MovieChat Forums > Leaving Las Vegas (1996) Discussion > Oh boy, who would EVER want to hang arou...

Oh boy, who would EVER want to hang around such a drunk?!!!!!

posted 10 years ago by al666940-3
7 replies | jump to latest

I can believe a lot of thing from the movie:
- A clearly high-end call girl with no better options than working the streets unprotected (please, pimps would be fighting over her and more than one previous rich old client would be looking to marry her or hire her on a permanent basis).
- A guy who for no good reason after one crack in a clearly great hull (seems to have a great live, only thing the wife left with the kid) decides, just like that, to commit suicide by drinking. Don't tell me he only wants to drink and not suicide, otherwise why burn all his documentation and ensuring he can't possibly have any sort of life once his money runs out? Clearly he's decided to burn any and all bridges. A drunk who juts wants to go on drinking does not do that (he'll do whatever is necessary to enable his vice, and that includes earning a paycheck)
- The whore with heart of gold.
- The drunk who looks great until he drops dead

But I just can't understand one thing:
- WHY does she decide to hang around him?!!!!

He's clearly self destructing and doesn't give two craps about anyone except himself (driving drunk). That alone killed any sympathy I could ever have for him.

I mean, what does he bring to the table exactly?
- Looks (do I need to say anything)?
- Money (he got her in trouble with Yuri for spending all the night for merely an hour's salary)?
- Stability (he disrupted her business and burned her at the casino)?
- A home (she took him him)?
- Acceptance (easy to accept anything from a smoking hot woman who's screwing you and hosting you for free)?

He doesn't even bring relaxation and ease. Remember his meltdown at the casino. That cost Sera a great deal of business.

So what exactly did she get out of him that she couldn't get from literally any creep in front and behind Cage on the road when they bumped together?!!!!!

Even Yuri (the pimp of all people), with his abuse and violence brought much more to the table:
- High end clients
- A safe work environment for Sera
- Protection from police and casino security
- He gives her his money and warns her off when realizing he's a dead man to ensure she escapes unharmed.

I bet you dollars to doughuts 99 out of 100 call girls would choose Yuri over Ben in a split second, even of the price tag included a sliced butt cheek.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] DaveBowman2001 8 years ago

Agree with OP too. No empathy or sympathy for the main character and never understood why she hung around him. She didn't even try to save him in the end. I've known some alcoholics and never found any of them (known or on TV/news) to be sympathetic characters. If he just wanted to die, he should have bought a gun or pills..could have made for a shorter movie. I saw this in the theater and I kept thinking "Get on with it already and kill yourself, this sucks".

[–] wylierichardson-966-922691 9 years ago

Keep in mind that LLV wasn't meant to be a 'realistic' story, more of a conceptual one, the concept of two (mostly) dysfunctional people who manage to take a stab at a (mostly) functional love affair.

[–] WhenGreyjoysCry 9 years ago

I imagine it is really difficult to grasp the greatness of many movies (not just LLV), when you can only interpret the world in such a literal fashion.

[–] CasseroleWorshipper 9 years ago

Quite frankly, he did seem like an interesting thoughtful guy to hang around with. There are only one or two scenes in the film that shows that he can be harmful while drunk.

[–] yajji 8 years ago

I don't know, some people can be very self-destructive in who they chose to love. Sera knew Ben was not good for her, but she took the risks anyway and continued seeing him. She was attracted to his openness and his refusal to pretend things were ok. He made no secret these were his final days, and she could take him or leave him. I guess she was drawn to the sincerity.

[–] mitzibishi 8 years ago

A guy who for no good reason after one crack in a clearly great hull (seems to have a great live, only thing the wife left with the kid) decides, just like that, to commit suicide by drinking

maybe you don't understand what an alcoholic is. I had a friend who was one. no matter what you did as a friend he just wanted to drink and it didn't matter if it destroyed his life or any others around him.

This particular one just wanted to drink and destroy his life.

Maybe you cannot envision it but in some cases this may happen. But because you don't get to hear about them on news media or broadcasted on social media, snapchat or fakebook, instagram they don't happen in your world.

I know that most social media is narcissism but this is narcissism on a different plane entirely which is driven by a different addiction compared to the addiction of gaining cyber attention by taking selfies and mugging up to your mobile phone camera or even begging for sympathy due to your own (soft)hardships or slights in this world.