Cult Classic Corner: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

By Nate Storey

Directed by Terry Gilliam
Starring: Johnny Depp……Raoul Duke
Benicio Del Toro….Dr. Gonzo
Based on the book by Hunter S. Thompson

Synopsis: Raoul Duke, a journalist from Los Angelos and his lawyer Dr. Gonzo (fictionalized versions of Thompson and Oscar Zeta Acosta) travel to Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race in 1971. In the back of their convertible, The Red Shark, they take just about every illegal drug known to man, and along the way they encounter police, hitchhikers, and Las Vegas inhabitants of all sorts in a very bizarre adventure.

Why it’s Great: Hunter S. Thompson’s book is an amazing account of the counterculture movement written through a drug-induced haze and filled with strange illustrations of distorted and otherwise twisted people by Ralph Steadman. So who better to bring such oddity to life than one of the kings of weird, Terry Gilliam? From his artwork on Monty Python to “Brazil” to “The Brothers Grimm”, Gilliam has produced some of the most fantastical and interesting visual imagery ever. Coupled with great acting by Depp and Del Toro, and cameos from stars ranging from Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers to Tobey Maguire, as well as a soundtrack featuring Vegas great Tom Jones, 70’s staples Buffalo Springfield and The Rolling Stones, and The Yardbirds, the film is a great representation of the time and culture.

Best Scene: The opening scene is a classic, with flashes of images from the Vietnam War protests. Then the first words of the book and the movie: “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.” The scene continues as Duke talks to himself in his head, topics ranging from the bats that he is beginning to see, to the drugs they have with them, to his conversation with a young hitchhiker played by Tobey Maguire.
The runner-up is the scene in the bar, when, once more (still?) under the influence of drugs, all the people around Duke begin to turn into dinosaur-esque reptiles and experiences a huge panic attack that the bartender is stupid enough to give a bunch of reptiles alcohol.

Trivia: Much of the clothing worn by Johnny Depp in the movie actually belonged to Hunter S. Thompson in the ‘70s.
Depp spent four months with Thompson learning his mannerisms and proper vocal inflection for the role.
During the scene in which Duke is tripping on adrenochrome, he mutters, “La llama es un quadrupedo.” This is a quote from a sketch in “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” which Gilliam was a member of.

Great Quotes:
Raoul Duke: [Beginning to narrate the "Jefferson Airplane" hallucination] There I was…
[Seeing the actual Hunter S. Thompson sitting in the scene]
Raoul Duke: Mother of God, there I am!

Raoul Duke: We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole multi colored collection of uppers, downers, laughers, screamers… Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge, and I knew we’d get into that rotten stuff pretty soon.

Dr. Gonzo: Let’s give the boy a lift.
Raoul Duke: What? No. We can’t stop here. This is bat country.