Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (film)

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Movie
German title Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Original title Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Fear-logo.svg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1998
length 111 or 118 (Director's Cut) minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Terry Gilliam
script Terry Gilliam
Tony Grisoni
Death Davies
Alex Cox
production Patrick Cassavetti
Laila Nabulsi
Stephen Nemeth
music Ray Cooper
camera Nicola Pecorini
cut Lesley Walker
occupation
synchronization

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (shown alternatively as: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ) is a feature film directed by Terry Gilliam from the year 1998 . The screenplay is based on the novel Fear and Terror in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson .

action

Raoul Duke, the alter ego of Hunter S. Thompson , has a doctorate in sports journalist and should in 1971 for a magazine about the off-road racing Mint 400 in the desert near Las Vegas report. He is met by his bizarre friend and lawyer Dr. Gonzo (inspired by Oscar Zeta Acosta ) accompanied.

Duke and Gonzo drive to Las Vegas in a rented Chevrolet Impala Cabriolet . Already on the way there are both in the drug intoxication .

“We had two bags of weed , seventy-five balls of mescaline , five sheets of blotting paper of extra strong acid , a salt shaker half full with cocaine and a whole spectrum of multicolored uppers , downers, howlers, laughs ... as well as a liter of tequila , a bottle of rum , a crate of beer , half a liter of ether and two dozen poppers . Not that we needed all of that for our trip, but once you've set out to build a serious drug collection, you tend to get extreme. "

On their drive through Death Valley , Duke and Gonzo pick up a young hitchhiker. Horrified by the strange behavior of the two, he flees the car after a short stop.

After arriving at the Mint Hotel and attending the press registration, Duke sees reptiles at the bar due to his hallucinations , and the floor appears to be filling with silt . In his room Duke gets a visit from the photographer Lacerda, who is supposed to take the photos for his report. Under the influence of LSD, Duke mixes television images of the Vietnam War with reality and sees Lacerda as a soldier.

The next morning the race begins in the Nevada desert. It seems impossible for Duke to keep track of the large number of drivers and the thick clouds of dust. During a jeep ride with the photographer, he experiences a flashback caused by the drugs and mixes reality again with images of war. When Lacerda demands "total reporting", Duke ends the collaboration with his photographer.

In the evening Duke and Gonzo explore the city. They are kicked out of the Debbie Reynolds show , then, under the influence of mescaline and ether , they visit a casino called Bazooko-Circus, where bizarre circus performances provide the backdrop for gambling. Both characters show paranoid tendencies in this scene. Back in the suite, Gonzo acts aggressively. A short flashback shows how he threatens Lacerda with a knife in the elevator.

As the night progressed, Gonzo took a large amount of LSD and took a bath, mostly clothed. Suicidal tendencies overcame him . He asks his friend Duke to throw a tape recorder into the bath water for the song White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane . Instead, he throws a grapefruit on his head and escapes from the bathroom with the cassette recorder. Gonzo storms out of the bathroom angrily and threatens Duke with a knife. He drives Gonzo back into the bathroom with the help of a megaphone and the threat of tear gas.

As it calmed down, Duke remembers his past: In a flashback you can see him in 1965 in San Francisco when Jefferson Airplane was playing the song Somebody to love in a club called The Matrix . He remembers his first experiences with LSD. For original images from the hippie era, Duke cites a section from the book from the off , which is dedicated to the 1960s and the Summer of Love . He describes this time as a high point that his generation and himself will probably never experience again.

The next morning the lawyer Dr. Gonzo gone. The suite in the Mint Hotel has turned into chaos. After Duke realizes he can't pay the immense room service bill, he decides to flee. He is stopped for a short moment by the hotel manager who wants to hand him a telegram. On the way to Los Angeles, Duke engages in a short chase with a highway cop, but he confronts him. The policeman is upset about it and advises Duke to take a break at the next rest stop. Then he lets him go for a little kiss. In a small desert town, Duke's way back to Los Angeles is supposedly cut off: In one direction he sees the hitchhiker standing on the side of the road that the two of them had taken with them on their way there, and Duke's renewed sight fears him. In the other direction, Duke suspects the highway policeman ambushing him on his way to LA. From a phone booth he calls Gonzo in his office, who tells him about the reserved suite in the Flamingo Hotel , which was already mentioned in the telegram. Raoul Duke is now due to report on a convention of district attorneys on drugs.

Back in Las Vegas, Duke gets a new car, a white Cadillac convertible. Dr. Gonzo has already moved into the suite, with him is a young woman named Lucy, whom the lawyer met on the flight back to Las Vegas. She is under the influence of LSD and has several portraits of Barbra Streisand with her. Duke convinces Gonzo to get rid of Lucy. Gonzo reluctantly agrees at first, but then allows Duke to book her a room in another hotel. Then she is put in a taxi.

