Review of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) by Jean Carlo C — 13 Dec 2013

Into and/or in search of the heart of the American dream, Raoul Duke(Depp) and his attorney(Del Toro) take a road trip to Las Vegas from Los Angeles where sportswriter Duke(Hunter S. Thompson) is to cover some races in the desert. Loaded up with large quantities of just about every illegal drug, alcohol and even grapefruit for an experience worthy of writing about. Add an invitation from the national conference of district attorneys to attend a four day seminar on narcotics and dangerous drugs and it makes things that much more interesting. This means loads of cops and from all over which just means there will be more to write about. Let's just not worry about the paranoia, it's all part of the journey here.

Basically, it's an out of control experience of running on mescaline, LSD, speed, cocaine, large quantities of alcohol among other intoxicants turning Duke and Dr. Gonzo into complete madmen in a town that never sleeps. So you'd gather that it would be a rather bad trip, and you'd be right. But when it comes to "Gonzo Journalism", you do what it takes to get a story, whatever it may be; even if it is a story of no importance.

"Uppers are no longer stylish. Methedrine is almost as rare, on the 1971 market, as pure acid or DMT. "Consciousness Expansion" went out with LBJ...and it is worth noting, historically, that downers came in with Nixon.".

Hunter S. Thompson.