By Eric Eisenberg
Before his death in 2005, Hunter S. Thompson, famous as the self-described “gonzo” journalist of the 1960s and 1970s, made a very strange request regarding how he wanted to be cremated. Thompson, a fan of large explosions, asked that his ashes be mixed with fireworks and launched into the sky from a 150-foot tower erected at his home in Woody Creek. After his death, the man who orchestrated the final sendoff was Johnny Depp, the actor who portrayed Thompson in the 1998 film adaptation of what many consider to be Thompson’s finest literary work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
The film, in the spirit of gonzo journalism, is not a plot-driven piece. Rather, it is an exercise in direction and cinematography that attempts to capture the general strangeness of its characters. Thompson’s exploits during his savage trip through the city of lights in the middle of the desert are loosely strung together, with each location providing a new story. Performances by a bald-headed Depp and a heavy-set Benicio Del Toro, the ability of screenwriters Terry Gilliam and Tony Grisoni to stay rigorously close to the original work, and the ability of cinematographer Nicola Pecorini to take the drug-addled characters and made them at home in the fluorescent lighting make Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas a real trip for the average movie-goer.
Directed and co-written by Gilliam (Twelve Monkeys, Brazil), Fear and Loathing chronicles Thompson and his psychotic “Samoan” attorney, Dr. Gonzo, tripping through the Nevada desert with eight consecutive life sentences worth of narcotics sitting in the trunk of a Chevrolet Caprice convertible. As the drugs find their way into the systems of the men in the front seats, the self-proclaimed “doctorate of journalism” attempts to find the American dream.
Thompson, under his pseudonym Raoul Duke, has an assignment to cover a motorcycle race in the desert; however, the story is all but ignored as Thompson and his lawyer ride through Las Vegas high on every type of drug in their stash, and take in the atmosphere of America during the early 1970s and the Vietnam War, an atmosphere enabling rebellion against any type of authority. The experiences that Vegas offers them quickly pull them into nightmarish scenes of giant lizards in hotel lounges, circus casinos with dangerous animals, and a scene of utter chaos in a hotel room that has been mysteriously decorated with ketchup and mustard.
Johnny Depp, already an established actor by 1998 because of his performances in Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands, embodies the character of Hunter S. Thompson, having been fully molded by Thompson himself in the months before production. Living in the journalist’s basement for four months to study the writer’s mannerisms, Depp went so far as to have his head shaved by a mining-hat-wearing Thompson in Thompson’s kitchen. Depp’s dedication to the role shines throughout his portrayal. While wearing the clothes and driving the doctor’s car, he replicates his source to perfection through both voice and action, with shifting eyebrows and bizarre hand gestures, all the while slithering around Vegas streets like a snake which has just grown legs.
Del Toro, who gained 40 pounds for his depiction of Dr. Gonzo, once again succeeds in transforming himself both physically and mentally to play his role. The character of Dr. Gonzo, based on Thompson’s friend Oscar Zeta Acosta, flip-flops between being a professional and an absolute lunatic throughout the course of the film, at one moment providing legal advice and then in another, attempting to carve a Z into a character’s forehead. Del Toro, however, is able to follow his character into both the light and the dark flawlessly. The audience is never allowed to be totally comfortable with Dr. Gonzo’s character, which makes him exciting and, moreover, fun to watch.
One of the greatest credits to the film is its ability to stay close to the original source material. After failed attempts by directors Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, and animator Ralph Bakshi to get the film off the ground, Gilliam and Grisoni essentially used Thompson’s book as a screenplay. Depp’s voiceover narration comes directly from the actual text as do scenes and lines of dialogue that were seemingly filmed as if Thompson’s work had come with stage directions. The film’s script is both clever and comical (“You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug. Especially when it's waving a razor-sharp hunting knife in your eye.”), as well as reflective of the era that Thompson represented (“San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. But no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world.”). Fans of Thompson will be pleased with the film, as it is somewhat of a lifetime achievement award, but any audience will be satisfied with word play that moves with more agility and beauty than a Vegas showgirl.
Another credit to the film is the synchronicity among its different facets. A scene in which Dr. Gonzo experiences a horrific acid trip and sits in a bathtub requesting to be electrocuted by a tape deck is juxtaposed with his next scene where he is sitting at a desk in a suit and tie while giving Thompson his new assignment. Superb acting by Del Toro, who evinces a strong ability to move along with his character, and terrific screenwriting that jolts the audience are both supported by Lesley Walker’s editing, which both separates these two scenes (as there is another between them) and at the same time draws them together by accentuating the high degrees of change in character.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a film that is enjoyable because many of those who took part in its creation were intimate with Thompson. The film sports great performances by both leads and supporting actors, as well as cameos from Cameron Diaz, Toby Maguire and Gary Busey, editing that controls and organizes chaotic material, and a director who is able to assemble the vignettes into a portrayal of an outsized and outrageous character. Any audience, with or without previous knowledge of Hunter S. Thompson, will be dazzled by this psychotic and psychedelic achievement.
© Eric Eisenberg, All Rights Reserved