Last week's Netflix movie became this week's Netflix movie now that I have been spending time building sets and doing other things for the current high school show I'm directing ("Fame: the Musical"), I tried watching this film last Sunday night, but I was dead tired after some good hard partying and two days of hard labor, and there was no way I was going to be able to stay awake, much less make sense of the hodgepodge of images forming the backbone of this movie. The week then escaped from me - at least I have no limit on the time I am able to hold onto these movies.
Fear and Loathing...might be classified as yet another drug movie, but it's a cut above others in that its quirkyness makes it unique. It's based on the book with the longer name by Hunter S. Thompson, a descriptive journey into the deeper parts of the highs and lows of hallucinogenic drugs. Johnny Depp plays Raoul Duke (apparently the alter ego of Thompson), a strung out sportswriter, who with his attorney (Benicio del Toro), take a road trip to Vegas, partying very hard along the way. They encounter all sorts of people and places in their trips, both physical and pharmacological, seemingly searching for the perfect high rather than some existential or other philosophical meaning, though the movie takes an oddly philosophical turn by its end.
I liked this movie more than other drug movies because it retained a sense of humor, despite the goal of creating the motion picture equivalents of the most acute sorts of trips. Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro give crazy but engaging performances as the junkies in question, and Terry Gilliam's natural sense of the wacky lends very well to the whole visual feast. More than once, I had flashes of predecessors, like the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour, and Monty Python's Meaning of Life. The fact that the movie was set in 1971 and reflected long and hard on 1960s psychidelia, while boasting a killer songtrack that was both geographically and period-accurate, aided those comparisons.
I didn't like, however, that the movie lacked any cohesive plot. It was really just one long, strange bender punctuated by absurd situations and visual images representing the potency of the drug of choice. The film was consistent in its lack of cohesion, though: the beginning, middle, and end were somewhat stream of consciousness, starting lazily and hazily and ending much the same way, reflective of the times and culture but never losing sight of the drug-addled perspective.
Still, dreamy Johnny's and Benicio's performances were so complete and believable while decidedly crazy-wacky-kooky, that I was engaged in spite of myself and even laughed a few times. Plus, there are a series of appearances by several stars and celebrities of all types, and it proved to be fun trying to identify who they were.
I am not sure this certainly weird movie fits into my repertoire of movies I wholeheartedly enjoy. I like Terry Gilliam's films generally, but this one, no doubt based on its source material, traveled some disturbing roads, despite my open mind and interest in the film. The subject matter, again, was probably lost on me, but I think I need to rate this film a 7 for being shaky but entertaining, as it did contain some true moments of comedy, even if there wasn't much of a story (which I prefer over a carefully executed though abstract string of visual images). Also, the film doesn't pass the test. It's a little too crazy for me, Johnny Depp or no. It's got some great quotes, though, serious and non-serious. I might just watch it once more--just to remember the little gems that represent the lessons of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and relive the few uncomfortable laughs this surreal and trippy movie inspires.