REVIEW: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas By Luke Buckmaster (bucky@alphalink.com.au)
Australian theatrical release date: July 16, 1998
>From 0 stars (bomb), to 5 stars (a masterpiece): 4 stars
Hunter S. Thompson's novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is bold, outrageous and ingenious - some good ingredients for a film nowadays. With the dynamic Johnny Depp playing a perfectly suited title role, long time director Terry Gilliam giving his intriguing flair to the camera, and Thompson himself being the creative consultant, the film has enough talent involved to soar it through the roof. Combined, they make a swashbuckling piece - a visually extraordinary, wonderfully acted, and shrewdly assembled flick based around the bright lights of Las Vegas. And drugs. And more drugs.
The film opens with a red convertible (dubbed "The Red Shark") speeding down the highway, on the way to Las Vegas. The driver and passenger, journalist Raoul Duke (Depp) and his Samoan attorney (Benicio Del Toro), cannot dilly daddle - for "the sky was full of what looked like huge bats," according to Duke. The drugs had began to take hold. This was "bat country".
These two high-as-a-kite gentlemen somehow make it to their destination, and there, they experiment with almost every drug known to man. Marijuana, cocaine, mescaline, ether, adrenaline, and their "medicine" - amyls. They run amok all over the city, visiting casinos, hotels, a dirt bike race and even a Debbie Reynolds concert.
Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the inventive way it deals with the use of drugs. Not exactly showing us how bad they are, yet not completely glorifying them, the film cares much more about showcasing the effects than preaching about the substances themselves. Gilliam leaves no question as to how the film's main characters experience what they take - the film has illustrious visuals which show, through the eyes of these characters, their world of hallucination. This is not an easy tactic to employ, but he does it successfully to say the least. Some scenes brilliantly convey this method of film making - ranging from a bar full of lounge lizards (literally) to an image of swooping bats in Duke's sunglasses. They look so real, and so impressive that viewers may start to wonder whether they are actually seeing hallucinations themselves.
Although I once thought that Johnny Depp had found a perfectly pitched, perfectly suited role as the Worlds Worst Director in Ed Wood, he performs at a remarkably high level in Fear and Loathing, and seems to be in his best form ever. Depp should now be recognized as one of America's finest and most diverse actors, with a range of startlingly different films under his belt (including the race-against-time Nick of Time, and the dramatic Mafia flick Donnie Brasco).
Like almost every film that is strikingly different than most, Fear and Loathing has its own unique set of drawbacks. But strangely, some of the worst moments are amongst its most interesting - including an odd scene in which Duke's attorney makes a pass on a bewildered waitress, and the introduction of a harmless young painter (Christina Ricci, in a cameo role). They may be awkwardly structured and lack an intelligent meaning, but they at least they give us some insight as to how ferocious these drug-fucked losers really are.
How I managed to make it to the media screening of Fear and Loathing is a story in itself. Catching the train with a friend (who was, at the time, suffering with a hangover) only minutes before the film started, just to make it to the cinema fifteen minutes late and not able to find a way inside. Five minutes later, the manager arrived and led us through two locked doors into the "Theatrette", which was so crowed that we had to sit on the floor and view the screen on an angle. But nothing, absolutely nothing, barred the experience for me.
Bold, outrageous and ingenious do make great ingredients for a film; and although Fear and Loathing occasionally fumbles, it's generally the best fun any sick human being can have without getting high themselves.
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