By Robert Scucci
| Published
They say, “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” and this statement is especially true if you’re Nicolas Cage’s Ben Sanderson from 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas. In case you’re wondering what exact movie trailers are referring to when they say “Academy Award Winner, Nicolas Cage,” it’s this masterpiece of self-destruction, and for very good reason. Convincingly portraying a suicidal alcoholic who moves to the Sin City for the sole purpose of drinking himself to death, Cage prepared for his role by going on a two-week bender in Dublin, Ireland while having his every move filmed so he could research the movements and speaking patterns of a problem drinker before filming commenced.
While I can’t say that it’s the most intense form of method acting I’ve ever heard of because getting a stamp on your passport and getting absolutely turned up for a fortnight doesn’t sound like a bad way to spend your time, it’s clear that Cage approached his research as intensely as possible, with is par for the course if you’re more than familiar with his staggering body of work.
What A Way To Go Out
After getting fired from his job as a Hollywood screenwriter for his excessive drinking, Ben Sanderson accepts a hefty severance check from his boss – who truly liked having him around, but had no choice but to let him go – and decides to move to Las Vegas. Through Leaving Las Vegas’ opening montage, we bear witness to one of Ben’s many dangerous drinking binges as he stumbles from bar to liquor store, and drives recklessly while taking heroic swigs from liquor bottles that will make you gag when thinking of how badly his esophagus is taking a beating.
Despite Ben’s tragic behavior, he comes off as a sympathetic character in Leaving Las Vegas because he’s clearly a lost soul who’s ready to let the habit that ruined his life deliver its final death blow. Early in the film, he pours out his heart and soul to a disinterested prostitute, stating that “I don’t know if I started drinking ‘cause my wife left me or my wife left me ‘cause I started drinking, but f*ck it anyway.” But this moment of inebriated introspection is irrelevant because we’re not focusing on Ben’s life before moving to Vegas; we’re focusing on how he plans to leave the city in a body bag if he could help it.
It Takes Two To Tango
As Ben continues to spiral in Leaving Las Vegas, he approaches a sex worker named Sera (Elisabeth Shue), a woman who lives a self-destructive lifestyle herself, as she works for a dangerous Latvian pimp named Yuri (Julian Sands) who threatens her life on more than one occasion. The two wounded souls form a relationship based on the foundation of not judging, but rather accepting, each other’s lifestyles, and Ben making Sera promise to never ask him to stop drinking. Their relationship, while volatile for obvious reasons, plays out like two people trying to cling onto a sliver of happiness even though they both know they will never see a happy ending given their circumstances.
Forcing Emotions On The Viewer
Shot entirely with a super 16mm camera, Nicolas Cage’s performance in Leaving Las Vegas is authentic and harrowing, and it’s clear that his early research ahead of production is one of the many reasons he bagged an Academy Award for his performance.
Between Ben Sanderson’s varying states of inebriation, his blackouts, and his drunken fantasies at any given point in the film, it becomes increasingly difficult to put together a timeline of drunken events for most of his nights, which is supplemented by breaking away from his perspective and showing us what Sera, and the rest of the world, is seeing as he drinks with suicidal intent.
Knowing how fragile her partner is, Sera always reassures Ben that the previous night – that he often doesn’t remember at all – wasn’t too bad, even though he would typically have violent episodes that would get the couple banned from whatever venue they were occupying.
As Leaving Las Vegas works through its second and third acts, we learn just how dangerous it is to get romantically involved with somebody who won’t live through Christmas because they don’t want to.
A Powerhouse Odyssey Of Self Destruction Streaming On Max
Leaving Las Vegas is a difficult film to watch, but it offers a unique blend of perspectives through its visual dialogue. Not only does the viewer get to watch two tragic figures fall apart from their own unique perspectives, but at times we’re also given a fly-on-the-wall viewpoint that tries to make sense of their relationship with a level of objectivity that makes their relationship all the more tragic.
Considering both Ben and Sera’s emotional states throughout Leaving Las Vegas, you want there to be a happy ending, but you’re given enough context to know that the very notion of “happily ever after” is downright impossible.
As of this writing, you can stream Leaving Las Vegas on Max.
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