to broaden its appeal.
One of the interesting aspects of this movie was that it was largely supported by casinos. The filmmakers had expected casinos to oppose it because it brought card counting to wider attention.
However, the casinos correctly assumed that it would provide good publicity for them and that few people would understand how to count cards anyway. Nowadays some people even use algorithms and online casinos even provide some help for beginners so they don’t need to count cards. You can find that out for yourself .
The Last Casino is a Canadian movie from 2004 on the same subject. However, it adds to the tension by creating an additional story about a moneylender that the university team has to pay back.
Rounders
This effort from 1998 is widely regarded as giving the most accurate on-screen depiction of poker to date. It stars Matt Damon and Edward Norton as a pair of skillful poker players who work as a team to try and win the money that they desperately need.
As with most films based on casino games, the writers added extra tension by making it a race against time for the players to win the money needed to pay off some unsavory characters. This means that it’s far from being like most people’s casino experience. The arrival of online casinos has made this an even more relaxed affair than it used to be.
On the other hand, the poker scenes are intense and exciting but are they accurate? It’s common for movies about this card game to focus too much on bluffs and incredible hands like royal flushes, which aren’t as common in the real world as they make us think.
Rounders does a good job generally in showing us the world of high-stakes card games. They’ve added some details that aren’t particularly accurate for the games most of us play, but that’s part of the appeal of watching this sort of movie.
Casino
Released back in 1995, Casino was Martin Scorsese’s sprawling epic about the gambling industry. Robert DeNiro leads the cast as Sam "Ace" Rothstein, who takes charge of a Las Vegas casino. Joe Pesci plays Mafia man Nicky Santoro, while Sharon Stone stars as Sam’s wife Ginger McKenna
This movie is partly based on real-world characters and it gives us a fascinating glimpse at how Vegas changes over the years after Sam takes over in the late 1960s. We follow the trials and tribulations of the characters over the decades as the crime syndicates are gradually forced out and a new corporate approach takes over in Las Vegas.
This has proved to be an immensely popular story, largely due to the gripping plot and the excellent performances by the main characters. However, it should be remembered that this is a fictionalized version of a Las Vegas that no longer exists.
While modern players won’t see much in this depiction of gambling and casinos that reflects their own current experiences, the film has been widely praised for its authenticity. So perhaps it works best by showing us what this industry was once like and how it has advanced since then.
High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story
This movie takes us over the life of the famous poker player Stu Ungar. Some critics have suggested that it misses out on some of the most important aspects of his life that should have been shown, but there’s no doubt that the film is interesting and feels authentic in many parts.
Strangely, one of the parts that feel most unlikely is actually based on a real poker game. This is the hand where DJ successfully bluffs based on a starting hand of 7-2 off-suit, which is commonly known as the worst starting hand in poker. This actually happened when Jack “Treetop” Strauss raised despite getting this terrible hand.
Reviews of High Roller are mixed and some people feel that it would have benefitted more from showing some of the major problems that Ungar has to get through, but the end result is a gripping movie that shows us some of the aspects of card games that have made them so popular over the years.
