LEAVING LAS VEGAS (1995) HONEST MOVIE REVIEW | FILMY DUNIYA

oh this movie is so sad
it is sad not because of the tragic
lives
of its characters but because of their
goodness
and their charity what moves me the most
in movies is not when something bad
happens but when characters act
unselfishly
in leaving las vegas a man loses his
family
and begins to drink himself to death
he goes to vegas and there on the street
he meets a hooker who takes him
and cares for him and he calls her his
angel but he doesn’t stop drinking
the man’s name is ben nicolas cage
the woman’s name is sarah elijah’s shoe
you will not see two better performances
midway in the film someone offers ben
the insight that his drinking is a way
of
killing himself he smiles and of
offers a correction killing myself
is a way of drinking at one point after
it is clear that
sarah really cares for him he tells her
you can never ever ask me to stop
drinking she replies in a little voice
i know the movie is not about
alcoholism it is about great
sad passion of the sort celebrated
in operas like

la boheme
it takes place in bus and dreary
rented rooms and the kind of vegas
poverty
that includes a parking space and the
use of the pool
the practical details are not quite
realistic
it would be hard to drink as much as
ben drinks and remain conscious
and it is unlikely an intelligent
prostitute
would allow him into her life we brush
those
objections aside because they have
nothing to do with
the real subject of this movie
which is that we must feel sad
for one another and be gentle
the movie works as a love story but
really
romance is not the point here any more
than
sexes the story is about two wounded
desperate marginal people and how they
create for each other a measure of grace
one sin after another finds the right
note
if there are two unplayable roles in the
stock
reportery they are the drunk and the
hookah
with a heart of gold nicolas cage
and elijah’s shoe make these clinches
into unforgettable people
nicolas cage’s drunkenness is inspired
in part
by a performance he studied
albert finnish alcoholic console
in under the volcano you sense an
observant intelligence peering from
inside the drunken man
seeing everything clearly and sadly
and elizabeth’s shoes prostitute is
however the crucial role
because sarah is the one with the choice
she sees ben clearly and decides
to stick with him for the rest of her
life
when he lets her down badly toward the
end of the movie
she goes out and does something that no
hookers should do
gets herself into a mortal room with a
crowd of
drunken college boys and we see
how she needed ben because he
desperately
needed to do something good for somebody
he was her redemption and when it seems
he scorns her gift she
punishes herself leaving las vegas
is one of the best films of the decade
deserving many academic awards and
nominations that such a film
gets made is a magic one can
see how this material could have been
softened and compromised
and that would have been wrong it is a
pure
dan gesture that he is an alcoholic
and sea walks the streets are simply the
turnings
they have taken underneath their
occupations
and their souls and because ben
essentially has given up on his
the film becomes sarah’s story
about how even in the face of certain
defeat we
can at least insist on loving
and keep trying that is the message
this film gives us
so i would recommend everyone to see
this movie
and giving it 8 stars out of 10.

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