Fear And Loathing In Las
Vegas, starring Johnny Depp, based on the gonzo journalism of Doctor Hunter S.
Thompson.
Make no mistake I have read
everything of Hunter Thompson’s that I could get my hands on. I love Johnny
Depp as an actor. However, this film does a true disservice to both of their
talents. Johnny makes no sense as Hunter, although he was legitimate wild man Hunter’s
friend. More importantly, Fear and Loathing,
driven by stuff internally spinning in Thompson’s head, does not translate on
the screen as anything but a diffused and nonsensical homage to late
counter-cultural self-indulgence, drug division. Of the worse sort.
Thompson always claimed that
his literary attempt to use the tenets of ‘gonzo’ journalism in the book was a
failure. I disagree with that evaluation for the book but certainly not for the
film. Let us face it this is classic case of the film being very, very inferior
to the book, although the episodes and language hew fairly close to it. Please,
please read the book. And please, please read many times that little gem snippet
of his about his take on the high (and low) side of the 1960s experience, what
it meant to those who got caught up in the excitement and danger, and when he
could see the whole thing literally ebbing. Classic. You will also laugh and be
entertained by his drug-induced attempt to find the meaning of the American
experience in the post-World War II world. As for the film it will give you
nothing but fear and loathing.
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