| Leaving Las Vegas | 
 enlarge | Actors: Kim Adams, Graham Beckel, Shashi Bhatia, Nicolas Cage, Valeria Golino
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
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Avg. Customer Rating:  162 reviews
Sales Rank: 9479
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 111
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 2
Picture Format: Array
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: D906997D
ISBN: 0792838068
UPC: 276166997250
EAN: 9780792838067
ASIN: 0792838068
Theatrical Release Date: October 27, 1995
Release Date: January 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
One of the most critically acclaimed films of 1995, this wrenchingly sad but extraordinarily moving drama provides an authentic, superbly acted portrait of two people whose lives intersect just as they've reached their lowest depths of despair. Ben (Nicolas Cage, in an Oscar-winning performance) is a former movie executive who's lost his wife and family in a sea of alcoholic self-destruction. He's come to Las Vegas literally to drink himself to death, and that's when he meets Sera (Elisabeth Shue), a prostitute who falls in love with him--and he with her--despite their mutual dead-end existence. They accept each other as they are, with no attempts by one to change the other, and this unconditional love turns Leaving Las Vegas into a somber yet quietly beautiful love story. Earning Oscar nominations for Best Director (Mike Figgis), Best Adapted Screenplay (Figgis, from John O'Brien's novel) and Best Actress (Shue), the film may strike some as relentlessly bleak and glacially paced, but attentive viewers will readily discover the richness of these tragic characters and the exceptional performances that bring them to life. (In a sad echo of his own fiction, novelist John O'Brien committed suicide while this film was in production.) The DVD features uncut, unrated footage that was not included in the film's theatrical release. --Jeff Shannon
Description
Best Actor OscarA(r) winner* Nicolas Cage and Best Actress nominee* Elisabeth Shue set the screen ablaze in this profoundly moving love story. Nominated* for two additional Academy AwardsA(r)Director and Adapted Screenplaythis emotionally charged powerhouse of a film graced over 100 10 Best Lists including Roger Ebert's #1 Movie of the Year. Ben Sanderson (Cage) is a career alcoholic who has hit rock bottom. Trashing all personal and professional ties to his L.A. existence, he sets off for the lights of Vegas on a mission: to drink himself to death. There he meets Sera (Shue), a beautiful, seen-it-all hooker. From the moment Ben and Sera connect, they form a unique bond based upon unconditional acceptance and mutual respect that will change each of themforever. In the words of David Thompson of Los Angeles Magazine, Leaving Las Vegas is a masterpiece. *1995
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| Customer Reviews: Read 157 more reviews...
 It may go down smooth, but it burns when it hits your heart... August 4, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I just want to say this right off the bat; I honestly think that 1995 has seriously got to be one of the greatest years of film in recent history. There are just so many cinematic gems to be found within that particular year, and `Leaving Las Vegas' is truly one of them. I will admit that I was skeptical at first. I am not a fan of Nicholas Cage, not in the least. He is a very mannered, `actorly' type of an actor; you know the type that always appears to be acting. I prefer my actors to sink into the rawness of their roles. Look at Crowe for instance, a chameleon type actor who never seems to be acting as much as he is simply `being'. That, and it also seems very hard for Cage to emote any fluctuation in emotion; he just comes off one note. I adored him in `Matchstick Men', a film that embellished his mannerisms and made them work to his advantage; and I loved him in `Adaptation', a performance that he openly attests to his going contrary to everything he's build his acting career on. In other words, he played the character as if he was a different actor, and it worked beautifully.
Those two stellar performances aside and Nicholas Cage is a mediocre at best actor in my eyes. So you can understand why watching yet another Cage film was not really that appealing to me.
Well, I'll just say that I am extremely glad that I decided to give it a go.
`Leaving Las Vegas' is responsible, not only for Cage's finest performance, but is honestly his finest film; ever. Yes, it is bleak and depressing and ultimately heartbreaking, but it is so emotionally connected without being overly sappy and or too heavy handed.
As a quick side point, that is another wonderful thing about the films of 1995; they are truly effecting without being spoonfuls of sympathy. Films like `Leaving Las Vegas' and the overwhelmingly fantastic `Dead Man Walking' are able to crawl inside the viewer and grab hold of their beating heart with a realness and rawness that reflects real life and not Hollywood's overly saccharine fabrication of it.
