Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas DVD
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS is a
whirlwind of a movie, a wacky, drug-laden story backed by a fist-pumping
rock & roll soundtrack featuring everything from Wayne Newton and Tom
Jones to Combustible Edison and Dead Kennedys. Journalist Raoul Duke
(Johnny Depp) heads to Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race, bringing
along his Samoan lawyer, Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro), in this furious
adaptation of the book by Hunter S. Thompson. It is 1971, and Duke and
Gonzo are on their way to Sin City with a frightened hitchhiker (a nearly
unrecognizable Tobey Maguire) and a trunkful of drugs, which they ingest
nonstop. Depp is terrific as Duke, Thompson's alter ego, and Del Toro is a
riot as the crazy lawyer. To perfect his Thompsonian performance, Depp
spent a lot of time with the good doctor, and it paid off in a film that
captures the frenetic pace of the counterculture novel. Director Terry
Gilliam, a master of complex, bizarre visual imagery, has a field day
interpreting the drug-hazed world in which Duke and Gonzo reside. An
all-star cast chimes in with wonderfully offbeat bit parts, including
Harry Dean Stanton, Gilliam regular Katherine Helmond, Flea, Cameron Diaz,
Ellen Barkin, Christina Ricci, Gary Busey, Lyle Lovett, and others.
Fear
And Loathing In Las Vegas Soundtrack