Review of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) by Connor B — 10 Jul 2012

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has got to go down as one of the strangest films that has ever graced the big screen. Terry Gilliam attempts to bring the wonderful Hunter S. Thompson novel to life and he does a very good job in doing so as he tries to blend the reality and the drug fueled hallucinations into a linear plot. Johnny Depp and Benecio Del Toro star as Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo and anyone who knows of the real Hunter S. Thompson has got to be impressed with Depp as he literally becomes Thompson/Duke in a stand out performance.

The film begins with Duke and Gonzo on the outskirts of Las Vegas as Duke prepares to cover the Indy 500 with his attorney(Gonzo) but in reality the two are really only interested in indulging in substance abuse. The movie starts out weird and continues to get weirder one scene that stands out is when Duke in the middle of an acid trip begins to imagine the residents of the hotel are reptiles, it's strange but at certain points throughout Fear and Loathing you feel like you are on this manic trip with Duke and Gonzo. Duke reports on the Indy 500 for all of about two minutes before returning to Vegas to hit the town filled with drugs and booze and to destroy the hotel room that he and Gonzo rented. The resulting two days are drug fueled and blurry and the reporter usually tells the tale through flashbacks but there is one sober moment where Duke shows the true genius behind Thompson's writing when he recites a paragraph from the novel reminiscing about San Francisco in the mid 60's after his one all to brief sober moment Duke and Gonzo go back to their drug abusing ways to see out their weekend in Las Vegas.

A film that you will love or hate no doubt about it due to the style of direction and the nature of the subject but Depp and Del Toro give career bests as Duke and Gonzo and I don't think anyone will come any closer to a more faithful adaption of the novel.