Anyways; back to the film. `Leaving Las Vegas' centers on a relationship that forms between as alcoholic mess of a man named Ben and a `hooker with a heart' named Sera. Ben has lost everything to his drinking, or is it that he starting drinking because he lost everything...either way, he has nothing except the bottle and so he decides to cash out all his savings and put himself up in Vegas to drink himself to death. The end looks gloomy and bitter for Ben, but he winds up meeting Sera and things start to change for him. Sera is tired and lonely and just needs someone to talk to, and when Ben pays her to just sit and talk she realizes that she needs him as much as he needs her. He tells her his plan and warns her not to try and ask him to change, that he will never stop drinking, and she allows herself to comply because she needs to be with him, but as they come closer with one another her love for Ben starts to tear away at her commitment to him.
It feels weird for me to say this, but the strongest facet of this film is the acting. Cage embodies Ben with such rawness and accuracy. I remember when I watched Meg Ryan devour her character in `When a Man Loves a Woman'; how she really soaked up her characters addiction. That is what Cage does here. His shakes and stutters and tantrums are so real, so believable and ultimately so heart wrenching. As good (or even great) as Cage is, Elizabeth Shue is a revelation.
Another quick side point about 1995 in general; it was truly an astonishing year for leaving ladies. The entire Oscar shortlist is beyond compare when stacked up against their usual picks for each and every performance nominated is worthy, even if I would replace one or two. Shue, Sarandon, Streep, Thompson, Stone...all of them are flawless and deserving of an Oscar (especially Shue and Sarandon) but there was Kidman in `To Die For' and even Silverstone in `Clueless' (such a fantastic comedic performance). I mean really, 1995 is above and beyond stellar.
Sorry bout that. Back to the film, or more importantly, back to Shue. Elizabeth Shue is not my favorite actress either. She is decent, but hardly ever mind blowing. I think that is what makes her performance all the more unbelievable good. As Sera, Shue captures the fading light in her eyes that starts to shine brighter when she finds Ben. In Ben she sees someone that needs her, and I mean really needs her. She is used to having men `need' her in ways that degrade her, but Ben truly `needs' her and that truth fleshes out the real woman that is Sera. Her performance is a true `tour-de-force' if I ever saw one and unbelievable moving and touching.
In its final frames `Leaving Las Vegas' attacks the viewer and strips them so-to-speak of everything they have inside. The film is a tragic yet beautifully accurate representation of the disease that is alcoholism and the effect it has on a human spirit. Contrary to `When a Man Loves a Woman'; a film that sported a fabulous performance yet fell into the trap of Hollywood induced cliches, `Leaving Las Vegas' allows the bleak realities of human tragedy to ring true, and the effect it a much further reaching and effecting film. In the end, Ben finally leaves Las Vegas, but Las Vegas will never leave us.
kling klang king of the rim ram room August 1, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Leaving Las Vegas is an Oscar winning movie that takes what should be repulsive material and spins it into gold. The story is about an alcoholic who goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death, and while there he forges a strong relationship with a prostitute. Nicolas Cage won the Oscar for this role, and he really deserved it. Sometimes he makes you laugh with his drunken antics, but often times you absolutely cringe. His drunken attempts at picking up women in bars are really pathetic. The woman reel away from the stench of his breath, and you can almost smell it yourself.
Ben Sanderson: I don't know if my wife left me because of my drinking or I started drinking 'cause my wife left me.
Elisabeth Shue also turns in the role of a lifetime. She has her own esteem issues, to be sure. At one point, she admits that she is only using him. Ben and Sera have an intense relationship where the only rules are, no matter what, Sera can't ask Ben to stop drinking. She knows he is trying to kill himself, but she has to accept that. She buys him clothes and lets him move in with her. She tries to feed him plain rice, but throughout the film, he never eats anything. Apparently a symptom of acute alcoholism, in the advance stages they can't keep any food down. When she prepares him plain rice, a bland dish that she hopes he can handle, he only eats an ice cube with his chopsticks.
