Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
1998 · Directed by Terry Gilliam
Original language: English
- adventure
- drama
- comedy
The story
Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo drive a red convertible across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to cover a motorcycle race. As their consumption of drugs increases at an alarming rate, the stoned duo trash their hotel room and fear legal repercussions. Duke begins to drive back to L.A., but after an odd run-in with a cop, he returns to Sin City and continues his wild drug binge.
What it’s like
Saturated, hallucinatory color crowds every frame: hot magenta and acid green neon, sunburnt desert yellow, the sickly beige of a casino carpet, all shot with a restless handheld camera that lurches, swivels and jump-cuts as if the lens itself is high. Sound does half the work, with a loud 1970s rock and blues soundtrack, sudden silences, and a looping sense of disorientation that blurs one room into the next. Pacing is frantic and episodic, a sequence of set pieces that tip into sprawling dream logic and then snap back to a sun-bleached, paranoid lull. Tone is dark, sardonic and chaotic, a cozy-chaos cult favorite for a late night alone or a loose, wild-eyed weekend with friends. Intensity is high on drug use, drunken vomiting, grotesque hallucinated imagery, and sporadic bursts of violence and profanity, but gore is minor and the mood is more madcap than menacing. Best for viewers who want an unhinged, stylised trip through a drug-soaked American fever dream.
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