Andrew has spent months looking for a car. He didn't care if it had sucked or that it made noise. He just wanted a car. The newspaper had an ad for a car, he was debating on looking at it, but was afraid he wouldn't buy it because the asking price was well over his budget. He thought about it, but looked at it anyways knowing he won't get it. The car was old, but he did not mind., it was green with dirt stains all over it. The man had said that the car works fine, but it was the little things that made the car more trouble than it was worth. Andrew said he would think about it and left. Two months after that he landed on a well paying job and while the car he wanted was a little too high, he would go out and get that Green car. It didn't take much time to get it, only a month, but when he was last there, the asking price for the car was higher than it was now. Now that green car was sold for 600 bucks. This would be a good car to have while he saves up for the big car he wanted. He won't have this car in a years time, it was just something to go to work with. It would take somewhere six to eight months to fully pay for the car he wanted. So until then, he bought the car, flaws and all.
To say this car sucks was an understatement. Richard had no clue on why he thought it was a good idea to get this piece of crap car in the first place. It never worked right, when turning left there was a 75 percent chance that it will make a terrible screeching noise. At nights where it gets cold, the doors would get stuck and it would be impossible to open. The only way Richard figured out to open it was to splash hot water into the car, and then the driver seat would get wet from the melting ice and hot water. Worst of all the windows would not clean properly. When ever soap is touched it would leave a white residue. It got so bad that the residue looked like paper. The white soapy residue would take forever for it to clear out and ready to be driven. Because of this the car was dirty most of the time. Despite these problems it still runs. Richard hated those small flaws in a car. He had some in the past that wouldn't run at all, and that was even better than the one he had now. After owning the car for 2 years, he finally gave up and put the car in the newspaper. Potential buyers would come down and look at the car. Richard told them that it runs great, but once he told the flaws it had no one would buy it. He did eventually sell it 3 months after the first ad in the paper for a measly 600 bucks. It was not much, be he was finally been rid of it.
Hunter S. Thompson has been called one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century and the Mark Twain of his generation. What he left behind is a trail full of drugs, violence, and the harsh violent truth of reality as he saw it. From his early work about Hells Angels, where he spent a year with the infamous motorcycle gang, to Hey Rube, a collection of sports articles he had written for ESPN. Of course, being Dr. Thompson, he didn't write all about sports in Hey Rube. Hunter S. Thompson had seen everything you could ever see in a lifetime and beyond. His methods are questionable at best, but he wrote what he saw with conviction and most writers don't do that. One of his well known works is called Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: The Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream. Dr. Thompson called it a failed attempt at Gonzo Journalism, which is a style that he created or at least popularized. Some of the events in Las Vegas is true, some of it is not, but the truth is always stranger than fiction.
Thompson at Las Vegas '71
Las Vegas starts simple enough; "We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold." Dr Thompson, or Raoul Duke as it was first written by in Rolling Stone magazine, sets you up what is about to happen in the first sentence. This is how both the book and film starts. The film was released in the summer of 1998, the same day Godzilla came out no less, and it was directed by Terry Gilliam. Terry Gilliam was part of the Monty Python comedy troupe. He also directed 12 Monkeys and Time Bandits. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas starred Johnny Depp as Raoul Duke, which he based his performance by Dr. Thompson, and Benicio Del Toro as Dr. Gonzo, which was based of Thompson's friend and attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta. I consider Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas one of Johnny Depp's best films. Both Depp and Del Toro is amazing in this film. The film also had a handful of cameos including Lyle Lovett, Harry Dean Stanton, Cameron Diaz, Penn Jullette, Hunter S. Thompson himself, and more.
WITH A BIT OF LUCK
On the outside, the film can be viewed as a stoner comedy. The trailer plays this off, but it's much more than that. It's about two friends trying to find the American Dream in 1971 and why it has failed. After surviving the sixties with its police brutality and the uncertain future of America. They decided to head out to Las Vegas to find it, in Sports Illustrated expense as Duke/Thompson had to cover the Mint 400. Thompson was part of the Chicago Riot of 1968. He went on and said that the riots was much worse than any Hells Angels had ever done in the year he spent with them. One of the most memorable passage in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was simply called the Wave Speech:
All that talk and protest for Peace was for naught. The Vietnam War continued on. The film is not for everyone, there are things in this movie that will make you hate it, but it doesn't shy away from what is shown and heard, and that what makes it so great. One of my favorite scenes is simply known as Adrenochrome. A fictional substance that gets you higher than you ever though possible. In the movie, Raoul Duke tries some out and while the effects begins to take hold, his friend Dr. Gonzo begins to change into a wild beast complete with claws, horns, hair, and tits in his back. It's dark and twisted, but it has nothing compared to the next few scenes in the movie. Duke has recordings of all that had happened when he finally woke up from the drug trance. The music and the inter cutting between scenes is perfect. Total insanity and unsure of what will come next. The film also has one of the most suspenseful scenes in all of film, I was afraid of what might happen when I first saw the film years ago.
THERE I WAS... MOTHER OF GOD, THERE I AM!
That was the movie, but what about the book? Well, actually, the movie and the book is quite close with each other. Yeah, there is a scene or two that was in the movie, but not in the book. There is actually a scene that was in the movie that never made it to the book. But as it stands, it's one of the most faithful adaptations you could ever want in a film. Does this lessen the book? No, in fact, it improves upon it. The film feels more like a companion piece of the book. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but at least watch the movie once. It's dark, twisted, funny, strange, and at times truthful. If you decide to read the book and liked it, read some of Hunter S. Thompson's work as well. I've read some of his work, but not all of it, and what I did read, I did enjoy. There is another movie called Where the Buffalo Roam, it's got Bill Murray as Hunter S. Thompson. It's not the best film you'll ever see, but it's interesting to see what Murray's take on Thompson and see what Depp did. But to know the real Thompson, I would suggest Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.
"When the going gets weird. The weird turns pro." - Hunter S. Thompson.
