Some movies are just destined to become cult classics—while filming Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, there’s no way Terry Gilliam ever thought this hedonistic black comedy would be a mainstream hit. A flop upon its release in 1998, the adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson‘s novel is perhaps most synonymous with the term “cult classic.” There is nothing quite like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, except, of course, the entirety of Gilliam’s filmography, filled with pitch-black satires and bonkers visual and psychological experiences that have proven initial critics wrong. Fear and Loathing, however, is the culmination of Gilliam’s work, as its never-ending psychedelic trip speaks to a specific subculture. In addition to Johnny Depp‘s turn as an avatar for Thompson, the film’s stacked cast includes Benicio del Toro, Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, and a handful of cameos, which is impressive considering the irreverent underground nature of the text.
Terry Gilliam’s Drug-Fueled Vision of America in ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’
As a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, Terry Gilliam’s comedic chops and experience creating high-concept scenarios put him on the right track to becoming an accomplished filmmaker. With films like Brazil, The Fisher King, and 12 Monkeys, seriocomic absurdist tales of human and cultural decay under the weight of a dystopian society, Gilliam proved to be more than just a sketch comedian. While Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas brought him back to the world of zany comedy after a detour making dark satires laced with pressing social commentary, it is perhaps his most unsettling film to date. The film, following an eccentric journalist, Raoul Duke (Depp), and his appropriately named lawyer, Dr. Gonzo (Del Toro), upends all the conventions of narrative construction and instead operates as a bonkers drug trip seemingly without a purpose.
To try and break down the thematic substance and authorial vision of Fear and Loathing is a fraught proposition, which explains why the film was met with tepid and negative responses upon release. It’s clichéd to describe a movie with a no-holds-barred, rule-breaking spirit with hyperactive visuals as a drug trip, but Fear and Loathing earns its stripes as a psychedelic episode. The messiness of the plot evokes the sense of being drug-induced, or, at the very least, the perception of being high on the most potent drugs by non-users. Duke’s narration, an often incomprehensible string of non-sequiturs, has no rhyme or reason, yet, under Gilliam’s frantic but controlled direction, everything seems to make sense if you buy into this strange portrait of America. It is the purest example of a movie that you either love or hate, and there’s really no in-between.
The Absurdist Hedonism of American Life in ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’
Where most darkly comic satires are inherently polemic, Gilliam never attempts to convey any explicit message. Fear and Loathing, because of its abstract text, would not be considered a totemic American satire. However, its tone clearly expresses the unfettered hedonism dominating Las Vegas, a paradise of capitalist glory. Being oblivious to all important matters and going about life just to look for the next high feels more American than anything.
Fear and Loathing would fall under its own manic weight if not for two strong lead performances by Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro, with the latter doing the most thankless work as a paranoid, LSD-induced sidekick who is never made to look like a glossy movie star. During their bizarre, picaresque journey through the gambling capital of the United States, Duke and Gonzo encounter a variety of oddballs played by instantly recognizable faces. A pre-Peter Parker Tobey Maguire stands out as a young hitchhiker terrified by the extreme behavior of Duke and Gonzo, causing him to run away on foot. Playing a young girl enraptured by the high of LSD with Gonzo, Christina Ricci’s distinct on-screen aura shines in the film, and we frankly could’ve used more of her.
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This media satire was frighteningly prophetic.
The vast array of cameos, including Cameron Diaz, Mark Harmon, Lyle Lovett, Flea, Gary Busey, and Ellen Barkin, have the effect of a mirage, a disorganized mess of abrupt appearances by overqualified stars in minor roles. Seeing Diaz as a news reporter and Busey as a highway patrol officer evokes the sense of a distorted memory caused by unregulated substance use. In his essay for the film’s release in the Criterion Collection, J. Hoberman equated Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to “something like Fellini Cheech and Chong,” or in other words, “a lowbrow art film.” There is nothing classy or graceful about its ideas or the execution of them, but its unique sensibilities tap into a pocket of American life that artists have been trying to unlock for generations.
