Fear and Loathing is one of those rare films that manages to be both a wildly entertaining, highly quotable comedy that plays well at parties, and an intelligent, introspective character study to be watched alone with the lights off and the mind open.
The character being studied is not Raoul, but you, or anyone from any generation that identifies with the post-60s American drug culture.
If you have no understanding of (or harbor disdain towards) said drug culture, you will probably not "get" Fear and Loathing. That's okay. It was not made for you.
Amidst the seemingly non-sequiter madness that makes this movie such a comedy classic the attentive viewer will find a sobering self-appraisal of the social revolution that was the 60s, and the sad state in which its children were left. Raoul (Thompson), here a larger-than-life lunatic Johnny Depp, is also an everyman with whom any past or present drug user can identify.
The outwardly hilarious weekend in Vegas is, in fact, dark and miserable, overwhelmed with debauch, depression, fear and loathing. Raoul's "friend" Oscar sinks to depths that even our anti-hero finds despicable, generates one terrible experience after another, and violates every law of God or Man. Yet no ties are broken. No promise to change is made. It's all accepted as part of the trip and left behind on the highway.
Needless to say: This movie contains a strong anti-drug message.
But this is no phony, government-subsidized "Dope is Whack" campaign told by FBI-shoed business men you'd never listen to anyway. It's the truth as told from the front lines of the movement. A burn-out king who knows it's all evil, and will tell you as much even as he taps another needle. Someone worth believing.
Fear and Loathing is a powerful movie. It's also a funny movie. It gets my highest recommendation.
The character being studied is not Raoul, but you, or anyone from any generation that identifies with the post-60s American drug culture.
If you have no understanding of (or harbor disdain towards) said drug culture, you will probably not "get" Fear and Loathing. That's okay. It was not made for you.
Amidst the seemingly non-sequiter madness that makes this movie such a comedy classic the attentive viewer will find a sobering self-appraisal of the social revolution that was the 60s, and the sad state in which its children were left. Raoul (Thompson), here a larger-than-life lunatic Johnny Depp, is also an everyman with whom any past or present drug user can identify.
The outwardly hilarious weekend in Vegas is, in fact, dark and miserable, overwhelmed with debauch, depression, fear and loathing. Raoul's "friend" Oscar sinks to depths that even our anti-hero finds despicable, generates one terrible experience after another, and violates every law of God or Man. Yet no ties are broken. No promise to change is made. It's all accepted as part of the trip and left behind on the highway.
Needless to say: This movie contains a strong anti-drug message.
But this is no phony, government-subsidized "Dope is Whack" campaign told by FBI-shoed business men you'd never listen to anyway. It's the truth as told from the front lines of the movement. A burn-out king who knows it's all evil, and will tell you as much even as he taps another needle. Someone worth believing.
Fear and Loathing is a powerful movie. It's also a funny movie. It gets my highest recommendation.