Anyone who's seen "Escape from Las Vegas" before that movie should know it's tragic. Unexpectedly, this is the originator of sad city movies! Jon Voight's Joe is the epitome of a country boy: dreaming of the city's dim lights and sensuality. Being displaced on the streets of New York is just like imagining thousands of young gold diggers, hoping that fate will favor them. It turns out that the only capital he can survive in the city is to be a pimp. Joe thought the city was so fresh and beautiful. There's an excellent shot in it: the streets of New York are bustling with gorgeously dressed people, and Joe finds that there is a drunken man down on the street. He curiously thinks that it is someone in trouble, and the crowd just hurries by. The indifference of the city was evident.
I admire Dustin Hoffman very much, the handsome young boy who was obsessed with the previous "The Graduate", but ended up here becoming a lame man, and finally died on the way to California. The director deliberately killed Dustin's Rizzo, not Joe. Even more sad: Friendship at the bottom of society still cannot stop the oppression of the entire era.
The Beach Boys' "California Dream" should have been played at the time of Rizzo's death, which would be even more heartbreaking: how many young people enter the city with dreams of gold digging, only to have their dreams shattered?
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