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Like many great films, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas wasn't exactly appreciated or understood
in its time, it was a critical and commercial failure upon release, with many calling it
pointless, repetitive, and in the words of one critic "One long offensive treatise on
just how vile two human beings can be."
What's strange to me is that Hunter S. Thompson's original novel received widespread acclaim.
Many writers and journalists consider it to be a seminal piece of American literature,
with Cormac McCarthy calling it a classic of our time.
So, was something just lost in translation?
By all accounts its a largely faithful adaptation, with many of the scenes lifted directly from
the novel as well as other works by Hunter S. Thompson, and with some of its most iconic
passages being used almost verbatim in the film, it seems odd that what people seemed
to love so much about the original work was exactly what people seemed to deride in the
film.
And maybe it's because novels are inherently infused with our own imagination, something
that a film can't accomplish in the same way, or maybe it's just a story that works better
as text.
The film to me is a masterpiece, that has a visual bravura that few films can match,
with some of the greatest character performances from two actors at the top of their game.
It's often hilarious, and at times incredibly uncomfortable, and always unlike any other
film that I've ever seen.
The film is a ride, that offers an unflinching portrait of psychedelic drug use and the death
of the American Dream.
It's not always meant to be just fun and games, as Terry Gilliam states:
"We start out at full speed and it's WOOOO!
The drug kicks in and you're on speed!
Whoah!
You get the buzz – it's crazy, it's outrageous, the carpet's moving and everybody's laughing
and having a great time.
But then, ever so slowly, the walls start closing in and it's like you're never going
to get out of this fucking place.
It's an ugly nightmare and there's no escape."
- Terry Gilliam The film makes use of many different techniques
to simulate disorienting experience of the different drugs used in the film.
Whether that's the almost ever-present Dutch angle, shifting lighting that doesn't exactly
make practical sense, or manipulating the sound to create unease.
For instance, as Duke and Gonzo load up on ether, listen to the constant shifting pitch
of the background music.
Each drug had its own accompanying cinematic language to convey its effects, as highlighted
in the American Cinematographer, they are as follows: ether ("loose depth of field;
everything becomes non-defined"), adrenochrome ("everything gets narrow and claustrophobic,
move closer with lens"), mescaline ("colors melt into each other, flares with no sources,
play with color temperatures"), amyl nitrate ("perception of light gets very uneven, light
levels increase and decrease during the shots"), and LSD ("expanded consciousness, everything
extremely wide, hallucinations via morphs, shapes, colors and sound").
One of the benefits of the film's style was being able to get away with some less than
ideal techniques to accomplish certain tasks.
Like the outdated rear-projection technique used to simulate driving through Las Vegas.
Or the frequent use of ADR, which stands for Automated Dialogue Replacement, it's what
filmmakers resort to when they weren't quite happy with the audio of a given take and have
the actors re-record their lines in a sound booth, normally the goal is to blend it perfectly
so the audience doesn't know it wasn't the original recording, but there are many times
where the audio in Fear and Loathing doesn't quite match up with the way the characters
mouths are moving, which normally would be a problem, but it just adds to the feeling
of disorientation of the film.
Though, the visual quality of the film was actually one of the few things that most critics
at the time praised, the point of contention for most seemed to be that the visuals weren't
in service of anything valuable, just to act as a depiction of two men twisted on drugs,
but for those who can look past all of the hedonistic indulgence, you can see that there's
a lot more going on underneath the surface.
I'd compare it to Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street, interestingly enough Scorcese
actually tried to get his own adaptation of Thompsons novel off the ground, with Jack
Nicholson and Marlon Brando to play the leads before abandoning the project.
But both deal with excess in all its forms, to serve as a commentary on the perversion
of the American Dream.
The subtitle of Thompson's original novel claims as much with the phrase "A Savage Journey
to the Heart of the American Dream".
Duke and Gonzo dive headlong into the frenzied world of Las Vegas, confronted with the harsh
reality that the love generation, with all its speed and momentum, was coming to an abrupt
stop.
