13. Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

Hello hello Hello...

Sorry about the lack of movie posts... I have no excuses! Good thing I don't need them because this is not school. If this was school I couldn't say "DILDO" like I did right there for no reason without some kind of awkward repercussions.

That's why I don't go to school... because I want to say "dildo" whenever I please.

If that makes you uncomfortable... fuckin go to school or shit.

Leaving Las Vegas is my favorite movie. I do not say this jokingly, or in a "yeah yeah it's my favorite" type of way. It really is my favorite movie. Ever. Of all time.

It's about a man (Nic Cage) who goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death.

For me, this movie goes into several categories that other's don't ::

First :: It goes into the "If - It - Comes - On - I - Have - to - Watch - It - In - Its - Entirety - No - Matter - Who's - Dying/GivingBirth - Around - Me" category. There are others in this category -- just ask the dying -- but there aren't many.

Second :: The world stops turning when Leaving Las Vegas comes on. All other things become meaningless, like a previous life thought of in the midst of an acid trip -- there is only the present.

Third :: When the movie comes on, I always make it a point to be drinking hard liquor, without a mixer or chaser or any of that other "pussy-shit."

Fourth :: This movie is an event to me. A few months ago, I was at a loss for what myself and a friend should do while drinking our 40 ounces of malt liquor. As we sat in the car, drinking them, I realized Leaving Las Vegas was coming on television within the hour.

We drank through the movie in silence... with every scene becoming more and more inebriated... sinking deeper and deeper into the sad beauty of a man determined to die from the very substance that was so making us warm and delighted and dark and distant.

We took one smoke break, and had little to say... (40 ounce containers of malt liquor usually give me a lot to say, but) Nic Cage said it for me. Something along the lines of "damn, I like drinking..."

At one point his character says he forgets why he's drinking but knows he must continue. THIS is balls. This is a man with will power, with grace, with dignity.

His wife and child leave him, his work fires him. He cannot function in a normal society. So instead of getting help, instead of adjusting himself to society -- conforming to some place in which he is not welcome or wanted -- he makes his own rules. He burns most of his possessions and with a smile on his face, a bottle in his hand (and a shopping cart full in the car,) he drives to Vegas with the goal of dying... of drinking himself to death.

And it gets interesting where he meets a hooker named Sera... his "angel."

Obviously they fall in love. But, strong of a man as he is, he tells her his one rule :: "You can never tell me to stop drinking."

The pace of the movie is beautiful, the acting and characters perfectly caressed into something greater than a film, but an idea of life. Death and life are whatever we want them to be. If we want to die, we can. We can indulge to the fullest, as long as we know the consequences. And, maybe, if we welcome those consequences with open arms, we are doing the right thing for ourselves. Maybe we have to do it too much, take it too far, maybe even 'til death.

If Nic's character in this movie isn't "punk," I don't know what is.

There are basically two characters in the movie, which makes it even more amazing than it is so well acted through and through.

The soundtrack is incredible. And I don't usually say so about movies with saxophones and jazzy horns going in only a few parts.

It's also hilarious, as most good, horribly sad, depressing movies about drinking are.

"We do not kick the bar, we lean into the bar."

I also love this movie because fuck symbolism. Fuck analyzing what it all means. It all means nothing cause it's drunk and it wants to die. And it makes a rule and follows it and all you do is watch that rule be carried out -- What an amazing expedition to undertake as a film maker :: No real plot twists, no special effects or action sequences... only a simple idea... one that could have ended up as a stupid, horribly acted piece of trash.

Nicolas Cage is truly one-of-a-kind in this movie. This is the Cage we used to know. The Face-Off Cage. Drunk Cage... (he does play a great drinking man.)

And you'll notice in even his current films about the end of the world and such (why's he doin all these stupid ones lately?) he always seems to have a bit of a problem with the dranky danky. And always likes the hard stuff over beer.

You cant go wrong with this one. Take a seat, pour yourself a glass of bourbon (but have the bottle close by) and sink deeep into your seat. Time to watch a genius play a punk in one of my favorite films of all time.

relax,

Alec

Just watching the trailer gives me the tingles...