Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
 

Ive seen that movie tons of times and love it. So i bought the book. The book is just as good, which is strange because the movie makes little sense in some places but the book is really really good, anyone else read it?

I saw the movie when it first came out, long before I knew of I saw the movie when it first came out, long before I knew of Thompson and his background. Since then, I've read clips here and there of his stories in different journals and books and I now understand that the movie was so good because it had such an in-depth book to get ideas from! I'm yet to really get into Thompson's work, but Terry Gilliam, the director, has become my favorite director over the past few years and fear and loathing is just one of his many great works. I highly recomend anything else by him.... See this link for a list of his works, both those he acted in (most of the old monty pythons...) and that he directed.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/s...9557339-9499818

He directed:
12 Monkeys
Brazil
Adventures of Barron Munchausen
Fear and Loathing in LV
Time Bandits
Lost in La Mancha
The Fisher King
Jabberwocky

12 monkeys was great your right

Almost have the Fear DVD worn out, if that's possible. I was given the book my senior year in highschool by a co-worker who's father taught college english. I read the book and was amazed and confused. Incredible writing.

I saw the first 10 minutes of this, rolled my eyes, and put my Two Towers vcd in instead. It was utter crap, imo.

So your attention span is.. how long?


I think there are some sparkly things to your left somewhere... check them out.

All fans of this movie should definately check out the Criterion Collection DVD. It totally rocks and has three commentary tracks, including one by Hunter and one by Gilliam.

It's definately one of the better dvds in my collection.

Lol, let me refer you to the writing above his avatar...
:D

The book was interesting, read it a decade ago or so. That's with the seven stages of drunkenness, right?

Awesome movie, my brother read the book and said he was going to give it to me when he finished but he never did. Bastard. Oh well, still want to read it.

the book was excellent. the movie was a decent attempt to capture the spirit of the book. but its one of those books thats basically impossible to properly capture on film. i give it an A for effort and a C on execution, overall grade: B+

I find I can re-read the book very easily, just sit down one evening and before I know it its all over (again).

The movie had things like the music and Circus-circus set that are nice to see and hear - even when you've already imagined it all fitting together. The "wanna buy some heroin!" scene is actually much funnier in the book.

I was recently thinking about the <a href="http://www.obviouspop.com/gonzo/images/gonzotheart.gif">incredible original Ralph Steadman illustrations for Fear and Loathing</a> and what would have happened if Steadman and Thompson had collaborated with the masters of anime and western animation to make the movie.

Freaky thought.

my goodnes Macheath that would be insane. Thompsons writting has gotten more and more strange over the years, i just read a article-thing that he wrote form Adbusters that is really vemonfilled and vulger, so great stuff. Also the scene in the movie where he spills LSD on his coat in that club and the other guy licks it off his arm then the normal person comes in a sees them and ir ruins his life, in the book Thomson just imagines that part and says that that would be cool if it happened but never did. Stuff like that is really why i read the book to try and better understand what happened and what didnt

I can pay attention if something is meaningful. If it's nothing but a glorification of the drug-culture, I get turned off and put something with substance in instead. I'm not a big fan of drugs, since a few friends of mine have suffered greatly while using them.

Yeah! The book is fantastic! And I also love Gilliam's movies. 12 Monkeys and The Adv Of B Munchausen are 2 of my favorite movies. I've never seen Jabberwocky though, is it good too?

The film represents the book perfectly. Scene for scene it is exactly the same.

After viewing one, there is really no reason to view the other. You feel like you are witnessing the exact same thing.

That is extremely rare.

I heard about the movie from a friend, so I went out and bought the book. The movie is a really good adaptation of the book, I remember wondering "how the hell did they make this into a movie?" when I was reading it. Its a really funny movie, full of a lot of memorable quotes. I downloaded a clip of Thompson appearing on Conan's show, its hillarious! They're shooting machineguns and shit while drinking whiskey haha. (I can't remember if it has the seven stages of drunkenness, Peetster-what were they?)

read it a couple years before the movie. try thompson's book about the hell's angels.

After all these comments, I'm thinking I should pick up the book. I also want to get the Criterion version of teh DVD.

It's a great flick. Own it on VHS and DVD.

"I knew, your a fucking narcotics agent" -Depp.

Peace.

Fantasic book, fantastic movie. J. Depp is really excellent and seeing Benicio del Toro with a paunch is hilarious.

It is a great book. It is hard for any movie to capture the feeling that you have when you are reading the book. but the movie is not bad.

I was really relieved once I knwo that Gilliam was directing this. He, Depp and Deltorro really pullled it off.

Anyone see the documentary on Gilliam's failed picture - it was heart breaking...

one of my all time favorite non-serious books!

i'm in drug recovery now, so it might not be quite as funny to me anymore, but i loved it in college.

if you liked that movie, check out "where the buffalo roam." it has bill murray as hst. shaky movie, but c'mon, bill as hunter? a must see.

Loved the book when i read it years ago, very different, raw and powerful stuff and funny. never saw the movie. For those who like thompson and steadman together (i do), try to locate a book called "the curse of lono". its by thompson, generously illustrated by steadman about a trip to hawaii, and features thompson at his angry, paranoid best. i lent my copy out years ago and never got it back.

Funniest book I've ever read.....thought the movie sucked. Just could'nt see Depp as Thompson.