"We were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave- so now, less than five years later,
you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of
eyes you can almost see the high water mark- that place where the wave finally broke, and
rolled back."
There was a social revolution happening in the 1960's, the hippie counter-culture was
gaining momentum, with its focus aimed at civil rights and Anti-War protests, sexual
liberation and exploring altered states of consciousness.
And for all intents and purposes, they were winning.
But it didn't last.
Growing contempt for the hippie community from nearly every group of society,(from the
conservatives to the skinheads,) the ever-expanding war on drugs, and acts of violence within
the community like that of the Altamont Free Concert or the Manson Family muders began
the downfall of the movement, the wave that finally broke and rolled back.
And soon, the promises of the movement lay neglected and unfullfilled, with consumerism
and excess becoming the nation's standard.
And nowhere was that more evident than in Las Vegas.
"Who are these people, these faces?
Where do they come from?
They look like caricatures of used car dealers from Dallas, and sweet Jesus, there were a
hell of a lot of them at 4:30 on a Sunday morning, still humping the American dream,
that vision of the big winner somehow emerging from the last minute pre-dawn chaos of a stale
Vegas casino."
The American Dream is the ethos of the United States, the ideals and values of a nation
that claims that anyone should have the opportunity to create a better life for themselves, for
their children, regardless of sex or race or class or religion.
Outlined in the Declaration of Independence with the proclamation that all men are created
equal, given inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
But it had become clear to many that these rights didn't seem to apply to the black community,
or the gay and transgender communities, or just about anyone else who wasn't white or
Christian or male.
Not to mention the class systems, that were becoming increasingly divided, and increasingly
harder to rise above.
Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges wrote in his book "Days of Destruction, Days
of Revolt"
"The vaunted American dream, the idea that life will get better, that progress is inevitable
if we obey the rules and work hard, that material prosperity is assured, has been replaced by
a hard and bitter truth.
The American dream, we now know, is a lie.
We will all be sacrificed.
The virus of corporate abuse - the perverted belief that only corporate profit matters
- has spread to outsource our jobs, cut the budgets of our schools, close our libraries,
and plague our communities with foreclosures and unemployment."
"There's a reason they call it the American Dream, you've gotta be asleep to believe it."
This is the hard and bitter truth explored in both the novel, and the film.
The tired faces, fat and drunk, throwing their money into a rigged game that can only crown
a winner when everyone else loses.
A place where abhorrent behavior is tolerated as long as you cut them a deal.
A culture of hypocrisy that says these vices are okay, but these will land you in prison.
Las Vegas is the perfect amalgamation of the real face of American values, a place that
thrives on chaos and greed, that promises all of the comfort and luxury you could imagine,
provided you can afford the price of admission.
Where had we gone wrong as a nation?
Where war was once something to be avoided, now it was a tool for policital influence.
Nixon lied to the American people, claiming to want to bring an end to the war, only to
sabotage peace efforts so when elected he could be the one written in the history books.
And instead of pulling out of Vietnam, we invaded Laos and Cambodia, bringing more death
and destruction in a war that no one wanted to begin with.
"Nixon represents the dark side of the American Dream...(rest of quote)
As to the question of where things went wrong, it's hard to say exactly.
Political bias, ignorance on behalf of the American people, blind trust in the democratic
system that failed us.
But the blame did not solely rest on the conservative and right leaning members of society, as evident
in Raoul Duke's final speech in the film.
"All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding
for three bucks a hit.
But their loss and failure is ours too.
What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped
create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential
old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody... or at
least some force -- is tending the light at the end of the tunnel."
What I think contributes to Fear and Loathing's longevity, is its ability to confront these
heavy subjects, to find the humor within, and to do so in a way that's critical of both
sides.
There's something endlessly satisfying about watching two guys, twisted out of their minds,
trying to navigate this strange landscape, confused and terrified at every turn.
Because whether your drug of choice is LSD, or alcohol, or sugar, aren't we all wandering
aimlessly, with no clue what the Hell is going on, just trying to find some peace of mind
or some sort of escape from the terrible circus that surrounds us?
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