It’s unfair to spoil, so if you haven’t seen the film I’m sorry, but what makes the film is a moment toward the end when Thompson is writing and suggests that whatever made the end of the 60’s special and all the revolution, and all the peace and love had/has shit the bed, and the idea that was so appealing about all of that was lost and gone, and turned into something unsavory, much like the trip he is on. This is fitting because when Duke/Thompson hallucinates he sees lizards, in keeping with the artwork of the book, keeping with the Ralph Steadman look. Duke’s body is in a state of flux, and Depp plays Thompson as a velociraptor. There’s some mescaline, acid, marijuana, cocaine, LSD and ether for starters, along with booze and all sorts of other things along the way.ĭuke/Thompson heads to Vegas to cover a sporting event, and then a cop conference, but the real text is his massively fucked up state of being, with side trips to said events. Thompson, who is on the road to Vegas with Dr. Johnny Depp stars as Raoul Duke, the main character of the film and surrogate for Dr.
My review of the Criterion edition of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on Blu-ray after the jump. Thompson’s novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and took the project up only to have stars Johnny Depp and Benecio Del Toro already locked in as his leads, had to rewrite everything that came before, and do it (perhaps as it should be done) as a no-holds barred, gonzo, “let’s shoot this fucker” kind of film. He was brought in last minute to direct an adaptation of Hunter S. Which is why The Fisher King strikes as one of his strongest works in the sense that it is accomplished without shoving itself down your throat. Gilliam is one of those directors that it is often hard to relax into because he’s so there it’s hard to ignore what he is doing. I say that in the sense that when you watch his films you feel the master’s fingerprints all over, and sometimes that makes the film a bit blurry. Terry Gilliam is one of the most undeniable directors to ever work in the medium.