This film is like mixing LSD and ACID and then being shot into a space nebula. Want to vote on what I should watch next? Click here! www.patreon.com/jamesvscinema NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN REWATCH Thursday! Enjoy the day!
Wow, LSD AND acid? Crazy!!! (You know that’s the same thing, right? Hunter S Thompson was a real journalist and this is an accurate representation of how he actually lived. Drop was also one of his closest friends.
First time i seen this movie was also my first time i ever done a hallucinogenic. My friend and i got mescalin from this old hippie couple who were neighbors of my friends brother. This couple was even at Woodstock and the old man said that he even gave mescalin to Carlos Santana. That night was insane and this movie was a huge trip to watch.
At the Matrix club... Jefferson Airplane playing in the background... White Rabbit. This sequence is a concentrate of references. I tend to believe that for "The Matrix" movie, they referenced HS Thompson themselves
True shit. There's a video on TH-cam where Joe Rogan lists a schedule of his drug use on a daily basis. Let's just say it makes sense he killed himself. Frfr
@@YoGeeBear317 Drug use had nothing to do with him killing himself. More like old age, and severe long lasting pain combined with the attitude of dying on ones own terms.
@@YoGeeBear317 he killed himself because he was getting too old and becoming too physically feeble to live life on his own terms. it was an excercise in the ultimate of freedoms.
I was so excited when this was announced. I was *obsessed* with this move when I was a teenager. I've read the book a few times, as well. It's a great adaptation.
That scene with the diner-lady is so good, because it brings "back to earth" the real reprecussions of being wild and crazy and unpredictable like this. I've been the "slightly more grounded" person in similar situations in the past, and the "oops, now it's not fun anymore"-feeling is very real, while at the same time, you're so jaded to it at that point, you kinda shrug it off, maybe offer a little "sorry" on their behalf, as you fuck off to avoid further trouble.
Yes! Ellen was so great that I sometimes have to skip that scene, if I'm just not in the mood to deal with the emotion that it dredges up, it can be too much or at least not fun.
So during production, it was Terry Gilliam's (the director) intention was that it should feel like a drug trip from beginning to end. He said in an interview, "We start out at full speed and it's WOOOO! The drug kicks in and you're on speed! Whoah! You get the buzz - it's crazy, it's outrageous, the carpet's moving and everybody's laughing and having a great time. But then, ever so slowly, the walls start closing in and it's like you're never going to get out of this fucking place. It's an ugly nightmare and there's no escape." To convey the effects of the various drugs, Gilliam and Pecorini assembled a list of "phases" that detailed the "cinematic qualities" of each drug consumed. For ether, Pecorini said they used a "loose depth of field; everything becomes non-defined"; for adrenochrome, "everything gets narrow and claustrophobic, move closer with lens"; mescaline was simulated by having "colors melt into each other, flares with no sources, play with color temperatures"; for amyl nitrite, the "perception of light gets very uneven, light levels increase and decrease during the shots"; and for LSD, "everything extremely wide, hallucinations via morphs, shapes, colors, and sound."
First time I watched this movie I never felt so claustrophobic in my whole life, each scene I feel like I just couldn't move my eyes bc there was so much going on, the director 100% achieved his goal
it wasn't just the visuals it was also the inner monologue and sound design. When he's tripping in the lobby the background noise is turned way up, giving you that paranoid feeling you get on acid in crowded spaces
The adrenochrome episode was made up though. In reality it's sold over the counter as a dietary supplement, which makes the QAnon fairy tales about it all the more ridiculous.
@@GarretRB The story the guy is telling on the phone plays a bigger role in the book. In the book the story isn't merely overheard, instead Hunter and his attorney meet some rural police in a bar and pretend to be big city police themselves, telling the "hole drilling" story as if it was an everyday occurrence in Los Angeles, and likely coming soon to a small rural town near you. It's amazing how similar the story is to the modern QAnon fairy tales. Fifty years later and they're still believing the same old nonsense.
It still stylized the experience hard - which can be much headier - but yeah, it did get lots of stuff right. Dr. Strange being another notable example of extreme visual experiences depicted very accurately withing the scope.
@@erakfishfishfish Nope, sorry, it just isn't. Not one of these swine mentions the Vincent Black Shadow god dammit......But I understand. Even the great Terry Gilliam couldn't handle the torque of that machine. Just the mention of it would have made his head explode. So it was probably for the best.
In modern times, "You people voted for Joe Biden"... I know Hunter Thompson was no fan of Nixon. He actually despised him as a politician, but he hung out with him as a person and they got along. THey talked football and stuff. But I can't imagine anyone hanging out with Joe Biden or Kamala Harris and think that they are cool. Leftism has drove a serious wedge into the modern experience that we'll never recover from.
Agreed, the scene in Midsommar where they are on mushrooms is really accurate as well when she starts seeing the grass through her feet, i had to rewind that scene the first time i watched it lol ''Holy shit that happened to me!''
Though it was long considered an unfilmable book, this movie is a remarkably faithful adaptation. A few things are juggled around for the sake of narrative structure, but overall, it's probably truer to the book than the book was to the actual events. haha
One of my favorite quotes from the book, and the shorter version in the movie, is this. “Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era-the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . . History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time-and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened. My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights-or very early mornings-when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . . There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . . And that, I think, was the handle-that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting-on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . . So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark-that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.” ― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
@@grantterlecky1248 Yeah and not cause the movie bombed. They thought he was a literal whackjob or druggie cause of his performance. It sounds odd but if so,man,thats good acting!
The "meaning of this trip" was supposed to be him there to write an article covering the race for Sports Illustrated. For real. Hunter S Thompson really did this shit, with some poetic license for the book/movie to be sure, but probably not that much.
The bit where he’s walking through the crowd and he’s like “holy fuck, there I am”, that’s the actual Hunter S Thompson, author of the book/character Johnny Depp is playing :’)
I own this on Criterion and I watched it with a couple of roommates in college on acid...the surreal moments range from horrifying to hilarious. The actual insightful moments of clarity he has are extremely poignant and hit hard since your perspective is so askew during that period of time as well.
