| 1995 Mike Figgis | Leaving Las Vegas (Film Review)
On April 10, 1994, 33-year-old John O'Brien shot himself in his apartment in Beverly Hills. Two weeks ago, he had just learned that his only published novel, Leaving Las Vegas, was set to be made into a movie. Later, this desperate love story about two wandering lonely souls won Oscar recognition for Nicolas Cage, who played the male lead, and also left a great film work for film history. But as O'Brien's father said, the film is simply a diary of his son's last days, and if you see O'Brien's picture, you will understand why director Mike Figis chose Cage to play the role of Ben.
Cage plays Ben, a former hollywood screenwriter who was depressed and eventually lost his job due to alcoholism. So he sold his house, left his original life, decided to buy as much wine as possible, and drank himself completely in Las Vegas.
Sarah, played by Elizabeth Sue, is a prostitute who shuttles from casino to casino, often beaten by pimps and humiliated by customers. One is desperate for life, the other is dying in despair to make a living, late at night in Las Vegas, Ben meets Sarah, and sarah's surprise is that this man only hopes that she can talk to him at night and do nothing until his chronic suicide plan is successful. For Ben, Sarah is the warmest sunshine in the last days of his life, and Sarah is touched by Ben's gentleness, purity, and must insist that Ben live with herself, she hopes that the big boy can get out of the haze and stop drinking. At this time, the most core tragedy of the film is born, Sarah is beautiful, a kind woman who makes people love, she is good, but not good enough to prevent Ben from leaving this world. The only few arguments between the two were about Ben's alcoholism, which Sarah wanted to stop, but for Ben, it was his way out of the world, and no one could stop him. Eventually Sarah receives a call from Ben, who by the time he arrives, has completed his plan, chokes up and says "You are my angel" to Sarah, and leaves the world in her company.
From the perspective of existentialism, man's existence itself is nothing, full of coincidences and disorder. One of the great things about this film is that it gives the meaning of nothingness and greatness, and every existence has a reason, behind every seeming emptiness, carnival, erosion, is often the loneliness that goes deep into the marrow and the despair of the world's powerlessness. Cage plays Ben who is intelligent, charismatic, and sometimes even simply like a child, with the most primitive good intentions and the most direct chaos and disorder, while in another sense, he is also conceited and selfish. Sarah obviously has a life that is several times sadr than Ben, but when facing Ben, she wants to grab him and save him again and again, only because Ben gave her the warmest light under the cold winter. For Sarah, he can do whatever he wants, as long as he can live, but for Ben, the days in Las Vegas are only regrets, or good, or even carnival, because for him every minute and every second is the last time in his life. Lonely people, the most painful for another lonely person, but in the end, some people only see regrets, some people can not wait for beauty. Under the neon lights of Las Vegas, there have been two abandoned "children", they are deeply in love with each other, she accompanied him to the end, the last journey.
But Sarah didn't feel any future at all, because before that moment came—before her mind was filled with his words, before his prophecy sounded—she had no idea what would happen in the future. Everything became clear, how his life was more thoughtful than hers; how he knew the trick she couldn't do; and how she would fall in love with him again and again for the rest of her life. This is part of the penultimate paragraph from the novel Leaving Las Vegas, when Sarah already knows that Ben beside her is dead. Whenever I read this, I will feel that the person who can write this passage must be a simple fool, and only such a fool can have such a vision of love and lover. The author incorporates many of his emotions into ben's character, which may also be his imagination of the future of those who love him after suicide. Staying in the hearts of others may really be a very meaningful thing for them.
However, there are not many simple fools in this world, everything is teaching us how to become smart and sophisticated, so we will be sad and sad, after all, there is one less such fool, and it is difficult to have a second. How stupid he is about love, how simple he is about the world, and how simple he is about the world, how desperate he will be. Unfortunately, we are not gods, we can't stop anything, we can't keep anything, and in the end there are only moments and memories, and there is a quiet daze after the end.