Leaving Las Vegas

"I love you... The way you are."

1995 1h 51m EN

👍

7.2

SOLID

🔥

91%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.5

IMDB

★7.2TMDB · 1,728🍅91%Rotten Tomatoes●82Metacritic★7.5IMDB · 142,636

DramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.

“I love you... The way you are.”

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Cast

Nicolas Cage
Ben Sanderson
Elisabeth Shue
Sera
Julian Sands
Yuri
Richard Lewis
Peter
Steven Weber
Marc Nussbaum
Kim Adams
Sheila
Emily Procter
Debbie
Stuart Regen
Man At Bar

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Mike Figgis
Writers: Mike Figgis
Languages: English, Italian, Russian
Countries: France, United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.6M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $50M — a 13.8× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

31 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Italian, Russian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: France, United Kingdom.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Mike Figgis, shot by Declan Quinn. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Mike Figgis. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor John Smith shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Mike Figgis directs. Declan Quinn behind the camera. Mike Figgis scores. John Smith cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in France, United Kingdom. Dialogue in English, Italian, Russian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $3.6M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $50M — a 13.8× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
331 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Italian, Russian.
5International production across 2 countries: France, United Kingdom.
6Directed by Mike Figgis, shot by Declan Quinn. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Mike Figgis. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor John Smith shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue and Julian Sands carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "I love you... The way you are.".
11IMDB entry: tt0113627 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 20 themes, including "hotel room", "dying and death", "individual", "prostitute".

The technical file

Cinematography: Declan Quinn
Original score: Mike Figgis
Editing: John Smith
Production design: Waldemar Kalinowski
Makeup / hair: Kathryn Bihr
Stunt coordinator: Russell Towery
Runtime: 111 min · 1h 51m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $3,600,000
Box office: $49,800,000
Return: 1383% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Rotten Tomatoes: 91% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 82/100
IMDB rating: 7.5/10 · 142,636 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Won 1 Oscar. 32 wins & 30 nominations total

National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
Academy Award for Best Actor
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Mike Figgis