Sera: Don't you like me, Ben?
Ben Sanderson: Sera... what you don't understand is - no, see, no. You can never, never ask me to stop drinking. Do you understand?
Sera: I do. I really do.
Cage doesn't hold back one bit, and takes his character over the edge of the abyss. At one point he watches a stripper and chugs a pint of liquor. The raunchy jazz on the soundtrack seems to imply that he is playing a strange reverse solo on his bottle. The shock of so much alcohol to his system makes the sound drop away. He is in his own world, like a near death experience where he is crawling towards the light...
Sera: How do you feel?
Ben Sanderson: Like the kling klang king of the rim ram room.
Shue for some reason really impressed me the most when she was embarrassed and shamed by Ben's drunken antics. In one mishap he falls smack down on a glass table while lounging by a pool in a desert motel.
Ben Sanderson: Look at me... I'm a prickly pear.
When the innkeeper lady comes out to sweep up the glass she thinks she can charm her way out of it, but is told to go to her room, and in the morning, to check out and never return. Not quite as drunk as Ben, she is still capable of shame. She can also be hurt by him, as when she goes out working, and Ben gambles and takes a hooker back to her room. The look on her face when she returns is so poignant.
Sera: What's up?
Ben Sanderson: I was looking for you tonight. I don't know if you've a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, but I thought maybe we could get some dinner.
You have two extremely powerful performances here, Cage and Shue, or rather Ben and Sera, are two messed up people, but this is also a tender love story. There is a lot of great jazz on the soundtrack, like for instance Sting does the ballads Angel Eyes and My One and Only Love. The former was a favorite of Ella Fitzgerald, while the latter was featured on the Coltrane and Johnny Hartman collaboration. The music is at times cheesy, but intentionally so. Perfect for the Las Vegas casino vibe. Other times sophisticated, funky, or even almost angelic in some of the later scenes of transcendence. Director Mike Figgis is a musician, and he also composed the score, as well as playing keyboards and trumpet on it. Not only that, he pulls a Hitchcock with a cameo, playing a mobster who passes Ben in the hallway, perhaps on his way to execute Sera's pimp. He is really a renaissance man, that Mike Figgis. In at least two scenes taxis are shown with an advertisement on the roof hoarding depicting a brand called "Red Mullet" - the name of director Mike Figgis's production company and it's his face in the ad.
Sera: Is drinking a way of killing yourself?
Ben Sanderson: Or, is killing myself a way of drinking?
John O'Brien, the writer, perhaps didn't actually do all the things that Ben, the character in his book did, but he did commit suicide about two weeks after the film began production. Director Mike Figgis contemplated abandoning the project, but decided the film would make a good memorial for O'Brien. Did he drink himself to death? Perhaps it is just morbid curiosity on my part, but apart from how much of John O'Brien may or may not be in his character Ben, it is a very compelling narrative. O'Brien's prose has been compared to Charles Bukowski or Larry Brown.
Sera: That's nice talk, Ben - keep drinking. Between the 101-proof breath and the occasional bits of drool, some interesting words come out.
I haven't read the book, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the book was much better than the film. However, the film was good enough to win several Oscars and nominations, in spite of the ugly subject matter. It told the story very well in cinematic terms. There are lots of beautiful shots; the neon lights of Vegas never looked prettier. There is a shot filmed underwater where Ben drinks from a bottle of beer even though he is submerged. The best shower scenes since Psycho, where Ben and Sera both are trying to cleanse themselves from some gut wrenching scene of defilement. Ben even showers with not one but two bottles of liquor.
Sera: So why are you a drunk?
Ben Sanderson: Why am I a drunk? Is that really what you wanna ask me?
Sera: Yes.
Ben Sanderson: Well, then, this is our first date, or our last. Until now I wasn't sure it was either.
Does it glorify alcoholism? I don't really think it does that at all. It is really horrendous and the downward spiral a pathetic tragedy. If anything is glorified, it is the spirit and love of the two main characters in spite of some serious character flaws.
Ben Sanderson: I came here to drink myself to death.
Sera: How long will it take you?
Ben Sanderson: I'd say about three to four weeks.
