Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas review
"We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold."
The opening line of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the 1998 film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's novel, is a self-contained explanation of the entire film. Fear and Loathing is two hours of visual and aural brain-candy, an assault on your senses that leaves you slightly foggy, with that feeling of a hangover just around the corner. It is a story of a dark, dangerous drug subculture as seen through the eyes of a sports journalist and his attorney on a 48-hour drug binge, executed in the name of professionalism and motorcycle racing.
Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) is a “doctor of journalism” who is sent to cover the annual desert race, the Mint 400, held at the Mint Hotel on the strip. Duke and Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) prepare for the trip by procuring a fast convertible and a suitcase full of drugs. Their arrival in Vegas begins with a race against time; they must reach the hotel before press sign-in deadlines, or pay for their room. And they have half an hour before the acid kicks in. Welcome to Las Vegas.
Following the onslaught of neon lights, Duke begins to realize the effects of the pharmacy of narcotics in his blood. Refusing to take the parking ticket from the valet, losing control when the vines on the carpet overtake a guest's leg, and reeling in horror when the receptionist turns into a giant reptile are but a gentle blotter acid welcome compared to the full-out, drug-induced hallucinations that await him. The first of such trips takes place in the hotel lounge that is disguised as a bar filled with giant, blood-thirsty reptiles fornicating and tearing each other's flesh, leaving a thick pool of blood on the carpet that Duke fears will require golf shoes to wade through safely.
This is only the beginning.
The rest of the trip involves a myriad of similar situations, all of which lead to the conclusion that sometimes, the only way to get out of trouble is just to keep heading straight into it. Assisted by cameo appearances from actors such as Toby McGuire, Cameron Diaz, Christina Ricci and Gary Busey, the pair "succeed" in the task of covering the Mint 400, and move on to bigger and better things; discovering the American Dream.
Outwardly, Duke and Dr. Gonzo seem hardly out of place in a city such as Las Vegas. But 48 sleepless hours of heavy drugs and binge drinking has left the two in a state of serious paranoia; everyone is suspicious, especially themselves. The simplest tasks become grand performances, usually ending with a loud, sloppy exit.
One can only stumble around blindly, groping in the dark closet of descriptive adjectives when searching for words to describe the film. Instead of choosing the crisp, mainstream look of most movies, Fear and Loathing instead aims for the outermost reaches of conventional filmmaking, and then reaches another inch or two. It is a gritty, gasoline rainbow type of film that is indescribably different than anything before it.
One of the keys in the success of this movie is the narrative, read by Depp. It is a smooth, quick-talking monologue that is bound together perfectly with the occasionally incoherent mumbling of his character and the nonsensical screams of Dr. Gonzo. The most bizarre notions are stated matter-of-factly in the narrative, and the rants are wild, yet clean and perfectly executed.
Fear and Loathing is ultimately a visual masterpiece. The outside-the-box thinking of director Terry Gilliam is the perfect visual explanation of the literary descriptions in Thompson's book. The script is almost word-for-word, and there are none of the “adapted for film” changes that one has come to expect from films based on books. The book is a great read and the movie is a cult classic - one of the only movies to wildly surpass the expectations of the reader.
The opening line of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the 1998 film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's novel, is a self-contained explanation of the entire film. Fear and Loathing is two hours of visual and aural brain-candy, an assault on your senses that leaves you slightly foggy, with that feeling of a hangover just around the corner. It is a story of a dark, dangerous drug subculture as seen through the eyes of a sports journalist and his attorney on a 48-hour drug binge, executed in the name of professionalism and motorcycle racing.
Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) is a “doctor of journalism” who is sent to cover the annual desert race, the Mint 400, held at the Mint Hotel on the strip. Duke and Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) prepare for the trip by procuring a fast convertible and a suitcase full of drugs. Their arrival in Vegas begins with a race against time; they must reach the hotel before press sign-in deadlines, or pay for their room. And they have half an hour before the acid kicks in. Welcome to Las Vegas.
Following the onslaught of neon lights, Duke begins to realize the effects of the pharmacy of narcotics in his blood. Refusing to take the parking ticket from the valet, losing control when the vines on the carpet overtake a guest's leg, and reeling in horror when the receptionist turns into a giant reptile are but a gentle blotter acid welcome compared to the full-out, drug-induced hallucinations that await him. The first of such trips takes place in the hotel lounge that is disguised as a bar filled with giant, blood-thirsty reptiles fornicating and tearing each other's flesh, leaving a thick pool of blood on the carpet that Duke fears will require golf shoes to wade through safely.
This is only the beginning.
The rest of the trip involves a myriad of similar situations, all of which lead to the conclusion that sometimes, the only way to get out of trouble is just to keep heading straight into it. Assisted by cameo appearances from actors such as Toby McGuire, Cameron Diaz, Christina Ricci and Gary Busey, the pair "succeed" in the task of covering the Mint 400, and move on to bigger and better things; discovering the American Dream.
Outwardly, Duke and Dr. Gonzo seem hardly out of place in a city such as Las Vegas. But 48 sleepless hours of heavy drugs and binge drinking has left the two in a state of serious paranoia; everyone is suspicious, especially themselves. The simplest tasks become grand performances, usually ending with a loud, sloppy exit.
One can only stumble around blindly, groping in the dark closet of descriptive adjectives when searching for words to describe the film. Instead of choosing the crisp, mainstream look of most movies, Fear and Loathing instead aims for the outermost reaches of conventional filmmaking, and then reaches another inch or two. It is a gritty, gasoline rainbow type of film that is indescribably different than anything before it.
One of the keys in the success of this movie is the narrative, read by Depp. It is a smooth, quick-talking monologue that is bound together perfectly with the occasionally incoherent mumbling of his character and the nonsensical screams of Dr. Gonzo. The most bizarre notions are stated matter-of-factly in the narrative, and the rants are wild, yet clean and perfectly executed.
Fear and Loathing is ultimately a visual masterpiece. The outside-the-box thinking of director Terry Gilliam is the perfect visual explanation of the literary descriptions in Thompson's book. The script is almost word-for-word, and there are none of the “adapted for film” changes that one has come to expect from films based on books. The book is a great read and the movie is a cult classic - one of the only movies to wildly surpass the expectations of the reader.
