Mediocre reviews kept me away from this film for awhile. I even chalked up the cult following it had to rabid Gilliam worship. But after learning more about Hunter S. Thompson via the marvelous documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr., Hunter S. Thompson, and getting this Bluray in the mail, I realized I had probably been missing something. Thompson was a writer inextricably tethered to his times. Only a complete cynic could, on reflection, write him and his work off as the mutterings of a wastrel. No, Thompson spilled his disillusionment out with a ferocious intent. This was a soul screaming, a banshee, a wounded soldier of the seventies caught up, tripped out and sadly marred by the excess that seemed like the only way out after Altamount. Thompson was noone's role model but his life ultimately offered a cautionary lesson for would-be social/cultural game changers. Just another jaded provocateur? "There is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof is death." is one way to look at Thompson's binging road trip. But then again Thompson is the one still driving by the end of the film, still looking, still hoping. That's not the mark of a jaded man. Wherever Thompson wound up on his journey he always bemoaned the places he couldn't get to. You don't have to read between the lines of his work to see that. What he did most effectively was bear pained witness to the place our society was headed as the majority of those in it chased an increasingly twisted American dream.
Did Gilliam possibly capture that tragic spirit on film? The answer turns out to be no, but Fear and Loathing doesn't miss by much and second and third viewings reveal it to be far more than just a sprawling celebration of excess as a panacea. What tripped me up initially was how devastatingly funny the film was. It was easy to miss almost everything the movie had to say while I was convulsed. The high-as-a-kite journey of Thompson and his psychopathic lawyer through circus styled casinos, Vegas anti-drug conventions, and the lost parade of humanity that was the nineteen seventies is iconographic in the sense that an icon provides a window for meditation. You want it? it's all there baby. All the weirdness anyway. If Gilliam fails Thompson in anything it's in his inability to hold Thompson accountable for what he really saw on the road. Surely every innocent wasn't so wide-eyed and empty headed? There's as little virtue as there is historical reality in the movie. And most importantly though the film is eloquent about what Thompson is running from it never shows us what he might run to. Noone gets where they're going in this movie unless where they're going is a dead end. The endless extras from the previous excellent two-disc DVD Criterion set are all accounted for here. The sound and the image are stunning across the board.
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