Film Review
In adapting Hunter S. Thompson's autobiographical novel
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage
Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, director Terry
Gilliam knew that he was attempting the impossible and that the film,
if he ever completed it, was unlikely to win unanimous approval from
audiences and critics. Gilliam himself remarked that he had set
himself the task of making one of the great movies of all time, as well
as one of the most hated. The film's extremely poor performance
at the box office and the plethora of bad reviews must have reassured
the director that he had at least fulfilled half of his brief.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
is one of the most idiosyncratic and wildly daring American films of
the 1990s, one that puts star actors Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro
into totally unsympathetic roles in which they are virtually
unrecognisable, and which sought to capture the sheer madness and
freedom of Hunter S. Thompson's important counter-culture novel.
As a piece of art, Gilliam's film is undoubtedly a fine achievement
(the effects work alone is stunning); as a piece of cinema, it is
virtually unwatchable. Right from the off, the film does its
utmost to drive its audience towards the cinema exit, and any spectator
who hopes that the film will settle down and acquire something in the
way of narrative cohesion will be constantly disappointed. This
is not a film which tells a story; it is a film that attempts to convey
an experience, the experience of complete sensual and emotional release
that comes whilst under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs.
Had Gilliam made the film in the early 1970s (the era in which Thompson
wrote the original novel), it would most probably have met with a far
more enthusiastic reception.
Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas is a film that has missed the
Zeitgeist by almost three decades. It serves no purpose being
made in the late 1990s and the audience that might once have
appreciated it have all grown up and moved on (the ones who haven't
died from narcotics-related illnesses). It is a perfect example
of the film folly, a cinematic exploit intended not to please an
audience but to gratify a filmmaker's desire to do something completely
original. Whilst we can respect Terry Gilliam's artistic ambition
and admire certain aspects of the totally unhinged film he ending up
making, there are not many people who would ever admit to saying they enjoyed
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Watching it alone in a small darkened room is probably the closest
anyone can ever get to experiencing an LSD trip without actually taking
the drug. This could well be the most underrated masterpiece in
film history. Or the worst.
© James Travers 2012
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
The freelance journalist Raoul Duke is on his way to Las Vegas,
ostensibly to write a report on a motorbike race. Accompanied by
his lawyer Dr Gonzo, he combines business and pleasure and undertakes
the journey whilst under the influence of mind-altering drugs.
Their trip is one of drug-fuelled manic excess, in which they scare
hitchhikers to death and trash hotel rooms, oblivious to anything
around them. Sometimes the only way to make sense of the world is
to go a little mad...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.