NO DICE

Your cover story paean to the “saint” of cinema, Martin Scorsese, was incredibly depressing (“The Wisest Guy,” by Jack Mathews, Nov. 19).

I had hopes that Scorsese had turned his career around with the artistic triumph of “The Age of Innocence,” but now in “Casino” he has once again descended into the muck. It’s more torture for his disciples, who believe movies have to be painful to have meaning. A virtual replay of the sickening violence in “GoodFellas,” with the one new wrinkle being that the talentless Sharon Stone gets to be as psycho as the rest of the boys.

Oh yes, Scorsese has also returned to his use of religious names, quotations and allusions, but since as in previous pictures they have no relevance to the story they seem a pretentious gesture. He thinks he’s turning out deeply religious parables, but what he’s really giving us is recycled sadomasochistic trash. Scorsese basically turns out slice-and-dice flicks for pseudo-intellectuals.

DAN O’NEILL

Los Angeles