Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Terry Gilliam is perhaps the only director who could take a semi-true story of a journalist and his attorney’s drug-fueled weekend in Las Vegas and make it not only cinematic, but halfway true to the original book’s vision of carnival mayhem and political commentary.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is based on the original novel by Hunter S. Thompson. The novel has a loose narrative thread made a little less tenuous by Gilliam’s direction and script. It’s an epic road trip, an epic drug trip, and a surrealistic take on America in the 1970s, as the hippie culture winds down and enters the dark and murky waters of Watergate, Vietnam, and the aftermath of the Manson killings.
The film follows journalist Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and his “Samoan attorney” Dr. Gonzo (Benicio del Toro) as they travel to Las Vegas in a fire-apple red convertible to cover the Mint 400 Motorcycle Rally. The weekend turns into an excuse for all kinds of drugged-up debauchery, as the pair destroy Las Vegas hotel rooms, attend the National Convention of District Attorneys while high on acid, and try to escape Las Vegas in one piece.
Like the novel before it, however, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is more than a mere excuse for hedonism and excess. It’s a surrealistic rumination on the “death of the American dream” in the midst of the Vietnam War and the slow decline of the countercultural movement. While fueled by drugs, Duke and Gonzo navigate a disturbing underworld that stands in for the strange twisted nature of American culture. Gilliam’s signature style, candy color scheme, and love for wide angle lenses perfectly compliments the script, largely lifted from the book itself, as the pair wander about Las Vegas in a cloud of narcotics. Fear and Loathing is a brilliant introduction to the works of Hunter S. Thompson, and far more than just the sum of its parts.