The floor moving when he first enters the hotel at the beginning of the movie is the most accurate acid visual I've seen in a movie. It's a lot harder to replicate what your mind is doing though. You're not likely to actually see people turning into lizards and having an orgy, but it's possible for your mind to associate a room full of people with that mental imagery which can trigger a temporary paranoia that somehow that's what's actually happening even if it's not what you're seeing. The actual visuals do resemble your imagination bleeding out into reality, but not to that extent. But then again maybe I've just never taken enough in a sitting. Don't think I'd like to. Hunter S. Thompson was a madman when it came to drugs. Sometimes when I read his work I feel like he relished in even the worst of trips. For him it didn't have to be pleasant - just weird.
TBF, he took 9 hits, which could range from ~1500ug to 3000ug. I have only met one person in my life that has taken that kind of dosage and he was never the same again.
Didn't know he killed himself, this was his goodbye note, "No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun - for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax - This won't hurt."
When i was in high school i was a complete mess. I did acid way too much. Hell I did too much of every drug I could get. The first time i watched this movie while tripping it completely changed me. I still have never had an experience that even comes close to the depth of emotion and fear and love i felt watching it. I became obsessed with this movie, and all of hunter s thompsons work. i watched this movie every day for the better part of a year. id get home from school and put it on, id fall asleep to it. And every time i watch it i feel a sense of strange nostalgia for a time I wasn't alive for.
Legit my man idk what black magic was involved with the creation of this film however under the effects of psychedelics (especially if mixed with weed) you can see how they have intestinally made this film so trippy.
Lol why tho? I have found my self to watching this movie about 75 times, I could legit say most of the lines in the movie, I have read the book and I have never read a book before that. This guy hunter s thompson is truly a genius, I really do believe he had a extremely high iq
The book by Hunter S. Thompson is incredibly entertaining and insightful. It is one of the few books that I read in a single sitting. It wasn’t my intention complete the book all at once, but I couldn’t put it down.
“ a drug person can learn to cope with seeing their dead grandmother crawling up their leg with a knife in her teeth, but no one should be asked to handle this trip.” - Dr Gonzo I also recommend seeing Where the Buffalo Roam, it’s also a film about the legendary Hunter S. Thompson only Bill Murray plays him in that one.
I was in Junior High when this came out. My older brother and his friends rented it and I happened to walk in just as the first line hit. I was pretty much sucked right in. Found a copy of the book and it was well worth the read. Lots of insight about the times. Loved your reaction!
Speaking from personal experience this has the most accurate depiction of lsd use I've ever seen in a move. The pattern bleeding, the pulsing, the facial distortions, it's all so much more realistic than the usual "he see's a dragon come out of the tv and goes to cartoon world" nonsense. LSD rarely produces outright fabrications and is usually much more of a sensory distortion. Everything except the lizard blood orgy is spot on.
The shirt Tobey McGuire's hitchhiker wears is a Ralph Steadman painting of Mickey Mouse. Steadman was a friend of HST, and did a bunch of artwork for his books.
Bill Murray plays Hunter S. Thompson in "Where the Buffalo roam" as an adaptation of "Fear and loathing on the campaign trail". And Depp plays him again in Thompson's film adaptation of the Rum Diaries - which was based on his novel of the same name. And there isn't a movie adaptation for it yet, but reading Thompson's Hells Angels is about his 3ish years with them. It's just as bonkers as every other stuff, but that man's command of English was astonishing. A true original. RIP
Cool love a little Hunter S Thompson. Read the book before the film was made. Stream of consciousness style of writing. Gonzo Journalism. The 60’s were wild man.
Dr. Gonzo, Raul Duke, Hunter S. Thompson, is a literal idol for me as messed up as he got sometime. His writing works were phenomenal and have a presence was always legendary. You should consider looking into some of his other writings and interviews. Especially the one where he confronts a hells angel on television. A freaking legend.
@Gerald H yeah you're totally right. Even after posting that I was like eh someone's going to say something about that. Haha thanks for the correction though.
If you watch this movie on LSD or Shrooms, you’ll think it’s literally the greatest movie ever made. It goes along with your trip so perfectly! You feel everything the characters feel.
Have you ever tried it? Because there are moments of pure, unfiltered terror that you can only experience when you’re in your own head having a bad trip. In a bad trip, one minute can feel like epochs 😂
My little brother turned me onto this about 10 years ago and I loved it. So many do not get it, but we could send each other random out of the blue quote text messages and smile knowing the other was enjoying an epic film again. I lost him last year due to medical problems, but I will always have this beautiful, insane, deplorable, crazy, brilliant and funny film about trying to find a disappearing American Dream to remember him by.
The cast is absolutely overflowing with talent. Micheal Jeter, Christopher Meloni, Ellen Barkin, Penn Jillett, Mark Harmon, Harry Dean Stanton. And it does portray a lot of those chemicals very accurately. My friends and I dropped a few tabs of vitamin A and saw this in the theater when it came out. Outstandingly good times! I highly recommend reading some Hunter S. What a strange mind...
Hunter S Thompson (Duke) really was sent to cover the Mint 500 race. He never turned in the story on the race, but when he did eventually return to LA he had this story, which was run in multiple parts by Rolling Stone. Thompson has also been portrayed by Bill Murray in “Where the Buffalo Roam” (another semi biographical adaption of what Thompson did while he was supposed to be covering the 1978 Super Bowl and Election) and Johnny Depp (again) this time under the name of Paul Kemp in “The Rum Diary” which, again, is autobiographical and adapted from one of HST’s novels. The “Gonzo Journalism” repeatedly mentioned in the film basically refers to HST’s practice of turning in news stories about what he got up to at events instead of actually covering the event itself, which led to Thompson’s own infamy. The other primary example is his story “the Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved” which is often published in joint with Fear and Loathing and tells a very similar tale of excess, this time mainly booze-centric.
It's a book from Hunter S. Thomson the gonzo journalism creator take a look to that there are documentaries and even more movies based on his books watch Where the buffalo roam with Bill murray (1980) or The Rum diary with Johnny Depp (2011)
@@leonstrand329 it's a tough read for sure, I've tried a few times, I think it helps if you share a frame of reference with Burroughs, ie, if you've previously tried a whole giant pile of acid yourself.
