This week:
"There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning." -Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Madness. That is one really good way of describing the cult classic that is known as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The movie is essentially a very long drug trip -- mixed in with really crazy drug visions and nightmares -- and perhaps buried really underneath... an actual plot. Finding the plot was my difficulty in watching Fear and Loathing the first time I saw it (a few years back). I gave it another shot just the other night -- and still ended up in the same position. Besides the drug culture of the later 60's and early 70's... just what exactly is this movie about!?
Directed by Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame) and based off the novel by iconic author Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a very long strange trip into the mind of the story's two protaganists. Played by Johnny Depp (pre-pirate days) and Benicio Del Toro (apparently recovered from being stabbed for being better then Barry Rayburn *ten points to whoever first gets this reference*), Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo hit vegas to take part in an extreme drug odyssey.
Johnny Depp -- before Tim Burton swayed
him to do tons of crappy movies.
The plot behind Fear and Loathing is apparently how this guy Duke is supposed to cover a story about a dirt bike race in Vegas. He then returns to Vegas to cover -- of all things -- the National District Attorneys Association's Conference on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Tagging along with Duke is his attorney of sorts -- Dr. Gonzo. Whether he's actually his attorney is beyond me, but he sure as heck is the pusher and taker of massive drugs. The plot apparently has something to do with the dirtbike race, but, as I mentioned, the story shambles into drug induced delirium for the bulk of the movie.
Dr. Gonzo - if he's a real lawyer then I'm the Mayor of Candyland.
By drug induced delirium I don't mean your typical pot, coke, and pills. These guys take some seriously messed up drugs. The bulk of the list is LSD, mescaline, ether, cocaine, acid, and a very whacked out trip on adrenochrome. The drugs induce some real crazy visuals that the viewer witnesses through the eyes of Duke -- a popping out Nixon head, lizard people, snakes, moving carpet, weird little people, some circus themed casino in Vegas (actually based off a real casino), scenes that could have been in Vietnam, and all sorts of other whacked out images.
Yup - that's a group of lizard people, either we're in Johnny Depp's
drug infested mind or on the set of Dinosaurs.
The movie continues on with the drug-induced-episodes throughout -- Duke and Dr. Gonzo are paranoid that the cops are going to catch them so they ditch the few characters they run into along the way. Included in the cast of characters is a hitchhiker played by a very young Tobey Maguire, a highway patrol man who wants to kiss Duke -- played by who else but Gary Busey (Charlie Sheen's long lost real father), and an artist chick who takes too much LSD named Lucy (played by Christina "you show me yours and I'll show you mine" Ricci *5 points for whoever first gets that reference*)
Pre-Spidey Tobey... where has he gone?!
Towards the end of the movie apparently a plot somewhat surfaces, regarding Duke's search for the American Dream. If being so messed up on drugs that you become completely demented is the American Dream, then Duke has succeeded. Otherwise, he just caused hundreds of dollars of damage to rent-a-cars and somehow created a flood in one of the two hotel rooms he and Dr. Gonzo completely trashed. The movie ends with Dr. Gonzo getting on a plane ala Nixon and Duke speeding down the highway on his way to California... free from the law and the mess that was the Vegas drug trip.
If this is the "American Dream" then no thanks, I'll pass.
Fear and Loathing in Last Vegas is a complex movie, or so I think, that stems from the brain of a very distorted Hunter S. Thompson. Somewhere in the movie filled with a ton of drug induced episodes is a deep buried story about the death of hippies and the climax of the drug culture that dominated the 60's and early 70's. The biggest problem with the movie is that it's almost impossible to understand that.
I get that Fear and Loathing is supposed to be incredibly deep and hard to understand. I dig my fair share of deep movies that try and access the deepest regions of the mind. That being said - Fear and Loathing is just too much for me. Too much excess of drug induced banter, too much blabber by Depp that needs an english translator, too much confusion, too much getting lost into the drugs and a complete lack of focus on any sort of main point.
Maybe I missed the bus on Thompson and the cultness of this movie -- but I just think it's pure mindlessness mixed in with just a tiny touch of brilliance. If it had been the other way around -- perhaps this film and story would have value. To me - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a total crapfest that attempts to make some kind of serious point but gets lost in some insane visions of dementia. Anybody can make a messed up drug movie and include some really whacked out scenes -- it's making a drug movie that has some value that's the trick. Requiem for a Dream pulls it off well. Fear and Loathing does not.
In the Eric ratings chart (follows much like the Michael Scott ratings system from the "Beach Games" episode of The Office) -- Fear and Loathing ends up just like Stanley -- out before the competition has even ended -- 3 points, 2 red stars, and 1 thumb down.
Since I really didn't like the movie -- here's a video of something good that drugs have produced -- the music of Pink Floyd and my second favorite song of all time:
Disagree with my review on Fear and Loathing? Let me know in comments! Also, as always I'm taking suggestions for reviews -- as this post was by user request!
