Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) - Review

This film, based on the 1971 Hunter S. Thompson novel of the same name is a surreal viewing experience to say the least. In fact very few films in the history of cinema have concocted such bizarre scenarios for mainstream consumption. Watching this film it seems to move along at rapid pace even in the silliest moments of monotonous action. It transfixes a feeling of motion where, from all logical analysis there seems to be none. Ideas seem detached from reason and because of this move forward with an unconventional wit. The work could to some come across as disorganised or displaced in its protolithic motions. Basic progression for the characters seems in itself to be a triumph at times.

Whilst watching commences, you are seemingly transfixed in the actions that take place before you. There is a certain dislodging of perspective during this time caused by everything from the cinematography, to the acting, direction on to the editing and again through to the art design. All of these elements combine together to place the viewer into the bizarre distorted minds of the hallucinogenic protagonists. We experience as they experience. Unlike other films we never have a definitive story laid upon us. There are no real aims and the only real progression comes through the proceedings of the characters, which we ourselves feel to have embraced.

Now although this on a narrative form may be seen to be loose, it most certainly isn’t. Even as action unfolds in a flowing manner you never feel as though the piece has lost direction. There always seems to be an end point in the distance, even if not necessarily in sight we feel that there is a point of future conclusion. Throughout the films continuation, there is into the strangest moments of dysphoria, a voice over which continues as a guide of logic to the pandemonium of sporadic notions taking place before you.

So why is it that these things in the end work as positives in synchronism with one another? With this in mind the main suggestion here would be that because it aims to expel the experience as opposed to telling the story, once recognising this fact particular audience members choose to embrace it. Not all audience members of course, but those who are willing to view things within the set boundaries of the movies perspective. It’s a movie that claims to set out searching for the American dream, but the film never seems to be about that. The American dream is irrelevant. It is only relevant in context to the characters lot in life. They seem in all appearances happy with their ways under the almost constant influence of psychedelic drugs. They don’t view things in the way that all those around them do yet are happy all for it. And in the end that is what the film is about to me, an embracement of your own ideas and projections. It is a film about rebellion and nothingness all at the same time. It embraces the individual over the conformist no matter how bizarre, surreal, abstract or damn near insensible it may seem to be.