It's such a tiny facet of this cinematic gem, but the character on the payphone while Hunter's sunshine acid is kicking in at check-in is talking about a 16yr old girl getting decapitated in a parking lot. It's almost subliminal, but a big part of theme development imo. Another great reaction good sir! Love your work!
My story My parents took me to see this movie at the theaters when I was a kid. I did not understand the movie at all and just seemed bizarre. What I did recall was that the theater was packed and very loud. Constant maniacal laughter and outrageous reactions to certain scenes. It wasn't until rewatching the movie when older did I realize the madness that was likely around me with a theater likely full off people on psychadellics out of their minds . Haha good times.
I watched this while at college in 1999 in the basement of a frat house with a couple friends. We started the VHS right after dropping. By the end of the movie, I didn’t realize I was feeling the effects, I had forgotten I dropped and thought it was just the movie that was making me feel like I was tripping.
I have watched the film multiple times on acid, mushrooms, and DMT(although you're gone after that second or third hit). Hoping to add mescaline to the mix. It's a fantastic movie that really sums up my journeys when on psychedelics like that and being in public.
Also voices a brilliant version of a strung out Jim Gordon on the Harley Quinn animated series. A hugely underrated actor, especially comedy. Love the guy.
Duuuuuude!!!!!! Yes!!! So glad you finally got around to this one! One of my all time favorites. I was so obsessed with it I subconsciously started talking like Raoul Duke LOL. Took me years to stop 🤣. Btw the part where he throws the grapefruit at Dr. Gonzo's head has me in a laughing fit every time. The whole scene, yell included! 😆😂
The director is the bridge keeper in Monty Python's Holy Grail...and he did *all* Python's animation. James...do check out everything Gilliam directed *before* Fear and Loathing. And dig his somewhat failed career...followed the same path that cursed Orson Welles into fractured, problematic, unmarketable "genius".
Baron Munchausen, Time Bandits, the Fisher King, 12 Monkeys, Brazil…. I wouldn’t call his career “failed” at all. He’s made some stinkers, but who hasn’t?
You ever seen “Predestination” bro? Best time travel movie ever! The story alone is phenomenal but you add in the directing and cinematography to such a trippy movie and it becomes something wildly unexpected! Especially if you like twist endings!!!👍
I second this. Incredible adaptation of Heinlein's All You Zombies. I just wish they'd have come up with a better title. Predestination sounds generic, and I think a lot of people pass it by because of that.
So glad you discovered this film. It's unlike any other you will ever see and can't be compared in its content and style. The only comparison I ever made was in its impact on popular culture, at the time it felt like it had a similar effect on my generation as Trainspotting did.
@@DoggfatherUK yeah... but I’m just saying. The trip to LV, the race he was supposed to be reporting on, the drugs, the lawyer, the cop convention. The plot is a true story. And of course it’s gonna differ from objective reality... hallucinogens are involved. That’s as subjective as it gets.
@@muuuzaklistener Jesus. The movies based on a book. The book what’s known as a roman à clef. That means a book based on real like, and in this case autobiographical, events with a facade of fiction. I’m not saying everything is accurate to his actual experience, but he very much factually was sent out to Las Vegas to cover the desert race by Sports Illustrated. That’s not up for debate. That’s literally the truth. It’s quite different from the actual events, but it’s still based on a true story. He didn’t just sit in his apartment and make the events up. That’s all I’m saying.
Hunter S Thompson is probably one of the most interesting Americans to ever live. If you havnt had the privilege, please take this opportunity to learn more about him.
Here's a fun fact that kind of blew my mind. Toby mcguire's hair in the beginning while he was in the car is completely CGI. It's so good i Couldn't tell at all until I watched a video that pointed it out
I was part of the ones underrating him during my highschool time (21 jump street, I thought it was a "girl" stuff and he was just an actor for teenage girls).... But then I saw this movie, then Dead Man, and in fact I really love him, he's one of my favorite now. And I'm sad that he "slipped" with Pirates, he can do such great things.
@@garryiglesias4074 I think he simply loves his created Captain Jack so much that he doesn't care that much how good or bad the screenplay is... if he can play Jack he seems so happy all the time :-p
@@jewel79 Yeah I agree that his character has something and I kind of like Sparrow somehow. But as the BBs sang: He got "The skills to pay the bills". While Led Zep said "Good times, bad times, you know I've had my share"...
how do you not have a million subs yet?? shits beyond me bro.. sick reaction mate. me and my buddy tripped to this film, fucking loved it all the way through. the set design is like made for it lol.. the part where they step off the carasel and walk off and say 'i think somethings happening to me' had us in hysterics.. looked like dude was walking off into the air lmao
That spinning bar is based on the Circus Circus Hotel Bar with an actual spinning carousel. It wasn't on last time I went but yeah, drinking and spinning don't mix, especially in Vegas lol. Glad you enjoyed this movie. One of my gems. This is still of the most faithful adaptations of book/ film ever made. I believe the wardrobe Depp wears is actually Hunter S. Thompsons clothes.
Went with my gf at the time (we were in High School) … bunch of elderly were there … there was a massive walk out about 10 minutes in. We were the only ones who stayed the entire time.
This is the film you show to people who ask "What was the 70s like?" Context: Dr Gonzo was Oscar Zeta Acosta, a civil rights lawyer for the Brown Power Movement, a little-known but more heavily feared Latino-based militant movement in LA at the time. Their leader had been killed by a police gas grenade and the city was waiting for a race war and so when Thompson got the assignment to go to Vegas and write captions for Lacerna's photographs of the Mint 400, he and Acosta thought it was the best way to avoid getting killed, which is why they brought weapons. So they both loaded up on drugs and tripped balls all the way to Vegas and back. But Acosta was violent when fucked up and he met a violent end years later. The article ended up not happening, but Thompson documented what he saw during his adventures and wrote them into a 2-part article for Rolling Stone that was then published into a book of the same name. So he accidentally conjured one of the best political writings of the century despite being cosmically high and surrounded by assholes in a grotesque hellscape created to entertain "normal" people.
