Leaving Las Vegas isn’t just one of the most powerful, memorable and striking films of ‘90s New Wave cinema; it’s also a haunting epitaph to John O’Brien and a brutally powerful exploration of addiction, unconditional love, beauty and pain.
As Nicolas Cage walked onto the stage at the 1996 Academy Awards to collect the Oscar for Best Actor, the recognition and praise Leaving Las Vegas had so rightly achieved were also clouded by the reality of the events preceding its release. Based on John O’Brien’s 1990 novel, Leaving Las Vegas would scoop a host of awards during 1996, yet its author was sadly absent. Having sold the rights to his novel, John O’Brien committed suicide a month shy of his 34th birthday in 1994.
O’Brien’s own battle with alcoholism sat at the heart of his novel, and the story of Ben Sanderson foreshadowed his own as he ended his life. Some have called Leaving Las Vegas O’Brien’s suicide note, and the novel indeed focused on his own demons and his addiction, but for me, ‘suicide note’ feels misplaced. By labelling Leaving Las Vegas in that way, we minimise the unconventional love story at its heart, one rooted in themes of unconditional acceptance, while equally relegating Sera’s story to the sidelines. For me, O’Brien was more interested in building understanding of addiction, and the power of acceptance and love, even when its arrival changes nothing, than in documenting his own pain and the reasons for his choices.
Brutal yet tender, and loving yet relentlessly sad, Leaving Las Vegas was a striking, shocking, and thoughtful enigma, one that director Mike Figgis would bravely bring to the screen in a movie that defies simple labels and analysis. Leaving Las Vegas is devastatingly vivid in its portrait of addiction, loneliness, sex and mortality, yet also strangely hopeful and loving in its depiction of unconditional acceptance and the need for human touch even when your mind is made up to end it all.
It’s a movie that demands that all individual judgment be set aside before viewing, then demands multiple viewings to pick out every small detail that was missed. It is a masterpiece of modern filmmaking, held aloft by the stunning performances of Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue, the expert direction of Figgis, the stunning cinematography of Declan Quinn, and the haunting vocals of Sting.
In Hollywood, a once successful screenwriter, Ben (Cage), is now drinking himself to death, having lost everything that once mattered to him. Ben knows his body will eventually fail, and he decides to leave his previous life behind him and move to Las Vegas, where he will die via drinking over the course of four or possibly five weeks. Meanwhile, on the Las Vegas Strip under the glow of neon lights, Sera (Shue) is earning her living under the sadomasochistic control of her pimp (the late, great Julian Sands), who is himself controlled by higher powers to whom he is indebted. It’s on the Strip that Sera meets Ben, who offers to pay her for a night at his motel.
It’s clear from the outset to Sera that Ben is an alcoholic, and he wouldn’t be the first to have paid her for sex. Yet as they arrive at the motel, the sideboard full of empty and full bottles, it becomes clear to Sera that Ben isn’t interested in sex. He simply wants her company and her unconditional acceptance as his body succumbs to the drink. That night is a meeting of two lost souls, both in need of a meaningful, non-judgmental connection, that will grow into a love bound by honesty and an acceptance of individual free will, no matter how painful that may be to watch unfold.
With an extremely modest budget of $4 million, Leaving Las Vegas was one of the New Wave of pioneering, low-budget films that shook up post-80s Hollywood, following movies like Sex, Lies, and Videotape, My Own Private Idaho, and Clerks. Shot on 16mm, Leaving Las Vegas, like My Own Private Idaho, which also utilised 16mm in some segments, carries an intimacy and realism that juxtapose the escapist neon glow of Vegas and its capitalist attractions, just as Idaho did the urban sprawl of Portland.
Speaking about Leaving Las Vegas ahead of its 4K release, Mike Figgis said, “I made Leaving Las Vegas because I wanted to. I wanted to re-engage with a darker, more truthful reality than was on offer within the Hollywood system. A dear friend (Stuart Regen) had found the book at a 2nd-hand store in Santa Monica, and it was he who optioned the story and gave it to me to read. It would be truthful to say that neither myself or the actors had any expectation of success; every studio had turned it down because it was ‘too dark’. I think we all did it because of the material, a chance to really get into something with substance and grit. I believe that success is always a combination of a number of chance possibilities. The Gods of cinema smiled on the film, and the audience received it with gratitude.”
Now, following its premiere in the Classics section at this year’s Berlinale, Studiocanal brings its lovingly restored 4K restoration of Mike Figgis’ film to home media, encouraging a whole new audience to bathe in its brutal yet tender, and loving yet relentlessly sad cinematic power. As Mike added when commenting on Studiocanal’s stunning 4K release, “I am immensely proud of the actors and the film and very happy to be able to share it with a new audience.” Leaving Las Vegas isn’t just one of the most powerful, memorable and striking films of ‘90s New Wave cinema; it’s also a haunting epitaph to John O’Brien and a brutally powerful exploration of addiction, unconditional love, beauty and pain.
Leaving Las Vegas is now available to buy on Studiocanal 4K UHD digital and Blu-ray.
Follow Us