An oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychedelic escapades.An oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychedelic escapades.An oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychedelic escapades.
- Awards
- 1 win & 3 nominations
Brian Le Baron
- Parking Attendant
- (as Brian LeBaron)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn the book, Hunter S. Thompson listens to "Sympathy For The Devil" by The Rolling Stones. The rights to play it in the film were too expensive for the production's budget.
- GoofsDr. Gonzo spoofs the "Richard Nixon salute" when he gets on the plane at the end of the movie. Nixon didn't resign or do the classic "salute" until 1974.
- Quotes
[watching Dr. Gonzo leave]
Raoul Duke: There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
- Crazy creditsThe Ralph Steadman drawings from the book are put in with the credits, along with the Gonzo & Duke in the Red Shark picture that takes up the whole screen at the end.
- Alternate versionsThe US-label Criterion ordered director Terry Gilliam and author Hunter S. Thompson to create a special Director's Cut. This cut contains a scene that otherwise was only to be seen in part and only in the cinematic trailer. It shows events in retrospect that the main character Raoul Duke remembers fragmentarily when listening to the recorded conversations on his cassette recorder. Furthermore there is a slightly longer version of another scene shortly before that. There is a bit more conversation going on between Raoul and Dr. Gonzo when they want to leave because of the trouble the kidnapped Lucy (Christina Ricci) is causing. Director's Cut's Pal running time is 144.1 seconds (2:24 minutes) longer because of two extended scenes.--Quoted from movie-censorship.com
- ConnectionsEdited from Vega$ (1978)
- SoundtracksMy Favorite Things
Written by Richard Rodgers (as Richard Rogers) and Oscar Hammerstein II
Published by Williamson Music
Performed by The Lennon Sisters
Courtesy of Ranwood Records/ A Walk Music Group Co.
By arrangement with Warner Special Products
Featured review
I have read countless reviews of this movie that have derided it for everything from glorifying drugs to being unchristian to being boring. Maybe my mind works very much like director Terry Gilliam's (I loved 'Brazil' and '12 Monkeys'), but the last thing I would do to this movie is deride it. It is a brilliant adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's generation-defining book of the same name - it stays very faithful to the events in the book.
First of all, this movie literally glows with Gilliam's eye for detail that he has consistently displayed throughout his career. The sets are so elaborate, one could never take in all the scenery from any number of viewings without slowing it down and watching very closely. The bombardment of the bright, flashing lights of Las Vegas and the bizarre camera angles, as well as surreal sets make for an interesting and entertaining presentation regardless of a lack of coherency and taste. What we have here is a movie riddled with black humor and a horrifying satire of the American dream. I'll admit it takes a very `unchristian' viewpoint to laugh at the `straight economics' of allowing policemen to gang-f**k a girl for $30 a head. Therefore, people bound by a constricting sense of morality should never have watched this movie in the first place. It is for people like me who enjoy living a very un-stoic life (at least vicariously through movies) by having radical ideas and perspectives forced upon them. Fear and Loathing is the embodiment of such a perspective - it is a gruesomely accurate depiction of the bi-product of the often-glorified 60's drug culture. And one thing that countless critics seem to carelessly omit in their analyses is the constant references to the `American Dream.' Johnny Depp (Raoul Duke/Hunter Thompson), in his verbose verbal narrations, makes quite a few references to a desparate hunt for reason behind the madness of not only this `American Dream', but the drug culture as well - "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." - Dr. Johnson (displayed before the opening scene). The problem with the waning popularity of this movie is simply that its design was not meant to appeal to the buttoned-down mainstream. People that want to laugh and cry in a movie theater and then get the hell on aren't the type of people that would enjoy seeing an unjustified drug-induced frenzy on Las Vegas. This movie has everything a critic should be looking for in a masterpiece - magnificent cinematography, lovely acting, shock value, provocation of thought, and a meaning behind it all. To freaks like me it also has immense entertainment value as well. This work will be one of my favorite movies of all time.
First of all, this movie literally glows with Gilliam's eye for detail that he has consistently displayed throughout his career. The sets are so elaborate, one could never take in all the scenery from any number of viewings without slowing it down and watching very closely. The bombardment of the bright, flashing lights of Las Vegas and the bizarre camera angles, as well as surreal sets make for an interesting and entertaining presentation regardless of a lack of coherency and taste. What we have here is a movie riddled with black humor and a horrifying satire of the American dream. I'll admit it takes a very `unchristian' viewpoint to laugh at the `straight economics' of allowing policemen to gang-f**k a girl for $30 a head. Therefore, people bound by a constricting sense of morality should never have watched this movie in the first place. It is for people like me who enjoy living a very un-stoic life (at least vicariously through movies) by having radical ideas and perspectives forced upon them. Fear and Loathing is the embodiment of such a perspective - it is a gruesomely accurate depiction of the bi-product of the often-glorified 60's drug culture. And one thing that countless critics seem to carelessly omit in their analyses is the constant references to the `American Dream.' Johnny Depp (Raoul Duke/Hunter Thompson), in his verbose verbal narrations, makes quite a few references to a desparate hunt for reason behind the madness of not only this `American Dream', but the drug culture as well - "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." - Dr. Johnson (displayed before the opening scene). The problem with the waning popularity of this movie is simply that its design was not meant to appeal to the buttoned-down mainstream. People that want to laugh and cry in a movie theater and then get the hell on aren't the type of people that would enjoy seeing an unjustified drug-induced frenzy on Las Vegas. This movie has everything a critic should be looking for in a masterpiece - magnificent cinematography, lovely acting, shock value, provocation of thought, and a meaning behind it all. To freaks like me it also has immense entertainment value as well. This work will be one of my favorite movies of all time.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Las-Vegasdagi qo'rquv va nafrat
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $18,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $10,680,275
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,338,590
- May 24, 1998
- Gross worldwide
- $10,680,275
- Runtime1 hour 58 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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What is the streaming release date of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) in Australia?
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