This movie is based on a novel by Hunter S Thompson, one of the greatest minds ever to exist. It is partially based on actual events from Thompson's life. He wrote many books, essays, and articles in this life. I would highly recommend exploring Thompson's work.
A buddy and I put this in the DVD player at a beach house as we began tripping. We went to the beach to chill out to the experience. When we came back to watch this, his mom was sitting in front of the tv like a child laughing her ass off. Bugged me out more than I could have ever imagined. That was the last time I did anything like that.
I've watched this movie on a variety of substances over the years, and it's always a fascinating journey through absurdism and psychedelia. Brilliant writing, casting, and cinematography. An all-around masterpiece.🤘
your reaction came out on my birthday😊.the weeknds heartless video is inspired by fear and loathing and johnny depps narration is just amazing but benicio is just such a mood
This film is like mixing LSD and ACID and then being shot into a space nebula.
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NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN REWATCH Thursday! Enjoy the day!
So that's LSD and more LSD. Ok.
@@donaldb1 lol... but the statement is still true. It’s definitely like mixing acid with more acid. Lol.
Thank you for tackling this one-of-a-kind movie. Johnny Depp, Benecio del Toro, directed by Terry Gilliam. Wish I was a PA on that film! 😜
Wow, LSD AND acid? Crazy!!! (You know that’s the same thing, right? Hunter S Thompson was a real journalist and this is an accurate representation of how he actually lived. Drop was also one of his closest friends.
First time i seen this movie was also my first time i ever done a hallucinogenic. My friend and i got mescalin from this old hippie couple who were neighbors of my friends brother. This couple was even at Woodstock and the old man said that he even gave mescalin to Carlos Santana. That night was insane and this movie was a huge trip to watch.
The “mother of god! There I am!” is true - that’s the real Hunter S Thompson right there.
At the Matrix club... Jefferson Airplane playing in the background... White Rabbit. This sequence is a concentrate of references.
I tend to believe that for "The Matrix" movie, they referenced HS Thompson themselves
True shit. There's a video on TH-cam where Joe Rogan lists a schedule of his drug use on a daily basis. Let's just say it makes sense he killed himself. Frfr
I've watched this on a shroomz, weed, and ketamine. I don't recommend it.
@@YoGeeBear317 Drug use had nothing to do with him killing himself. More like old age, and severe long lasting pain combined with the attitude of dying on ones own terms.
@@YoGeeBear317 he killed himself because he was getting too old and becoming too physically feeble to live life on his own terms. it was an excercise in the ultimate of freedoms.
"How do you write the script to this?"
Simple. You adapt it from a book written by a guy who literally took drugs for breakfast.
You copy the book word for word. (Why mess with perfection?)
@@erakfishfishfish Well, Alex Cox was the guy who messed it up. Thank god he wasn’t directing this movie.
This is actually one of the most faithful book to film adaptations ever. Which explains just how insane Hunter Thompson's book was
Plus Johnny depp was a good friend of hunters as well he has all his manurisms and his voice on point
Lunch and dinner included
James: "I know nothing about this film"
Me: "This is going to be amazing"
😂🦇
I was so excited when this was announced. I was *obsessed* with this move when I was a teenager. I've read the book a few times, as well. It's a great adaptation.
@@JamesVSCinema Read. The. Book!
@@thadiuslindahl6282 yes. THIS!
@@haru_urara_tube Hunter Thompson approved of the movie. Highly.
We can't stop here. This is bat country.
🦇
I can't read the opening quote to the movie without it devolving into the Avenged Sevenfold song
I was a trucker for a bit... managed to get a photo that matches the rocks in the background. They really are 40 miles out of Barstow.
That scene with the diner-lady is so good, because it brings "back to earth" the real reprecussions of being wild and crazy and unpredictable like this. I've been the "slightly more grounded" person in similar situations in the past, and the "oops, now it's not fun anymore"-feeling is very real, while at the same time, you're so jaded to it at that point, you kinda shrug it off, maybe offer a little "sorry" on their behalf, as you fuck off to avoid further trouble.
Lol u wrote that like hunter s thompson
@@manofpower9289 Did I!? I'll take that as a compliment :D
Yes! Ellen was so great that I sometimes have to skip that scene, if I'm just not in the mood to deal with the emotion that it dredges up, it can be too much or at least not fun.
top tier comment
Yeah the actresses performance is amazing in that scene.
So during production, it was Terry Gilliam's (the director) intention was that it should feel like a drug trip from beginning to end. He said in an interview, "We start out at full speed and it's WOOOO! The drug kicks in and you're on speed! Whoah! You get the buzz - it's crazy, it's outrageous, the carpet's moving and everybody's laughing and having a great time. But then, ever so slowly, the walls start closing in and it's like you're never going to get out of this fucking place. It's an ugly nightmare and there's no escape." To convey the effects of the various drugs, Gilliam and Pecorini assembled a list of "phases" that detailed the "cinematic qualities" of each drug consumed. For ether, Pecorini said they used a "loose depth of field; everything becomes non-defined"; for adrenochrome, "everything gets narrow and claustrophobic, move closer with lens"; mescaline was simulated by having "colors melt into each other, flares with no sources, play with color temperatures"; for amyl nitrite, the "perception of light gets very uneven, light levels increase and decrease during the shots"; and for LSD, "everything extremely wide, hallucinations via morphs, shapes, colors, and sound."
Love this description!
First time I watched this movie I never felt so claustrophobic in my whole life, each scene I feel like I just couldn't move my eyes bc there was so much going on, the director 100% achieved his goal
James coming in to watch Fear and Loathing with no context - hell yeah, I'm in.
I’m so happy I did!
One of the only movies to depict LSD and other hallucinogens properly.
it wasn't just the visuals it was also the inner monologue and sound design. When he's tripping in the lobby the background noise is turned way up, giving you that paranoid feeling you get on acid in crowded spaces
Seriously...it blew my mind how accurate it was
The adrenochrome episode was made up though. In reality it's sold over the counter as a dietary supplement, which makes the QAnon fairy tales about it all the more ridiculous.
