Viva Las Vegas!

"You're talking about counting cards?!" Jim Sturgess deduces as he's inducted into a very different kind of math club in the movie 21. When? Every weekend. Where? Smug smiles from Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth and the gang…

Welcome to Sin City!

Just a couple of years younger than Hollywood, 225 miles to the West, Las Vegas seems to exert a magnetic hold on filmmakers - and has done ever since the mafioso Bugsy Siegel built the Flamingo Hotel for his girlfriend, the actress Virginia Hill, in 1946. This was the first block in what became the Strip, a four and a half mile stretch of casinos, bars and mega resorts in the middle of the desert.

The desert is crucial to this history. Once the silver mines began to run out, Nevada had next to nothing to recommend it to settlers, and in the early years of the twentieth century its already small population was shrinking steadily. That's when the state authorities began to get creative.

Nevada became the easiest place in the US to get married, and, more importantly, to get a divorce. Prostitution was legalized on a county-by-county basis. And in 1931, so was gambling. You still might not want to live there, but many Americans decided these were excellent reasons to drop in for a visit.

Between them, the gangster movies Bugsy, The Godfather II and Casino take up the story, and help to explain how a small railroad town in the middle of nowhere became the self-styled 'Entertainment Capital of the World'.

"Running a casino is like robbing a bank with no cops around," Ace Rothstein (Robert De Niro) says in the Scorsese film. "For guys like me, Las Vegas washes away your sins. It's like a morality car wash."

You can see why Hollywood would be interested. This is the American Dream writ large: a hedonist's mirage in concrete, steel and flashing neon; the pursuit of happiness translated into endless banks of slot machines, each promising that elusive jackpot.

In the last year alone we've seen Lucky You, with Eric Bana romancing and ripping off Drew Barrymore to get into the World Series of Poker; Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd sampled the high life and compared chairs in Knocked Up; the city was home to Nic Cage as Frank Cadillac, a magician blessed with precognition in Next; and its most famous citizen, Howard Hughes, was the elusive subject of The Hoax, a true story about a fake autobiography. Danny Ocean and crew returned to the scene of the crime in Ocean's 13. Then there was Resident Evil: Extinction, which prophesized that the desert will reclaim the Strip, leaving Luxor's pyramid, Lady Liberty and The Eiffel Tower poking through the sand to remind us that, as the city's slogan puts it, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."

Tom Charity
Tom.charity@lovefilm.com

The Las Vegas Collection

Casino Vegas becomes the image for twentieth century excess in Scorsese's most severe gangster epic: "In Vegas, everybody's got to watch everybody else… And the eye in the sky is watching us all". Ocean's Eleven George Clooney et al decide to go for broke, robbing three casinos at once. The caper movie never looked more dapper. See also Ocean's Thirteen. Bugsy Benjamin Siegel (Warren Beatty) is the mobster who brings Hollywood to Vegas, naming his hotel "The Flamingo" in honour of his honey, Virginia Hill. Showgirls Paul Verhoeven's sleazefest became an unintentional camp classic, but it is still a more honest Vegas movie than most. Viva Las Vegas Old Swivel Hips (aka Lucky Jackson, aka Elvis) meets his match in "Rusty Martin", aka Ann Margaret. Rain Man In which a severely autistic Dustin Hoffman is introduced to blackjack by an opportunistic Tom Cruise. Swingers It's Vegas, baby! Vegas!!" Vince Vaughn revs up his pal Jon Favreau for a night of high rolling. Leaving Las Vegas Nicolas Cage won the Oscar for playing an alcoholic screenwriter whose mission in life is to drink himself to death.

The Cooler William H Macy is the unluckiest guy in the world - so unlucky he's paid to spread it around when a table gets too hot. Then he meets Maria Bello and things start to change… Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Gonzo journalism gets the Terry Gilliam treatment. Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, and madness in any direction. One from the Heart Coppola's underrated musical valentine. Teri Garr dreams of leaving Las Vegas with a lounge lizard, while Nastassja Kinski provides a little stardust for Frederic Forrest. Diamonds are Forever Ernst Blofeld attempts to take over the world from his base in Las Vegas. Sean Connery has other ideas. See also, Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery. The Godfather II In which Freddo (John Cazale) represents the Corleone clan out West - with unhappy results. Go A night of debauchery turns sour in this three-parter from Swingers director Doug Liman. Honeymoon in Vegas James Caan wins a week with Sarah Jessica Parker in a poker game, much to her fiancé Nic Cage's dismay. But it's the Elvis impersonators who steal the show. Lost in America that the casino gives it back as a publicity stunt.

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