Themes
Leaving Las Vegas is a bittersweet love story of dependence and obsession. Ben and Sera build their relationship on the foundation that neither of them can change who they are if they are going to continue pursuing a life together, further validating the theme of a tragic love story born in a desperate world between two self-destructive people (Ben with alcohol, Sera with prostitution). Nicolas Cage called Ben "crumbled elegance", and viewed him as a man who once had it all; Cage thus tried to give the character a kind of "continental elegance when he was in a bad situation". Cage continued by saying that the elegance is imploding on him because of the booze, causing it to fall apart. "But you still get the idea of what it used to be." There is hope, however, with Sera's character, who despite having nobody to turn to, is less unfortunate and dependent. Shue perceived her character in a similar light: "She is a wounded soul. She is clinging to hope in the midst of desperation. I think they are not of the world, there is a mythical nature to their love. A couple with a positive energy. A contradiction to other elements."
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Famous quotes containing the word themes:
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)