@@GarretRB The story the guy is telling on the phone plays a bigger role in the book. In the book the story isn't merely overheard, instead Hunter and his attorney meet some rural police in a bar and pretend to be big city police themselves, telling the "hole drilling" story as if it was an everyday occurrence in Los Angeles, and likely coming soon to a small rural town near you. It's amazing how similar the story is to the modern QAnon fairy tales. Fifty years later and they're still believing the same old nonsense.
It still stylized the experience hard - which can be much headier - but yeah, it did get lots of stuff right. Dr. Strange being another notable example of extreme visual experiences depicted very accurately withing the scope.
The book of this is psychotically deranged, monstrously amoral and one of the most painfully funny things I've ever read.
😂😂😂
I thought it was quite poetic.
And the film is the book word-for-word
@@erakfishfishfish Nope, sorry, it just isn't. Not one of these swine mentions the Vincent Black Shadow god dammit......But I understand. Even the great Terry Gilliam couldn't handle the torque of that machine. Just the mention of it would have made his head explode. So it was probably for the best.
@@dravenblackthorn4765 what was The Vincent Black Shadow? I've read most the book.
"You people voted for Hubert Humphrey, and you killed Jesus!" is one of my favorite lines in any movie ever.
I like hearing the guy in the background when they're breaking the coconuts "is that your car?!!!" 😂😂😂
my favorite to man
"Order us some golf shoes, it's impossible to walk in this mud" for some reason or another stuck with me, and it wasn't even the best line
@@FINNSTIGAT0R "Dogs fucked the Pope. No fault of mine."
In modern times, "You people voted for Joe Biden"...
I know Hunter Thompson was no fan of Nixon. He actually despised him as a politician, but he hung out with him as a person and they got along. THey talked football and stuff.
But I can't imagine anyone hanging out with Joe Biden or Kamala Harris and think that they are cool. Leftism has drove a serious wedge into the modern experience that we'll never recover from.
The hotel carpet and the faces distorting are some the best replications of acid tripping visuals I’ve seen in a movie.
Agreed, the scene in Midsommar where they are on mushrooms is really accurate as well when she starts seeing the grass through her feet, i had to rewind that scene the first time i watched it lol ''Holy shit that happened to me!''
Though it was long considered an unfilmable book, this movie is a remarkably faithful adaptation. A few things are juggled around for the sake of narrative structure, but overall, it's probably truer to the book than the book was to the actual events. haha
One of my favorite quotes from the book, and the shorter version in the movie, is this.
“Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era-the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .
History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time-and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.
My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights-or very early mornings-when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . .
There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .
And that, I think, was the handle-that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting-on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark-that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
that was awesome... ok, now i gotta read this book finally
“How do you write the script for this?”
You live it. And bring a tape recorder for good measure.
However, Dr. Thompson himself would admit later that often he'd review the tapes and hear nothing but garbled nonsense.
And bring a second tape recorder for when your buddy wants to commit Sudoku by Jefferson Airplane.
This movie was just about my favourite thing when it came out, me and my friends watched it all the time. It's a god damned hilarious masterpiece.
It’s so damn fun!
The dialogue is so amazing because its mostly lifted intact from the incredible novel it is based on.
The yell from Del Toro is literally the Best Part lol
Dude he’s so damn awesome hahaha
And Johnny Depp is also is the best part of the movie.
That whole scene is my favourite from the film.
I read Del toro said he had trouble getting cast for 2 years after this Lol
@@grantterlecky1248 Yeah and not cause the movie bombed. They thought he was a literal whackjob or druggie cause of his performance. It sounds odd but if so,man,thats good acting!
The "meaning of this trip" was supposed to be him there to write an article covering the race for Sports Illustrated. For real. Hunter S Thompson really did this shit, with some poetic license for the book/movie to be sure, but probably not that much.
Hard to argue "poetic license" when he can't tell what he saw vs. what actually happened.
The bit where he’s walking through the crowd and he’s like
“holy fuck, there I am”,
that’s the actual Hunter S Thompson, author of the book/character Johnny Depp is playing :’)
I own this on Criterion and I watched it with a couple of roommates in college on acid...the surreal moments range from horrifying to hilarious. The actual insightful moments of clarity he has are extremely poignant and hit hard since your perspective is so askew during that period of time as well.
"when you go to a sleepover but your homie doesn't give you a blanket" TOTALLY UNDERSTAND 😂
Happy you caught the relatability 😭
Or you have to go into the friend's closet and dig out the scratchy square blanket from the 60s that he didn't know he had
The Diethyl Ether is probably the hardest I've laughed from a film ever.
The floor moving when he first enters the hotel at the beginning of the movie is the most accurate acid visual I've seen in a movie. It's a lot harder to replicate what your mind is doing though. You're not likely to actually see people turning into lizards and having an orgy, but it's possible for your mind to associate a room full of people with that mental imagery which can trigger a temporary paranoia that somehow that's what's actually happening even if it's not what you're seeing. The actual visuals do resemble your imagination bleeding out into reality, but not to that extent. But then again maybe I've just never taken enough in a sitting. Don't think I'd like to. Hunter S. Thompson was a madman when it came to drugs. Sometimes when I read his work I feel like he relished in even the worst of trips. For him it didn't have to be pleasant - just weird.
TBF, he took 9 hits, which could range from ~1500ug to 3000ug. I have only met one person in my life that has taken that kind of dosage and he was never the same again.
@@pyregazer9210 how so
@@rakimmartinez2557 well it changes your brain chemistry
@@maxjudge2318 yea but I was hoping he would elaborate on how he was never the same. A lot can fall under that phrase.
@@rakimmartinez2557 Yeah, Syd Barrett was never the same from acid, but you could say the same thing about all the members of the Grateful Dead.
Hunter S. Thompson (the writer of the book the movie is based on) is worth some research, he truly was a unique man and journalist.
Thompson died on my 35 Birthday. It was an interesting day.
Dude's daily routine is legendary.
