Let's start right off the bat and say that when I saw this movie (and after.... and even now as I write this) I did not have much of an idea about the directorial works of Terry Gilliam, other than just having heard of his movies, such as his imagination trilogy of Time Bandits, Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. I was aware though that he was a member of Monty Python, which is another one of those things that I really want to get into yet have not gotten to it yet so I really did not have much idea of what I was getting into aside from side knowledge I caught while looking into it. I also really had no clue about Hunter S. Thompson, only really having been familiar with the name and that was it. So when I first saw Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, it was really more of an experience rather than a film. Not really much of a plot to speak of, or story even, as it was separated more into vignettes of all different kinds mostly revolving around the excessive drug habits of Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo as they spend a couple of days in Vegas trying hard and failing to get any writing done. Odd fact out of the way quickly was that this was going to be the first movie I was going to watch with my girlfriend at the time but by the time we could do so, Netflix no longer had it.
The sheer oddity of what this movie is trying to do is one of the things that made it a rather polarizing film at the time (at least in the eyes of the critics) since as I said before that is it more of a series of sketches of the two main characters being on all kinds of drugs while exploring through Vegas, which while it does get a little overdone at times, it does kind of assert that the place they are in is pretty much the pure definition of American excess where it can either be the greatest place in the world or your own personal hell depending on how things go your way. As for the case of Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo, it would probably fit onto the latter side of the spectrum with their drug use often bringing a large sense of paranoia that is prevalent throughout the film. One example I like is during the Mint 400 where Duke hallucinates that the other group of reporters are soldiers out to kill him. The way its shot often reflects what type of drug they're on at the time, yet it is hard to really keep track of the differences unless you like paying attention to that sort of thing, such as wobbly movements, disorientation, different levels of colors, and that sort of thing. It is easy to tell that the entire film was meant to feel like a drug trip from beginning to end which does make sense and feels that way despite that I myself have very little experience with drugs, having only drank and smoked a few times during my only year so far at college. I probably will never know how it feels to do stuff like LSD, ether, and mescaline so I might never be able to relate to the effects shown on screen. Yet that trip down at the end does really get hard to watch is things just seem to get a lot worse and no real way to recollect any of the information.
I could go on with the look of the movie as it often looks rather bright, neon-like in a way which again fits the setting rather nicely but let's try moving onto something different and just going more into specific scenes of the movie, or more like sections really. The opening is what I could consider to be an interesting way to set up the time period with some stock footage of protests of what is probably the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement with random splatters of blood along a black screen and The Lennon Sisters' version of the song My Favorite Things playing in the background. What it could all mean is up for debate but maybe it could be just signifying with culture of the 70's or moreso the death of the hippie era of the late 60s and the aftermath of that sort of thing, with those who were directly involved with that sort of culture being lost and without a real cause. For something a little more visual, lets go into when Duke is dealing with the Sunshine Acid at the hotel lobby, which might be one of the more iconic scenes of the film, as it has the reptile zoo orgy, the floor full of water. One of my favorite moments in the movie is when Duke is saying his thoughts out loud much to the dismay of the hitchhiker the two of them had recently picked up. The last scene I'll talk about is when they are at the Narcotics Convention which of course shows a lot of information that could be considered nothing more that propaganda and things such as how a joint is called a roach because of how it looks like a cockroach, which Gonzo immediately calls bullshit on and says that only people on acid would think it'd resemble a roach. I could go on a ton more but then I'd just be putting the movie on the blog which would make no sense.
Since this movie is mainly carried by the performances of Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro, who both pull out wonderful performances especially Depp who really had put his friendship with Thompson himself to good effect, a lot of the other big name actors that appear in the movie only show up for like a scene or two so I thought I'd mention which of them were my favorite. The obvious one I could bring up would be Christopher Meloni as the Flamingo Hotel clerk, Sven whose first appearance involves him shouting at an unruly guest in the most stereotypical gay tone that makes it rather hilarious due to how blatant it is. Another I really like is Harry Dean Stanton who has only two seconds of screen time maybe as a judge in one of Duke's hallucinations revolving around being caught for Gonzo drugging a teenage girl and the last I'll mention is one that many people might not really recognize yet I enjoy it because I recognize who it is and that is Gregory Itzin who you might remember if you watched 24 as being Charles Logan, who is one of the most memorable villains of that show, which makes it more funny that his character appears to give Raoul a good scare after ditching a hotel without paying all the outstanding room service bills.
I'm not sure I actually did any good writing this but I think it comes with the territory of this movie. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is one of those things that as a film, it is more for the experience more than anything and the experience is an odd one that I'll probably go through many more times. It would be interesting to read the book since they did cut a lot of it out and that there was a lot more going on with it being a lot worse than what was on screen. Another curio I wish I could experience with this movie is the version that Alex Cox (who you guys might recognize if you read the Repo Man post) would have directed since he was attached before Gilliam. And who knows how that would have turned out? So hopefully this was worth someone's time and hopefully this writing thing goes a lot better on the next post of Depths of Pretension, which will be the Guillermo Del Toro movie Cronos. Until then, I'll just return to my lonely obscurity as a freak in the freak kingdom.
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