Fellmans Movie Reviews

Red = Spoilers 

This is literally my #1 favorite movie of all time. I first saw this movie when I was 15 years old, and it made me who I am today. It turned me on to a whole different world of things and ideas and people that I wasn’t aware of beforehand. It made me learn to write and listen to other people that did. But not in the stiff, stuck-up way that so many writers are accustomed to. More of an uncultured literary agent, freewheeling their way with no goal in mind and no plan on how to get there. 

What’s it about? Hunter S. Thompson and Oscar Acosta took a drug-fueled trip to Las Vegas in 1971 and Hunter wrote a book about it. That’s it. That’s the movie. There’s no deep meaning to it. There’s no great existential metaphor. They’re wasted out of their minds in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is a pretty trippy town to begin with, and to be on a ridiculous amount of drugs while you’re doing it is pretty intense. And also, just to make it clear, I don’t think you could get away with anything they did in this day and age. The only reason they got away with any of the things they did was because there was no sort of recording technology like there is today. Today there’s cameras everywhere. Everything is digital. You need to check in with cards for everything. They used cash for everything back then. You could go around practically anonymously. Crime was much easier in the 70s. They would’ve been arrested in a heartbeat by today’s standards. Cops are way too uptight nowadays.  

What’s good? It’s definitely an entertaining movie. The director is Terry Gilliam from Monty Python fame, so it’s not like he doesn’t know his way around a camera. So many sequences are so out control it kind of takes this whole other feel sometimes. And then, in the middle of a scene, it’ll just stop and turn off, and switch directions like an actual drug trip. It’s kind of crazy.  

What’s bad? I think this created a kind of exaggerated persona and perception of Hunter S. Thompson as opposed to what he really was when you read his work. People look more at Hunter as just this drug fueled maniac as opposed to a writer, kind of like people look at Ozzy for his crazy stories instead of as a musician.  

The acting? Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro are exquisite in this movie. They play the parts of the characters they’re portraying perfectly. As a matter of fact, to learn the part, Johnny Depp spent six months with Hunter S. Thompson at “Owl Farm”, Hunter’s “fortified compound” in Colorado. He would wake up and do drugs on a daily basis with Hunter. It’s hard to describe here, but it’s a lot more interesting than it sounds. 

The effects? For 1998, the effects weren’t half bad. The lizards looked good in the bar and all the effects when they were on acid and looking at the people outside are good distortions with CGI I assume. They’re not bad effects considering when it was made.  

The story? There is no real story. Technically, they’re going to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race. I mean, that’s in the movie. But I’d say it gets less than 10 minutes of screen time, tops. That’s not what the movie is about. It’s an adaptation of the book Hunter wrote. And the book is an amalgam of a drug fueled frenzy translated to paper. 

The soundtrack. The soundtrack works great for the movie. A lot of classic rock and 60s era hippie jams. Everything tracks with the scenes that they’re in. It’s a really well done soundtrack.

Hunter S. Thompson. Learning about Hunter S. Thompson made me a much better writer and a much more prolific thinker than when I originally started writing. There’s an independence to the mind frame that comes along with the writing style. It’s a cognitive wheelhouse that you get trapped up in.  

Pure Gonzo Journalism. The one thing Hunter did was live the story. He went there and did that. He went and got the information no matter what was happening. Buy the ticket, take the ride.  

So, yeah. Go and see this. And tell them I sent ya. And remember to keep your eyes peeled. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…