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Features: DVD, Aspect Ratio 1.95:1, Widescreen, Pan and Scan (TV Format), French, Spanish, Subtitled, Trivia, Trailers, Interactive Menu, Unrated
Best Actor Oscar winner Nicolas Cage and Best Actress Elisabeth Shue set the screen ablaze in this profoundly moving love story. Nominated for two additional Academy Awards--Best Director and Best Screnplay--this 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 professionalties 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 them forever. In the words of David Thompson of Los Angeles Magazine, Leaving Las Vegas is "a masterpeice".
Editor's Note
With LEAVING LAS VEGAS, director Mike Figgis spun critical gold out of what would appear to be a maudlin and hackneyed premise--a down-and-out drunk meets a hooker with a heart of gold. The reason for the film's success lies partly in its refusal to moralize, but mostly it is the strong performances of Nicholas Cage and Elisabeth Shue that make the story believable and poignant. Ben Sanderson (Cage) is a Hollywood screenwriter who has become an alcoholic. After being fired, he takes his severance pay to Las Vegas, where he plans to drink himself to death. There he meets Sera (Shue), a streetwise prostitute who responds both to Ben's wild antics and to his absolute gentleness. What Sera needs most is to be needed, and Ben needs her a lot. Figgis uses his whole bag of tricks--Sera talks to the camera, the exteriors are shot in grainy 16mm--but finally it is the perfectly-conceived relationship between these two wounded people that drew the rave reviews. The film was based on a novel by John O'Brien.
Plot Summary
An alcoholic movie executive who loses his wife, his family and his job decides to drive to Las Vegas and commit suicide by drinking himself to death in this acclaimed adaptation of the late John O'Brien's 1991 autobiographical novel. In Vegas, he meets a nearly equally pathetic young hooker and the two develop a strange, moving bond while waiting for him to die.
| Features | Region 1 Encoding |
| Special Features: Uncut, Unrated Version Featuring Explicit Footage Not Seen In Theatres, Trivia And Production Notes, Special 'Hidden Page' Menu Feature, Original Theatrical Trailer. |
| Keep Case |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
|  | Studio: MGM |
| Release Date: 9/7/2004 |
| Running Time: 111 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1995 | | Catalog ID: 906997 | | UPC: 00027616699725 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Academy Awards (1995) |  | Nicolas Cage, Winner, Best Actor |
| Memorable Quotes| "You can never, ever ask me to stop drinking."----Ben (Nicolas Cage), to Sera (Elizabeth Shue) |
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| | Professional Reviews | Rolling Stone
"...A uniquely hypnotic and haunting love story sparked by Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue at their career best..." 11/02/1995 p.74-76Sight and Sound
"...[Shue holds] her own against Cage, matching him in pain and desolation if not in intensity..." 01/01/1996 p.45 USA Today
"...Haunting....[Shue and Cage] are excellent..." -- 3 out of 4 stars 10/27/1995 p.2D Entertainment Weekly
"...[Cage's Academy] award was earned ten times over..." 06/07/1996 pp.66-7 Variety
"...Unrelenting in its vision, the artistic tour de force by director Mike Figgis is a descent into the abyss....Cage is in top form....Shue is equally skillful..." 09/18/1995 Los Angeles Times
"...Beautifully put together, sensitively acted by Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue, directed by Mike Figgis with assurance and style and making exceptional use of its musical score....So marvelously put together it's sure to have an effect..." 10/27/1995 p.F1 Chicago Sun-Times
"...LEAVING LAS VEGAS is one of the best films of the year....That such a film gets made is a miracle....It is a pure, grand gesture..." 11/10/1995 p.45 Uncut
"Mike Figgis' superb drama features the town as a corrosive backdrop to Nicolas Cage's self-destructive alcoholism." 07/01/2004 p.131 |
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