@@noneofurbizness5838 I think of him and miss him every day
@@GoodDocGonzo He was a true water buffalo. One of a kind.
Didn't know he killed himself, this was his goodbye note,
"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun - for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax - This won't hurt."
When i was in high school i was a complete mess. I did acid way too much. Hell I did too much of every drug I could get. The first time i watched this movie while tripping it completely changed me. I still have never had an experience that even comes close to the depth of emotion and fear and love i felt watching it. I became obsessed with this movie, and all of hunter s thompsons work. i watched this movie every day for the better part of a year. id get home from school and put it on, id fall asleep to it. And every time i watch it i feel a sense of strange nostalgia for a time I wasn't alive for.
Damn.
falling asleep to it and waking up during random parts greatest feeling ever. this is a film worth obsessing over
Legit my man idk what black magic was involved with the creation of this film however under the effects of psychedelics (especially if mixed with weed) you can see how they have intestinally made this film so trippy.
wrote that like hunter s thompson 😂
Lol why tho? I have found my self to watching this movie about 75 times, I could legit say most of the lines in the movie, I have read the book and I have never read a book before that. This guy hunter s thompson is truly a genius, I really do believe he had a extremely high iq
The book by Hunter S. Thompson is incredibly entertaining and insightful. It is one of the few books that I read in a single sitting. It wasn’t my intention complete the book all at once, but I couldn’t put it down.
“ a drug person can learn to cope with seeing their dead grandmother crawling up their leg with a knife in her teeth, but no one should be asked to handle this trip.” - Dr Gonzo
I also recommend seeing Where the Buffalo Roam, it’s also a film about the legendary Hunter S. Thompson only Bill Murray plays him in that one.
Also the Rum Diary which is a pretty good set piece of how Hunter was before he got more into the character of Rauol Duke and the Drugs....
Sooooo happy you’re reacting to this underrated, hilarious, dark, strange, absolute banger.
I was in Junior High when this came out. My older brother and his friends rented it and I happened to walk in just as the first line hit. I was pretty much sucked right in. Found a copy of the book and it was well worth the read. Lots of insight about the times. Loved your reaction!
Appreciate you!!
Favorite line. " No use telling him about these damn bats, the poor basterd will see them soon enough"
Hunter S Thompson was an epic human.
Speaking from personal experience this has the most accurate depiction of lsd use I've ever seen in a move. The pattern bleeding, the pulsing, the facial distortions, it's all so much more realistic than the usual "he see's a dragon come out of the tv and goes to cartoon world" nonsense. LSD rarely produces outright fabrications and is usually much more of a sensory distortion. Everything except the lizard blood orgy is spot on.
Must have been something else he took when he did the LSD that produced the orgy.
The shirt Tobey McGuire's hitchhiker wears is a Ralph Steadman painting of Mickey Mouse. Steadman was a friend of HST, and did a bunch of artwork for his books.
Bill Murray plays Hunter S. Thompson in "Where the Buffalo roam" as an adaptation of "Fear and loathing on the campaign trail". And Depp plays him again in Thompson's film adaptation of the Rum Diaries - which was based on his novel of the same name. And there isn't a movie adaptation for it yet, but reading Thompson's Hells Angels is about his 3ish years with them. It's just as bonkers as every other stuff, but that man's command of English was astonishing. A true original. RIP
Hunter is brilliant, but this would only be half a story if it wasn't for Oscar Acosta. Incredible stuff.
I've seen this movie so many time. Love your reactions man. Reminds me of the first time.
Happy to hear Augie!
Would love to see you watch some more Gilliam movies. Brazil is amazing film: Robert de Nero as a Sam fisher style resistance plumber. Nuff said.
Cool love a little Hunter S Thompson. Read the book before the film was made. Stream of consciousness style of writing. Gonzo Journalism. The 60’s were wild man.
love this movie so so much. hunter s Thompson was a bloody one of a kind definitely worth reading up about the guy. 100%
Dr. Gonzo, Raul Duke, Hunter S. Thompson, is a literal idol for me as messed up as he got sometime. His writing works were phenomenal and have a presence was always legendary. You should consider looking into some of his other writings and interviews. Especially the one where he confronts a hells angel on television. A freaking legend.
@Gerald H yeah you're totally right. Even after posting that I was like eh someone's going to say something about that. Haha thanks for the correction though.
You have to watch “Brazil”, it’s the best film Terry Gilliam ever made. Also you should totally get into some Monty Python if you’ve never seen them!
@@strangebiped In a lot of ways it's a warped retelling of "1984", with a slightly less bleak ending.
“When things get weird. The weird go pro.”- H. Thompson
"When The Going Turns Weird,
The Weird Turn Pro."
-Hunter S. Thompson
@@calebclunie4001 that’s it
"We can't stop here, this is bat country" , gets me every time.
If you watch this movie on LSD or Shrooms, you’ll think it’s literally the greatest movie ever made. It goes along with your trip so perfectly! You feel everything the characters feel.
Have you ever tried it? Because there are moments of pure, unfiltered terror that you can only experience when you’re in your own head having a bad trip. In a bad trip, one minute can feel like epochs 😂
"He who makes a beast out of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man."
Saw this back in the day in theatre, clean and sober... felt high as FUCK leaving the theatre!
My little brother turned me onto this about 10 years ago and I loved it. So many do not get it, but we could send each other random out of the blue quote text messages and smile knowing the other was enjoying an epic film again. I lost him last year due to medical problems, but I will always have this beautiful, insane, deplorable, crazy, brilliant and funny film about trying to find a disappearing American Dream to remember him by.
The cast is absolutely overflowing with talent. Micheal Jeter, Christopher Meloni, Ellen Barkin, Penn Jillett, Mark Harmon, Harry Dean Stanton. And it does portray a lot of those chemicals very accurately. My friends and I dropped a few tabs of vitamin A and saw this in the theater when it came out. Outstandingly good times! I highly recommend reading some Hunter S. What a strange mind...
Cameron Diaz, Christina Ricci, Gary Busey, Tobey Maguire, Craig Bierko, Richard Riehle, Verne Troyer, and Lyle Lovett, also.