Which picture was that?

crappy movie...

i seem to remember listening to something on NPR with regards to a failed Gilliam picture.. could it have been his idea of "Don Quixote"?

The documentary, about Gilliam's failed adaptation of <i>Don Quixote</i>, is known as <i>Lost In La Mancha</i>.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...55204?v=glance

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0308514

i'm a big fan of terry gilliam, brazil is one of my all time favourites. depp & del torro are great actors, but ...
for me the movie didn't work. i read the book some years before the movie and i really enjoyed it a lot.
the movie was a lettdown for me.

This was an awesome movie... question though. Is it worth it to pick up the book? Does it explain quite a bit more or just ellaborate a few times?

Hmm funny thats exactly how I feel about your posts.

The movie was Lost in LaMancha. You really should check it out - it really brings to light Terry's mad vision - and why the studios hate to work with him.

books are always better than movies, no time limit on them. I try to watch the movie first and then go to the book. It is better to enjoy the movie, then go in depth with the book than to enjoy the book and then be dissapointed in the movie.

Yeah, i love the book and the film. I recently read an interview with him on aintitcoolnews. He only agreed to the interview on the provisor that the journo bought weed along.

Wait a min. G5_Todd thinks that this is a crappy movie! Holy Crap!!! it really must be! i've totally changed my opinion of it now! well thank God that G5_Todd posted in a Fear and Loathing thread when he didnt like the movie JUST to tell us that he didnt. AND! He offered some amazing, intelligent and longlasting arguments to back up his openminded and enlightened post. Wow, that makes my day, OOOH man.

Saw the movie and loved it, it's one of my fav's, however I haven't got to check out the book yet.

I guess I am the only one that feels like the movie was lacking and that Johnny Depp was not the right choice in playing that character. I read the book before I saw the movie, so maybe I just expected more.

liked the book... movie was eh...

i just don't think you can get the whole drug thing out onto film....

hehe.... The Criterion disc for F&L is amazing if you like the movie. The extra features with Hunter S. Thompson are insane - which I guess is apt considering how much drugs this man has ingested over the years.

Oddly enough, Mr. Thompson goes into pretty good depth on why he didn't really like the movie, and wasn't a huge fan of Gilliam. He didn't hate it, but thought it wasn't very true to the book. Although, he pauses several times throughout the commentary to bark, screech, and howl into the microphone, so it's entirely possible he doesn't even remember that he actually wrote the book! ;)

If you want to see a more light-hearted adaptation, rent <i>Where the Buffalo Roam</i>, with Bill Murray and Peter Boyle (1980). It's a combination of <i>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas</i> and <i>Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail</i>."

Also - some of you guys could lighten up a little with the responses. Just because someone doesn't agree with you is no reason to attack them personally - the world would be a very boring place if we were all like-minded. This is a discussion board - if you want to make personal insults to someone you don't even know, I suggest Fark.com

Read the book first and was completely blown away. Hunter S. Thomspson is one of my favorite authors, he's insane! Watched the film afterwards and although not as good as the book (that always seems to be the case) it was still an excellent film. Johnny Depp did a fantastic job of portraying Hunter. I love both the book and the film and would suggest them to everyone. :)

Loved the film, picked up the book in a store once and read a random page, I could not for the life of me stop myself from doing so in a Roaul Duke voice.

I own the criterion dvd and for the life of me can't really decide if i love the film or not it's definetly a trip either way.

I read the book a few years before the movie came out. The book blew me away. First experience with Hunters writing, and I loved it. I've since read quite a lot of his other books including The Gonzo Letters, vol. 1 and 2. Some of the letters aren't all that exciting but overall it gives you some great insight into where Hunter was at while writing some of those books. Hells Angels is another great book of his.

I thought the movie was a pretty good adaptation of the book. I love both the book and the movie.

I didn't like Where the Buffalo Roam as much, but to be fair the copy of the movie I watched was a really old worn out VHS.

On another note, I heard that Hunters first book, "The Rum Diary" is going to be made into a movie as well. I can't recall where I read that though. I think in an article about him breaking his leg in Hawaii recently.

I've had the movie sitting around for a while, but haven't watched it yet.

For those of you who have both watched the movie and read the book, which one should I do first to get the best experience?

Of how much I like Thompson, I feel that Terry Gilliam is what made the movie good. His creations are brilliant

you should always watch the movie first becuse often a movie is way diffrent from the book and you won't have any things imagined in your head for the movie to be spoiled by.

The movie was awesome although I ahve yet to read the book. I've had a couple of friends who were on some heavy stuff...and I could their actions mirrored on depp's character

Never saw the movie. Read the book many times in the '70s, back when I was in college. Thompson wrote a lot for Rolling Stone in those days, and I'd buy any issue with his stuff in it. It was all Fear and Loathing. The "Samoan attorney" was in real life a Latino activist/lawyer/politician/alleged drug smuggler (lot of sides to the guy) named Oscar Zeta Acosta who vanished under mysterious circumstances in the '70s and was never seen again. Thompson wrote a long article about it, worth reading.

You all are probably not fans of early '70s politics, but Thompson's book "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" is just as great a read -- a gonzo look at the Nixon/McGovern presidential campaign of '72. For my money, it's even wilder in places than "las vegas."