Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

RATING:	40%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.virginmedia.com/)

The amusing writing style of Dr Hunter Stockton Thompson does not translate well into film language, despite the apt first-person narrative and director Gilliam’s obvious affinity for the absurd.

The drugs, alcohol, violence and insanity on display here remain unexplained in their use as an attack on the emptiness of the American Dream. It is easy to understand the poor taking drugs, but why would an affluent man do so?

Essentially, this is a cynical tirade against the inevitable failure of the 60s’ hippie dream. Its reluctance to face reality foreshadows its author’s suicide in 2005 after failing to find any viable dream to replace it.

An absurdly romantic Don Quixote with no windmills to tilt at whose journalistic critique of ‘bogus objectivity’ merely leads to bogus subjectivity.

A movie that does not convince one that the accompanying book is at all worth reading.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.