Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (Criterion)
"We were somewhere around Barstow when the drugs began to take hold."
It is 1971, and journalist Raoul Duke barrels towards Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race, accompanied by a trunkful of contraband and his slightly unhinged Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo. But what is ostensibly a cut-and-dry journalistic endeavor quickly descends into a feverish psychedelic odyssey and an excoriating dissection of the American way of life. Director Terry Gilliam and an all star cast (headlined by Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Torro) show no mercy, bringing Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's legendary Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to the screen, creating a film both hilarious and savage.
Member Reviews
The book is better - Superdave
Something was missing from Johnny Depp's attempt to portray the late Hunter Thompson, and I could not put my finger on what it was until I saw the cover for Thompson's book The Great Shark Hunt. Hunter Thompson was six feet three and filled with a kind of lumbering, growly menace that promised that not only weirdness, but random violence could happen at any moment. Depp captures the mannerisms but not the manner. He grumbles semi-intelligibly, but in a completely benign, non-threatening way. The whole movie is the same way. Imaginatively and colorfully weird, but without the threat and menace of the truly dangerous weirdness that Thompson himself embraced and made famous.Well I Don't Know About the Fear But Definately the Loathing - Gregg
Semi-autobiographical story about a drug filled road trip to Las Vegas in 1971 by a sports writer Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) a character based on Hunter S Thompson and his not so stable lawyer (Benicio Del Toro) to cover a big motorcycle race and then to attend a conference for District Attorneys concerned with America’s growing drug problem.
It’s another very good performance from Depp who virtually disappears into his character and several of the small cameo roles are very big departures for those performers, but all of this didn’t make the film worth seeing from my perspective. This is both the least enjoyable film I have seen from director Terry Gilliam and also from Johnny Depp.
In addition to Depp and Del Toro the film includes cameos by; Cameron Diaz, Christina Ricci, Ellen Barkin, Gary Busey, Mark Harmon, Flea, Penn Jilette, James Woods, Tobey Maguire, Harry Dean Stanton and Lyle Lovett.
The major problem for me I believe related to the concentration of the film upon drugs, all the different kinds of drugs, the hallucinations and the after effects of those drugs and this just didn’t make for compelling or even enjoyable material to watch. Admittedly there was some originality in combining the drug fueled hallucinations and the unreality that exists in the Las Vegas casinos also there were attempts to address the idealism of the 1960’s and the subsequent abandonment of those beliefs in the 1970’s but it just keeps coming back to drugs. There is also a fair bit of humor, but so much of it involves drugs that it soon gets a little tired.
While this may have been the most accurate adaptation of a Hunter S Thompson story I actually enjoyed “Where the Buffalo Roam” considerably more than this film.
Upon its initial release the film was a box office failure and garnered mixed to poor reviews, it has subsequently attained a cult status and obviously has some audience appeal but I still have no interest in revisiting this film.Hard film to rate - Henry_the_5th
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas was originally written by famous writer and rebel Hunter S. Thompson. This man was both brilliant and mad to some extends, and his literature strongly reflects this. Anybody who is familiar with his literature might call his work 'unfilmable', and to some extent they would be right, but director Terry Gilliam has done as good a job with it as any director could.
Fear & Loathing is largely a plotless film; two men go on a drug binge in Las Vegas for a weekend. Thats it, scenario after scenario of hallucinations and drugs. This is neither a bad thing nor a good thing, it simply is; we watch these men and laugh at them, but ultimately the film ends up amounting to nothing. We are the same at the end of the picture as we were at the beginning, without anything added or subtracted from out lives.
In my opinion this is cinema as an art form; can we define what a film is supposed to do? Fear & Loathing does what Fellini did with 8 1/2; it creates a film that ultimately leaves meaning to the viewer. There isn't a lot there to engage, so throughout the film we find means of engagement in it. Sure it works as a comedy on a basic level (as does 8 1/2), but to get depth and meaning from the film we must create it, and to me Fear & Loathing provides us with an opportunity to do this, without telling us how to think about it.
I guess thats my take on it; it certainly is not for everybody and many people would give it a 1/10 in all fairness. Others would give it a 10/10, and they would be also fair to the film. Fear & Loathing is just very subjective, and any honest opinion formed on it is basically pretty accurate. It is as ambiguous as it is strange, and I think that part of what will make it a classic is its diversion from any other mainstream 'drug' film. It neither celebrates nor condemns drugs. Essentially it is not about drugs, but about something deeper. Finding meaning in a pointless situation.
I will rate it 8/10.
Member Reviews
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The book is better - Superdave
Something was missing from Johnny Depp's attempt to portray the late Hunter Thompson, and I could not put my finger on what it was until I saw the cover for Thompson's book The Great Shark Hunt. Hunter Thompson was six feet three and filled with a kind of ...Well I Don't Know About the Fear But Definately the Loathing - Gregg
Semi-autobiographical story about a drug filled road trip to Las Vegas in 1971 by a sports writer Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) a character based on Hunter S Thompson and his not so stable lawyer (Benicio Del Toro) to cover a big motorcycle race and then to attend ...Hard film to rate - Henry_the_5th
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas was originally written by famous writer and rebel Hunter S. Thompson. This man was both brilliant and mad to some extends, and his literature strongly reflects this. Anybody who is familiar with his literature might call his work ...