Guess what? Those doubters were exactly right. Unfortunately, Gilliam didn't heed the advice and belief of so many before him that this story was "unfilmable." While that's something of a misnomer since he did get it on celluloid, the point was that it wouldn't make for a very good film. Thompson's seminal novel, first published in the early 1970's, features such characters living in exactly that type of world. Gilliam's films certainly have never fallen into the mainstream, and his subject matter often concerns distraught or deranged characters living in a nightmarish, surreal world. The former Monty Python member, who has directed some of the more fascinating films of the past two decades ("Brazil," "The Fisher King," "12 Monkeys), seems a perfect match for Thompson's material - at least in theory. Featuring one-dimensional characters, essentially no plot, and a mind numbing array of scenes involving drug use that never amount to anything, this is a really bad film.Īll of which is quite surprising considering that accomplished director and cinematic visionary, Terry Gilliam is at the helm. Instead, I'm describing your experience if you set off to the theater to see this film. Thompson's novel, "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas," although some of them are quite bad. No, I'm not referring to the hallucinogenic effects suffered by the two drug-addicted protagonists in this cinematic adaption of Hunter S. OUR TAKE: 1 out of 10 Talk about your bad trips. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R For pervasive extreme drug use and related bizarre behavior, strong language, and brief nudity.ĬAST AS ROLE MODELS: Considering that the two main characters (played by JOHNNY DEPP and BENICIO DEL TORO) are hard core drug addicts who trash hotel rooms, don't pay their bills, etc., it's doubtful any parent would consider them as good role models. Thompson's quarter century old novel, but the counter culture, heavy drug use behavior may draw some. WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? If they're fans of either Depp or Del Toro they might. Supposedly rebelling against the Nixon era, the two continue to get high, hallucinate, and trash more hotel rooms. Although they briefly attend the race, the two mainly spend their time doing even more drugs, trashing their hotel rooms, and briefly interacting with a variety of other people, including Lucy (CHRISTINA RICCI), a young religious girl Gonzo introduces to drugs, a magazine reporter (MARK HARMON), a highway patrolman (GARY BUSEY), and a local waitress (ELLEN BARKIN). Gonzo (BENICIO DEL TORO), the two arrive in town already high and hallucinating from the many drugs they've already consumed. Accompanied by his disheveled lawyer, Dr.
PLOT: Raoul Duke (JOHNNY DEPP) is an early 1970's journalist who's been sent to Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race. QUICK TAKE: Drama: A journalist and his lawyer travel to Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race, but spend most of their time consuming conspicuous amounts of drugs and trashing their hotel rooms. Thompson's work, like Agamben's, concerns the emergence of the state of exception and the homo sacer as new paradigms for the relationship between citizen and state and, like Hardt and Negri, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas attempts to formulate a response to the emergence of global empire.(1998) (Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro) (R) This article argues that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, far from being merely an epitaph for the 1960s, actually anticipates the more recent work of political theorists Giorgio Agamben, Michael Hardt, and Antonio Negri. Because the narrative is so thoroughly rooted in what Thompson called "this foul year of Our Lord, 1971," the novel is generally approached (when it is discussed at all) as a historical artifact, a gonzo first draft of history, with its fortunes rising and falling with the counterculture of the 1960s. Thompson's most famous work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, has received relatively little attention from scholars, in spite of its continuing popularity and acknowledged influence. In the forty years since its publication, Hunter S.