SELECTED FILMS AND ROLES OF NICOLAS CAGE
Ghost Rider (Widescreen Edition) (2007) .... Johnny Blaze / Ghost Rider
Adaptation (Superbit Collection) (2002) .... Charlie Kaufman / Donald Kaufman
Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) .... Jack Singer
Wild At Heart (1990) .... Sailor Ripley
Raising Arizona (1987) .... H.I. McDunnough
Valley Girl (1983) .... Randy
FILMS FOR COMPARISON
Into the Wild (2007)
Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
LAS VEGAS THEME IN OTHER FILMS
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Viva Las Vegas (1964)
Casino (1995)
Showgirls (1995)
 The obviousness of the plot made me less sad - 3.5 stars July 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Cage and Shue perform wonderfully together and with deep respect for their characters' loneliness and vortex of loss. The movie succeeds both as a love story and a tragedy. All of it is summed up when Ben (Cage) looks up to Sera (Shue) and says, "You can never, never ask me to stop drinking. Do you understand?" Ben's face captures the certainty of the proximity of his mortality and the eternity of his sadness: This is not an overstatement. The movie is that sad.
Yet I am annoyed by the mediocre production of such a great story. The editing is odd and renders a choppy, far too predictable plot. For a sad movie to work completely, something at least must remain unexpected. Likewise, the viewer cannot totally be absorbed by the film, because there is too much movement between the action of the present and that of the future. Usually, such movements build the drama rather than act as tangents. It feels thrown together at times. Not only that, but the viewer goes many minutes without hearing from one of the main characters, Ben. Sure, he's off drinking somewhere, but where? And what does it look like again? Show us! Some of the expendable characters' stories detract rather than add to the film. What is the point of Yuri (Julian Sands), Sera's pimp, in the long run? He takes up too much time in the film and eventually he and his story leave the film entirely. And Dennis Miller's face atop every taxi is just distracting.
Why does nearly every female character either look like, act like, or actually is a prostitute? The only female voice of reason in the film is a fed up hotel manager.
In the end, the movie can't decide if it is Ben's or Sera's story, yet I suspect that we are to think of the story as hers. I generally forgive the film its faults, but I'm just not as sad as I know I could be had the film been better produced.
Kudos to Cage and Shue.
Overrated acting May 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was shocked that Nicholas Cage actually won a Best Actor award for his performance in this film. Cage is not a very strong actor and all he did was simply act drunk throughout the entire film; 1995 most have been a pretty slow year. The screenplay wasn't bad although it was a little cheesy. Worth renting, but not buying.
 Overrated in the extreme May 7, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Leaving Las Vegas was a movie that seemed like it wanted to be a romance featuring scarred characters with fatal flaws but ended up falling in love with little more than its soundtrack. A really good movie does fall in love with its characters, creating people that we can care about, and in this film, only Sera, played brilliantly by Elizabeth Shue, won my affection. Basically, it's the story about an alcoholic named Ben (played by Nicholas Cage, who is either very very good, or very very bad) who goes to Vegas to drink himself to death. He meets Sera, a broken woman who hooks for a living. They begin a relationship based on pure need and loneliness.
I expected, from what the critics had to say, a really sad, beautifully rendered film. Instead I got this nihilistic clap-trap that glorifies drinking and treats women in a most contemptible fashion - every single woman in this film is inexplicably blonde and either a hooker, a long-suffering secretary, a ditzy bank teller, and on and on it goes (or else we have Shue's suspicious brunette landlady - ah, women as hair color!). There is a very meaningless, gratuitous rape scene, and it is hard not to notice that Ben really offers Sera nothing but more heartache - he can't even rouse himself to really care about the bruises on her face after this horrible rape scene. Because the truth is, he is only in love with the bottle.
Hollywood seems to enjoy, as other people have mentioned, putting its actors through the goriest of paces. I recommend this film only if you want to see a great performance by Shue and hear some wistful, romantic songs by Sting. There's also some lovely cinematography.
Otherwise, it's definitely overrated, and there is nothing beautiful about it - these characters never truly connect, which is the pay-off I was seeking when I ordered it. Instead, you get a woman still broken - at least Shue is amazing.
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