Stills · wallpapers

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2021-06-13
★ 6/10
Cage terminally drunk in Las Vegas with Elisabeth Shue and lots of jazz/blues An alcoholic in Los Angeles (Nicolas Cage) cashes out of the film industry and moves to Las Vegas to apparently drink himself to death. He meets a prostitute (Elisabeth Shue) with whom he has a welcome affinity and they develop a relationship of radical acceptance. "Leaving Las Vegas" (1995) is one of those downbeat realistic dramas about lost souls in hopeless dissolution. It’s well-done for what it is and Shue’s beauty is effectively showcased despite the unappealing nature of her profession. And I understand the message of “loving” acceptance with no questions. Although it could be argued that true love refuses to enable people to destroy themselves and holds them accountable to some reasonable degree. A guy who was my best friend 20 years ago developed an alcohol problem that became increasingly glaring. He died recently, but I didn’t see him for the last four years of his life because I refused to see someone drink themselves to death. The film runs 1 hour, 51 minutes, and was shot in the Los Angeles area (Burbank & Santa Monica) and Nevada (Las Vegas, Laughlin & Paradise). GRADE: B-/C+
Filipe Manuel Neto2023-05-20
★ 8/10
A dense film, difficult to see, but one that should be seen, especially by young people who think that getting drunk is relevant to a night of fun. This film is based on the true story of a man who lost his will to live after a complicated divorce and the end of his personal and professional life as he gave way to alcohol addiction. With no prospects of getting back on top, he decides to go to Las Vegas, the city of all sins in the USA, and drink everything he can until he ends his own life. In the meantime of these suicidal intentions, he meets a prostitute with whom he has a very complicated relationship because, deep down, she too walks her own path of self-destruction. The film is excellent, but it is deeply heavy, depressing, difficult to watch. In addition to taking us to the most negative and destructive side of alcoholism, it also shows us, without fear of shocking, how it can lead to death. That is, it shows us in very hard colors that drinking is an addiction, it is a serious problem and it can kill. It makes it clear that alcohol is not something that we can or should relativize, a punctual, occasional excess on Friday night. It is not something we should tolerate in the behavior of our children or family members. I say this at a time when drinking has become all too common, especially among young people, for whom getting drunk is a “sine qua non” condition for a night of fun. Anyone going to work the next morning can easily see young people, many of them women and looking as if they are not even 20 years old, sitting on the side of the sidewalk, next to nightclubs or bus stops, drunk or vomiting in scenes worthy of a pity that I refuse to feel because, after all, they wanted to stay that way. Many are Portuguese, but there are also many tourists who seem to come to my country because the law is more permissive than it should be. For me, who was brought up on the danger of addiction and only got seriously drunk once, it pains me to see how this youth considers excess fundamental in fun and I just hope, one day that I'm a father, I never have to go get one. child in such a state. I would be ashamed. This is one of the movies that made Nicholas Cage's career. The actor does a remarkable job, and if we think about the turn that his life and career would later take, it's really a shame that he couldn't maintain this level. It's hard to see the way he gives his character all the elements to capture our sympathy as she slides down a path of no return. Elizabeth Shue, who gave life to the prostitute, also does a job full of merits, even if her character is much more conventional. After all, it is not the first time, nor the last, that the cinema has met a prostitute with feelings. There is a love story between the two characters, that is undeniable, but we can question to what extent it is really believable, since love is never used to redeem or grant the characters a path of salvation, a way out of the life of addiction and destruction they are in. And to some extent, even if this is rehearsed, such an option is largely rejected, especially by the character of Cage, who seems determined to die. Technically, the film has several points of merit, especially with regard to cinematography and editing. The film was very well filmed, it uses light and shadow very well to thicken the whole environment of degradation in which the characters move, with the bright lights of the casinos working, almost, like the bright flame that attracts the moths to their death and perdition. It is in this environment that we see the characters live the only scenes of pleasure and relaxation, which only serve to keep pushing them to the bottom of the well. Very well edited, the film doesn't waste time with things that don't matter, it maintains a very pleasant pace and provides two hours that leave us thinking.
CinemaSerf2024-04-08
★ 7/10
Is there any profession portrayed in cinema more likely to be an obnoxious alcoholic than an Hollywood screen writer? Well that's what "Ben" (Nicolas Cage) is and when he gets fired after one too many absences and foul-mouthed outbursts, he takes his redundancy cheque and his BMW and heads to Vegas. He doesn't have a plan, except perhaps to drink himself into a stupor from which he won't wake up. Meantime, we've met hooker "Sera" (Elisabeth Shue) who has a rather brutal relationship with her flaky pimp "Yuri" (Julian Sands) and works the Strip looking for high rollers to seduce. They meet in a casino and quickly conclude that there might be an element of safety, certainly sanity, in numbers and are soon living together platonically. What now ensues illustrates the perils for both as they continue down paths that seem destined to lead to self-destruction. "Sera" exposing herself to dangers every time she goes to work whilst "Ben" showers with two bottles of vodka to contain his increasingly dominant shakes. The soundtrack does much to help set the mood here, as these two people gradually fall in love - but it's not a sentimental love. It comes across more as a growing inter-dependency fuelled by affection and a desire to look out for each other - however doomed to failure we might anticipate that to be. Cage is on great form here, he really does carry of the role skilfully and plausibly - but I think Shue takes more of the plaudits for me. She allows her essentially quite decent character to thrive and to grow, demonstrating quite a degree of humanity even when faced with brutality and humiliation on a fairly regular basis. She also manages to give us a sense of a woman who is trying to escape but just doesn't know how. Mike Figgis keeps the pace taut and effective and with both on solid form with an actually quite emotional story, this is well worth two hours.