Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Terry Gilliam

Writers (WGA):

Hunter S. Thompson (book)
Terry Gilliam (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

22 toukokuu 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy

Tagline:

Give us your brain for two hours and you will never be the same again.....(Icelandic)

Plot:

An oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychadelic escapades.

Plot Keywords:

American Dream | Drugs | Lawyer | Convertible | Journalist

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Johnny Depp	...	Raoul Duke
Benicio Del Toro	...	Dr. Gonzo / Oscar Z. Acosta
Tobey Maguire	...	Hitchhiker
Ellen Barkin	...	Waitress at North Star Cafe
Gary Busey	...	Highway Patrolman
Christina Ricci	...	Lucy
Mark Harmon	...	Magazine Reporter at Mint 400
Cameron Diaz	...	Blonde TV Reporter
Katherine Helmond	...	Desk Clerk at Mint Hotel
Michael Jeter	...	L. Ron Bumquist
Penn Jillette	...	Carnie Talker
Craig Bierko	...	Lacerda
Lyle Lovett	...	Road Person
Flea	...	Musician
Laraine Newman	...	Frog-Eyed Woman

Also Known As:

Pelkoa ja inhoa Las Vegasissa (Finland) [fi]

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive extreme drug use and related bizarre behavior, strong language, and brief nudity.

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Rankcolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PG (re-rating) (DVD) | Canada:18A (original rating) (VHS) | Denmark:15 | Argentina:18 | Australia:R | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hungary:14 | Norway:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | UK:18 | USA:R | South Korea:18

Filming Locations:

Ambassador Hotel - 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Fear and Loathing LLC

Trivia:

Laraine Newman (the Frog-Eyed Woman) and Harry Dean Stanton (the Judge) both appeared on the 1996 Spoken Word Adaptation CD of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Stanton was the narrator while Newman played several small roles.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Dr.Gonzo hits reverse to pick up the hitchhiker, Duke is thrown backwards.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Raoul Duke: [narrating] We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like:
Raoul Duke: I feel a bit lightheaded. Maybe you should drive.
Raoul Duke: [narrating] Suddenly, there was a terrible roar all around us, and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, and a voice was screaming:
Raoul Duke: Holy Jesus. What are these goddamn animals?
[swatting the air]
Raoul Duke: Huh! Huh! Huh! Fucking pigs.
Dr. Gonzo: Did you say something?
Raoul Duke: Hm? Never mind. It's your turn to drive.
Raoul Duke: [narrating] No point in mentioning these bats, I thought. Poor bastard will see them soon enough.

Movie Connections:

Features Sekai daisenso (1961)

Soundtrack:

I Can't Turn You Loose

Visual masterpiece with Thompson's message intact and strong as ever.

I have read countless reviews of this movie that have derided it for everything from glorifying drugs to being unchristian to being boring. Maybe my mind works very much like director Terry Gilliam's (I loved 'Brazil' and '12 Monkeys'), but the last thing I would do to this movie is deride it. It is a brilliant adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's generation-defining book of the same name - it stays very faithful to the events in the book.

First of all, this movie literally glows with Gilliam's eye for detail that he has consistently displayed throughout his career. The sets are so elaborate, one could never take in all the scenery from any number of viewings without slowing it down and watching very closely. The bombardment of the bright, flashing lights of Las Vegas and the bizarre camera angles, as well as surreal sets make for an interesting and entertaining presentation regardless of a lack of coherency and taste. What we have here is a movie riddled with black humor and a horrifying satire of the American dream. I'll admit it takes a very `unchristian' viewpoint to laugh at the `straight economics' of allowing policemen to gang-f**k a girl for $30 a head. Therefore, people bound by a constricting sense of morality should never have watched this movie in the first place. It is for people like me who enjoy living a very un-stoic life (at least vicariously through movies) by having radical ideas and perspectives forced upon them. Fear and Loathing is the embodiment of such a perspective - it is a gruesomely accurate depiction of the bi-product of the often-glorified 60's drug culture. And one thing that countless critics seem to carelessly omit in their analyses is the constant references to the `American Dream.' Johnny Depp (Raoul Duke/Hunter Thompson), in his verbose verbal narrations, makes quite a few references to a desparate hunt for reason behind the madness of not only this `American Dream', but the drug culture as well - "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." - Dr. Johnson (displayed before the opening scene). The problem with the waning popularity of this movie is simply that its design was not meant to appeal to the buttoned-down mainstream. People that want to laugh and cry in a movie theater and then get the hell on aren't the type of people that would enjoy seeing an unjustified drug-induced frenzy on Las Vegas. This movie has everything a critic should be looking for in a masterpiece - magnificent cinematography, lovely acting, shock value, provocation of thought, and a meaning behind it all. To freaks like me it also has immense entertainment value as well. This work will be one of my favorite movies of all time.