Flea!
Hunter S Thompson (Duke) really was sent to cover the Mint 500 race. He never turned in the story on the race, but when he did eventually return to LA he had this story, which was run in multiple parts by Rolling Stone. Thompson has also been portrayed by Bill Murray in “Where the Buffalo Roam” (another semi biographical adaption of what Thompson did while he was supposed to be covering the 1978 Super Bowl and Election) and Johnny Depp (again) this time under the name of Paul Kemp in “The Rum Diary” which, again, is autobiographical and adapted from one of HST’s novels.
The “Gonzo Journalism” repeatedly mentioned in the film basically refers to HST’s practice of turning in news stories about what he got up to at events instead of actually covering the event itself, which led to Thompson’s own infamy. The other primary example is his story “the Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved” which is often published in joint with Fear and Loathing and tells a very similar tale of excess, this time mainly booze-centric.
His HELLS ANGELS story is epic 👍
Fuck yeah it is. I love how it’s also a crossover with the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
"This film feels like an acid trip."
No wait five minutes.
It's a book from Hunter S. Thomson the gonzo journalism creator take a look to that there are documentaries and even more movies based on his books watch Where the buffalo roam with Bill murray (1980) or The Rum diary with Johnny Depp (2011)
If you think this is trippy then strap in for The Naked Lunch.
I tried reading that book..... I just couldn't, felt like I was on some kind of opiates
@@leonstrand329 it's a tough read for sure, I've tried a few times, I think it helps if you share a frame of reference with Burroughs, ie, if you've previously tried a whole giant pile of acid yourself.
It's such a tiny facet of this cinematic gem, but the character on the payphone while Hunter's sunshine acid is kicking in at check-in is talking about a 16yr old girl getting decapitated in a parking lot. It's almost subliminal, but a big part of theme development imo.
Another great reaction good sir! Love your work!
Tobey Maguires "cameo" in this film was a chefs kiss lmaoo it gets me to laugh everytime it never fails
@@wfly81 thats why i put it in quotes. Its not a cameo but its less than a small part
rotten tomatoes: 49%
the people that actually matter: 89%
they live up to their name yet again.
Me and my best friend since 1985 have been on numerous journeys just like in This Movie. 🙃
My story
My parents took me to see this movie at the theaters when I was a kid. I did not understand the movie at all and just seemed bizarre.
What I did recall was that the theater was packed and very loud. Constant maniacal laughter and outrageous reactions to certain scenes.
It wasn't until rewatching the movie when older did I realize the madness that was likely around me with a theater likely full off people on psychadellics out of their minds .
Haha good times.
wow what an experience
I would never go to a cinema on any psychedelic
I watched this while at college in 1999 in the basement of a frat house with a couple friends. We started the VHS right after dropping. By the end of the movie, I didn’t realize I was feeling the effects, I had forgotten I dropped and thought it was just the movie that was making me feel like I was tripping.
I have watched the film multiple times on acid, mushrooms, and DMT(although you're gone after that second or third hit). Hoping to add mescaline to the mix. It's a fantastic movie that really sums up my journeys when on psychedelics like that and being in public.
Congrats to 70.000 James :) love your attitude! keep up the good work :)
The hotel clerk that would later be on Mad Men actually went on to be in Law & Order SVU. That’s Chris Meloni, not John Hamm.
Also voices a brilliant version of a strung out Jim Gordon on the Harley Quinn animated series.
A hugely underrated actor, especially comedy. Love the guy.
@@booty2k dude’s wildly chaotic in Happy! too.
completely forgot Terry Gilliam directed this, absolutely perfect for the job. Brazil is one of my favorite movies.
I wasn't on drugs when I watched this film, but it definitely made me feel like I was on drugs lol
Factual hahaha
OH MY FUCKING GOD YES! I'm so glad you're watching this! This was a staple in my teenage years, such a gorgeously chaotic experience.
Duuuuuude!!!!!! Yes!!! So glad you finally got around to this one! One of my all time favorites. I was so obsessed with it I subconsciously started talking like Raoul Duke LOL. Took me years to stop 🤣. Btw the part where he throws the grapefruit at Dr. Gonzo's head has me in a laughing fit every time. The whole scene, yell included! 😆😂
Man, I've been hopin' somebody would check this one out 🤣 Thanks brother!
The director is the bridge keeper in Monty Python's Holy Grail...and he did *all* Python's animation. James...do check out everything Gilliam directed *before* Fear and Loathing. And dig his somewhat failed career...followed the same path that cursed Orson Welles into fractured, problematic, unmarketable "genius".
He's in my favorite Python sketch, "The Spanish Inquisition". I mean he's in a ton but I always remember him specifically in that.
I would argue that Brothers Grimm is still worth watching. Gilliam does a great job capturing the whimsy of fairy tales in that one.
Time Bandits, Brazil and 12 Monkeys all incredible films.
He was also Sir Arthur’s faithful servant Patsy in The Holy Grail.
Baron Munchausen, Time Bandits, the Fisher King, 12 Monkeys, Brazil…. I wouldn’t call his career “failed” at all. He’s made some stinkers, but who hasn’t?
“I don’t understand it, but I get it.” Perfect review of the film.
You ever seen “Predestination” bro? Best time travel movie ever! The story alone is phenomenal but you add in the directing and cinematography to such a trippy movie and it becomes something wildly unexpected! Especially if you like twist endings!!!👍
I’ll have to take note!
Ethan Hawke...Time travel...thats all you need to know...no poll needed for this One! I honestly don't think I have seen anyone react to that either.
I second this. Incredible adaptation of Heinlein's All You Zombies. I just wish they'd have come up with a better title. Predestination sounds generic, and I think a lot of people pass it by because of that.
Predestination is such an amazing and genuinely UNDERRATED film. Definitely worthy of a reaction video.
It is an excellent time travel film but the best?... IMO I think "Primer" edges it out with a superb script and almost no budget.
So glad you discovered this film. It's unlike any other you will ever see and can't be compared in its content and style. The only comparison I ever made was in its impact on popular culture, at the time it felt like it had a similar effect on my generation as Trainspotting did.
