![]() ![]() ![]() The answer is a clear and resounding affirmative, and only an ibogaine-addicted imbecile would fail to see it. This is certainly the case with Arrow Video’s pristine 4K restoration transfer.Ī question one might ask is that after 50 years whether there really is much more to be said about Hunter, Gonzo journalism, and Fear and Loathing in written or celluloid form? Considering that there are already several Blu-ray releases of the film, including the excellent 2011 Criterion Edition release, it’s fair to ask whether this is a release anyone needs. Although not complex, Gilliam’s film captures layers in ever scene, and merits further revisits with new discoveries. It’s a story that defies the audience to make sense of it. The film is a roller-coaster of madcap vignettes, strung together with Thompson’s lyrical prose and a top drawer cast of Hollywood faces filling out almost every minor role, and a sense of fun that defies the inherent danger ever-present amidst the coke, ether and adrenochrome-saturated moments. Whipped into form with Johnny Depp channelling Thompson’s manic energy and frantic gurning, offset by Benicio del Toro‘s ever more threatening, sinisterly-studied, monolithic portrayal of Acosta. From there comes an orgy of screaming, knives, guns, watermelons, white rabbits and Barbara Streisand. But the story remains: two crazy men visiting Las Vegas in an open-top car, with an article to write and a suitcase full of illegal drugs to fuel them. While it’s well known that the characters of Duke and Gonzo are thinly veneered stand-ins for Thompson and his lawyer Oscar Acosta, the honest truth of how much really occurred can only ever be guessed at. Gonzo’s failed attempts to cover the Mint 400 race, then the Police Convention on Narcotics, have become legendary. It’s fitting then that now, fifty years on and twenty years after the “unfilmable” book was finally brought to yoke by Terry Gilliam, that there is a new Blu Ray release of the cult classic. The book’s many quirky and hysterical adventures of Raoul Duke and Dr. Thompson immortalised his semi-autobiographical chronicle of wretched, debauched and drug-addled mayhem in America’s most psychedelic city. It’s been almost half a century since Hunter S. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |