Casino Movie Pen Attack
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With tons of great action movies out there, we’ve all seen a lot of violent scenes.
For all you violence fans and action buffs, we have gathered together the 10 worst beatings someone ever took in a movie… ever.
A Bronx Tale (1993) – Bar Scene
The most brutal scene in the movie “A Bronx Tale” is the scene in the bar when a motor cycle gang gets a little out of hand.
'The Invisible Man' premiered on Friday and is the first hit horror movie of the year. The movie follows Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss), a woman who escapes an abusive relationship only to have her torment continue after her ex Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) turns himself invisible. The attack failed, but the repercussions of his affair with Rosenthal’s wife continued to upset the Vegas mob. Eventually, this incident together with Spilotro’s other misdeeds caught up to him. Since he was a made man at 25, Spilotro had caught the eye of law enforcement.
Mafia boss Sonny LoSpecchio (played by Chazz Palminteri) and his Mafia men beat the crap out of the eight thugs and throw them out onto the street.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2PXb7xKhcI[/youtube]
Shawshank Redemption (1994)
There are a couple of the prison scenes that are rather violent in the 1994’s “Shawshank Redemption”. I think the most vicious is when “The Sisters” seek out to rape Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins).
They don’t rape him, but they end up giving him a severe beating that landed him the infirmary for about a month.
Goodfellas (1990) – Billy Batts beating
Of course if it’s a Mafia movie, you know it will be violent. If you’re a fan of Mafia movies as I am, you will already know that Joe Pesci is famous for playing a loose cannon. His roll as Tommy DeVito in “Goodfellas” is no different.
In a bar one night, Billy Batts (Frank Vincent) was teasing Tommy and wouldn’t quit. After a small altercation, Tommy and his friends leave only to return later that evening. Tommy beat and kicked him within an inch of his life and then shot him.
This is a prime example of a great explosive Mafia scene.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oP1NMB_I0s[/youtube]
Out for Justice (1991) – Gino versus Richie
At the end of the movie, Detective Gino Felino (Stephen Seagal) has his final showdown with Richie Madano (William Forsythe). The beating is really quick, but Gino beats the daylights out of him.
I think it’s partially so effective because you come to the realization that it doesn’t take long for someone to mess you up.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJsswPuStl4[/youtube]
Casino (1995) – The Pen Scene
In the movie “Casino” we see Joe Pesci playing a role that he plays so well. As Nicky Santoro, Pesci once again gets to show off his talents as an explosive Italian hothead who’s out of control.
In the infamous “pen scene”, Nicky Sanotoro and his friend Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) are in a bar and this man gets in a small verbal altercation with Sam over a pen.
Nicky intervenes by snatching the pen that was the topic of discussion and jamming it into the man’s neck. He repeatedly jammed it into the guy’s neck while everyone else witnessed blood spurting out of this guy’s neck.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjZuCRjykgI[/youtube]
The Untouchables (1987) – Baseball bat
Here’s classic beating that had to be mentioned. In “The Untouchables” Al Capone, played by Robert De Niro, was delivering a speech in a meeting.
In the middle of the speech, he also delivered several whacks on this guy’s head and body with a baseball bat. Capone’s meeting attendees sat in shocked silence.
The time of the beating only took a few seconds, but it was severe and a classic brutal Mafia scene.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkJmSUhNBHY[/youtube]
The Godfather (1972)
Now here’s a movie filled with good wholesome violence. If you haven’t had your fill of violent scenes, watch “The Godfather” to remedy the problem. Of course, we know that “The Godfather” is known for its shootings and killings, but there’s one scene in particular that brings beatings to new heights.
Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo) made the mistake of hitting his wife Connie, who just happened to be Sonny Corleone’s (James Caan) sister. Sonny chased Carlo down and beat him and kicked him until he couldn’t get up. He did it on the street for everyone to see and before he left, he gave Carlo a warning.
“You touch my sister again, I’ll kill you”, he pronounced.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cd0r9HUH4E[/youtube]
Tango and Cash (1989) – Prison Scene
A lot of people forget about this scene when the topic of brutality in movies comes up. However, it’s a very intense scene. Let me paint a picture for you.
Two of Los Angeles’s best detectives, Ray Tango (Sylvester Stallone) and Gabe Cash (Kurt Russell) have been framed, tried and convicted of murder and put into general population in a prison. With regards to the other people in the prison, well, let’s just say that they’ve already met.
Needless to say they weren’t the most popular two in the prison. There’s one scene where a bunch of prisoners drag the two officers down to the steam room, beat them and electrocute them.
As Detective Cash says later, they were “FUBAR” (“fucked up beyond all recognition”).
Fight Club (1999)
If you like sheer, senseless violence, then you’ll love “Fight Club”. There are plenty of scenes in this movie that are extremely brutal; however, there’s one that sticks out in my mind the most.
After Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) is giving his Fight Club speech, he gets the crap bat out of him. The part that sticks in my mind the most is that Tyler laughs all the way through it.
He’s insane and this is an awesome scene!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwE_eh12TYw[/youtube]
Casino (1995) – Baseball bat scene
I know the movie “Casino” was already mentioned once, but any movie this graphic deserves a second mention. Here’s the scene that I think most people will agree is the worst beating in movie history.
Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) and is brother Dominick (Phillip Suriano) were taken out into the dessert, stripped down to their underwear and beaten to nearly death. The Mafia thugs made Nicky watch while they bludgeoned his brother and then pounded him as well.
They then put the bothers in a hole and buried them while they were still breathing (barely).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL2eaxA7NQw[/youtube]
Ace Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is surrounded by the press at a Nevada Gaming Commission meeting portrayed in Casino. Rothstein’s lawyer, Oscar Goodman (played by Goodman himself), stands by his side. Photo courtesy of Oscar Goodman.
Though the movie Casino was released more than 22 years ago, it still serves as a reference point for those hoping to understand what real Las Vegas mobsters were like when they were a sinister fixture in the news.
But most movies based on true stories, including Casino, twist the facts for dramatic effect and to compress long histories into a watchable timeframe.
What you see in Casino isn’t exactly the way things were. Case in point: the death of the Spilotro brothers, two mobsters originally from Chicago.
The way the movie portrays it, the brothers — or at least the fictional characters representing Anthony and Michael Spilotro — are beaten with baseball bats in a cornfield and shoved into a shallow grave while still alive.
Not true.
In his 2009 book Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob, journalist Jeff Coen details what really happened. Coen covered the Family Secrets trial for the Chicago Tribune. That 2007 trial resulted in convictions and revealed details that weren’t publicly known when the movie came out more than a decade earlier.
In the 1995 movie, it was baseball bats in a cornfield. But according to trial testimony, the Spilotros were lured to a residence near O’Hare International Airport in Bensenville, a subdivision of “modest homes,” and were beaten to death in the basement. (At the trial, one of the killers, Mob turncoat Nick Calabrese, said he could not recall which house it was.)
Anthony and his brother, Michael, a part-time actor and owner of the Chicago restaurant and Mob hangout Hoagie’s, went to the home in June 1986 believing they were to be promoted within the Outfit.
Although the brothers were suspicious, refusing to go was unthinkable.
When the Spilotros got to the basement, about 15 mobsters pounced on them. Michael had brought a pocket-sized .22-caliber handgun but could not get to it. Anthony was heard asking if he could say a prayer but was swarmed.
In addition to breaking Michael’s nose, the attackers inflicted blunt force injuries over his entire body. They severely bruised Anthony’s face, left temple and chest.
Anthony, 48, had blood in his trachea, lungs and nasal passages and hemorrhaging in the muscles of the larynx. The 41-year-old Michael had a fractured Adam’s apple.
Neither man’s skin was broken, indicating the killers did not use a heavy object such as a baseball bat. The brothers were beaten with fists, knees and feet, according to a pathologist at the trial.
The Spilotros were dead when buried in an Enos, Indiana, cornfield about 100 miles south of the murder house. The brothers were placed in a five-foot grave in only their underwear, one on top of the other.
The cornfield is near land that Outfit boss Joseph “Joey Doves” Aiuppa used for hunting, according to Coen. A farmer discovered the grave, thinking someone had buried a deer. The Spilotros were identified by dental X-rays provided by a third bother, Patrick Spilotro, a dentist.
Why did this happen to Anthony and Michael Spilotro? Mob higher-ups felt the two had to be silenced.
Since the early 1970s, Anthony Spilotro had overseen street rackets in Las Vegas for the Chicago Outfit. He also was keeping an eye on Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, a Chicago bookie handling the skim in Las Vegas for Midwestern Mob bosses.
Ultimately, though, news stories about Spilotro’s violent criminal activities, and his affair with Rosenthal’s wife, a former showgirl at the Tropicana hotel-casino, led to the gruesome outcome in that Bensenville basement.
Anthony Spilotro’s high-profile legal problems were jeopardizing the Outfit’s Las Vegas cash cow, prompting Aiuppa to order him “knocked down.” Michael Spilotro, facing a trial on extortion charges, had to go, too.
Casino Movie Pen Attacked
That terrifying outcome is not the only place where Casino misses the mark factually. In another example among many from the film, an animated Kansas City mobster pops off in an Italian grocery about the Las Vegas skim while federal authorities listen to his profanity-laced rant through a bug planted in a vent.
In reality, law enforcement authorities learned about the Las Vegas skim while eavesdropping on a conversation between members of the Civella crime family at a bugged back table in Kansas City’s Villa Capri pizzeria. Unlike the movie, there was no humorous scolding mom at the now-demolished Villa Capri nagging her mobster son about his vulgar language.
The only ones at the table were sinister Mob figures, behaving like real-life conspiratorial gangsters, not colorful movie characters.
Larry Henry is a veteran print and broadcast journalist. He served as press secretary for Nevada Governor Bob Miller, and was political editor at the Las Vegas Sun and managing editor at KFSM-TV, the CBS affiliate in Northwest Arkansas. Henry taught journalism at Haas Hall Academy in Bentonville, Arkansas, and now is the headmaster at the school’s campus in Rogers, Arkansas. The Mob in Pop Culture blog appears monthly.
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