The fact that this is a true story makes it even crazier.
Well Gonzo truth.
Truth mixed with hunters imagination and his drug frenzied mind.
@@DoggfatherUK yeah... but I’m just saying. The trip to LV, the race he was supposed to be reporting on, the drugs, the lawyer, the cop convention. The plot is a true story. And of course it’s gonna differ from objective reality... hallucinogens are involved. That’s as subjective as it gets.
@@plexus Definitely
its gonzo, so who knows…..
@@muuuzaklistener Jesus. The movies based on a book. The book what’s known as a roman à clef. That means a book based on real like, and in this case autobiographical, events with a facade of fiction. I’m not saying everything is accurate to his actual experience, but he very much factually was sent out to Las Vegas to cover the desert race by Sports Illustrated. That’s not up for debate. That’s literally the truth. It’s quite different from the actual events, but it’s still based on a true story. He didn’t just sit in his apartment and make the events up. That’s all I’m saying.
Love that you came into this completely not just blind but deaf
Hunter S Thompson is probably one of the most interesting Americans to ever live. If you havnt had the privilege, please take this opportunity to learn more about him.
Haven't even watched yet and already know you're gonna love the cinematography. :)
After reading this, he casually says “This is shot so well”.
Hunter S Thompson is a god! He’s not The God, but definitely a god. RIP. Read his books and become a disciple.
You: "I don't undertand BUT I GET IT!" Best review of this film I have ever heard.
Oh so I guess it was Johnny Depp and not Vince Vaughn in the end.
Btw, I know I'm late but I managed to report those Instagram accounts in the end.
Ay thank you so much bro! Hope you’re goodie!
@@JamesVSCinema Truth be told, I have a date on Saturday
Here's a fun fact that kind of blew my mind. Toby mcguire's hair in the beginning while he was in the car is completely CGI.
It's so good i Couldn't tell at all until I watched a video that pointed it out
Johnny Depp is so underrated. He is one of the best actors of his generation. Blow is also so so so good.
I was part of the ones underrating him during my highschool time (21 jump street, I thought it was a "girl" stuff and he was just an actor for teenage girls)....
But then I saw this movie, then Dead Man, and in fact I really love him, he's one of my favorite now. And I'm sad that he "slipped" with Pirates, he can do such great things.
@@garryiglesias4074 I think he simply loves his created Captain Jack so much that he doesn't care that much how good or bad the screenplay is... if he can play Jack he seems so happy all the time :-p
@@jewel79 Yeah I agree that his character has something and I kind of like Sparrow somehow.
But as the BBs sang: He got "The skills to pay the bills". While Led Zep said "Good times, bad times, you know I've had my share"...
how do you not have a million subs yet?? shits beyond me bro.. sick reaction mate. me and my buddy tripped to this film, fucking loved it all the way through. the set design is like made for it lol.. the part where they step off the carasel and walk off and say 'i think somethings happening to me' had us in hysterics.. looked like dude was walking off into the air lmao
My guy this was so great to read 🙏🏽
To weird to live to rare to die
Hunter s Thompson
🦇
That spinning bar is based on the Circus Circus Hotel Bar with an actual spinning carousel. It wasn't on last time I went but yeah, drinking and spinning don't mix, especially in Vegas lol. Glad you enjoyed this movie. One of my gems. This is still of the most faithful adaptations of book/ film ever made.
I believe the wardrobe Depp wears is actually Hunter S. Thompsons clothes.
"I don't get it, but I do" That's a good summary of this movie
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
I love the writing in this, so many golden lines
An absolute banger sir! Great reaction as always
You Drive! I Think There's Something Wrong with me! 😂😂
Yes! I've been waiting for this one!!!!
There are a lot of movies where Depp essentially just plays himself in a different costume, but here he does an amazing impersonation of Thomson.
I saw this when it came out in the cinema. About 20 people in theater when I got there. It was just me and my friend when the lights went up.
Went with my gf at the time (we were in High School) … bunch of elderly were there … there was a massive walk out about 10 minutes in. We were the only ones who stayed the entire time.
Been waiting for this one!
Woo!
This is the film you show to people who ask "What was the 70s like?"
Context: Dr Gonzo was Oscar Zeta Acosta, a civil rights lawyer for the Brown Power Movement, a little-known but more heavily feared Latino-based militant movement in LA at the time. Their leader had been killed by a police gas grenade and the city was waiting for a race war and so when Thompson got the assignment to go to Vegas and write captions for Lacerna's photographs of the Mint 400, he and Acosta thought it was the best way to avoid getting killed, which is why they brought weapons. So they both loaded up on drugs and tripped balls all the way to Vegas and back. But Acosta was violent when fucked up and he met a violent end years later.
The article ended up not happening, but Thompson documented what he saw during his adventures and wrote them into a 2-part article for Rolling Stone that was then published into a book of the same name. So he accidentally conjured one of the best political writings of the century despite being cosmically high and surrounded by assholes in a grotesque hellscape created to entertain "normal" people.
This movie is based on a novel by Hunter S Thompson, one of the greatest minds ever to exist. It is partially based on actual events from Thompson's life. He wrote many books, essays, and articles in this life. I would highly recommend exploring Thompson's work.
Great pick my man! One of my all time favourites
The book of the same name was absolutely amazing as well. Extremely graphic and descriptive.
As someone with experience in psychedelics I can tell you that this is the most accurate visual depiction of the effects of these substances.
A buddy and I put this in the DVD player at a beach house as we began tripping. We went to the beach to chill out to the experience. When we came back to watch this, his mom was sitting in front of the tv like a child laughing her ass off. Bugged me out more than I could have ever imagined. That was the last time I did anything like that.
I've watched this movie on a variety of substances over the years, and it's always a fascinating journey through absurdism and psychedelia. Brilliant writing, casting, and cinematography.
An all-around masterpiece.🤘
Remember watching this in movie theater back in the day👍
your reaction came out on my birthday😊.the weeknds heartless video is inspired by fear and loathing and johnny depps narration is just amazing but benicio is just such a mood