When reporting on the congress, the drug-savvy protagonists are confronted with the views of the “other side”. After a lecture by a drug expert, about whose incompetent remarks Gonzo is angry, an educational film about drug addicts is shown. Both Gonzo and Duke will leave Congress during the event.

Back in the suite, the bellboy informs Duke that Lucy has called. In view of the fact that Gonzo has administered drugs to the girl who is apparently still underage, Duke imagines how he and his lawyer will be tried and sentenced to "double castration ". To allay his worries and get rid of Lucy once and for all, Gonzo calls Lucy on the phone: he tells her a crazy story and simulates a fight. Meanwhile, Duke consumes Adrenochrome , which causes him to blackout . He can only partially remember the subsequent events, which must have dragged on over several days and nights. Tape recordings are used to fade in flashbacks of a number of experiences, including an argument with a cleaner in the hotel, a night drive through Las Vegas and a scene in a coffee bar characterized by subliminal violence. After a fast-paced ride that leads to a reunion with Lucy, Duke drops the lawyer at the last minute directly at the plane, where the two of them part ways. Duke briefly returns to the suite, which was also devastated in the course of the plot, in order to continue writing his report, but then also leaves the city and drives towards Los Angeles.

background

The film was shot in Los Angeles , Rosemead , Jean , Kingman , Las Vegas and Red Rock Canyon . Filming began on August 3, 1997 and ended on October 22, 1997. The budget of the film is estimated at around 18.5 million US dollars . The film premiered on May 15, 1998 at the Cannes International Film Festival . From May 22, 1998, the film was shown in US cinemas. The film opened in Switzerland on September 4, 1998. It was shown in German cinemas on September 24, 1998. In the US, the film grossed over $ 10.5 million. Although it was not able to convince at the international box office, it later became a cult film .

In Cameoauftritten include Hunter S. Thompson , Tobey Maguire , Cameron Diaz , Flea , Laila Nabulsi and Terry Gilliam to see.

The trailer shows a few short scenes that did not make it into the theatrical version of the film and can only be seen in the Director's Cut.

The title Somebody to Love by Jefferson Airplane , which can be heard in the film , was published in a cover version by Boogie Pimps in 2003 . In the intro of this cover version you can hear a quote from the original sound of the film. The accompanying music video borrows characteristic details from the original feature film.

criticism

The film received mostly bad reviews in the US press. In his review of the film in The New York Times , Stephen Holden wrote: "Even the most exact cinematic implementation of Mr. Thompson's images cannot hold a candle to the surreal force of the author's language." US film critic Roger Ebert described the film as one Shame and gave him a maximum of four stars in his review. He wrote that this film "is a hideous jumble, formless, nonsensical, senseless - a film based on a single joke - if it existed."

In the German press, however, the film was rated significantly better:

“The film offers exceptionally innovative cinema, which is carried by the exuberant imagination of its director and the playfulness of the main actor. With all the self-destructive energy of the protagonists, the film is characterized by the melancholy realization that the openness and dynamism of a bygone era are no longer possible today. "

- Lexicon of international film

"Terry Gilliam, who has proven time and again that he is a master of bizarre cinema, surpasses himself here. In powerful, funny and extremely imaginative images, he delivers a grotesque trip that is decisively shaped by the great Johnny Depp."

- Francesco Tornabene : Funkhaus Europa

“ Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas describes the crash landing of an entire generation: Around 1965, the hippies set out to realize their version of the American Dream with the help of pop, drugs and sex. In 1971 there wasn't much left of their enthusiasm. Idols like Hendrix and Joplin are dead, Woodstock and Flower Power are history. "Time" named Richard Nixon Man of the Year and four students protesting against the Vietnam War were shot dead in Ohio . This real background of the film is faded in via television monitors, Nixon's grimace sails through the room like an evil spirit that the love generation cannot get rid of. The film is a kind of swan song for a country that could obviously only be endured in a drug intoxication, but also for a frozen rebellion. "

- epd Film , 10/98, quoted from: Cinematograph 236, January 1999

Later assessments

Since the film was released on video and DVD, the assessment has partly changed. In the British Guardian , for example, film critic Joe Queenan wrote in 2014: “No, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is not a breathtakingly extravagant, simply horrible film - it is so great you can never shut your mouth. Everyone who doesn't see it that way is idiot. "

Awards

The film ran in 1998 at the Cannes International Film Festival in the competition for the Palme d'Or . That same year, Johnny Depp won a Golden Aries from the Russian Guild of Film Critics .

German dubbed version

The German dubbing was done in the Babelsberg film studio in Potsdam-Babelsberg . The dialogue book was written by Sven Hasper , who also directed the dubbing .

actor German speaker role
Benicio Del Toro Torsten Michaelis Dr. Gonzo
Johnny Depp David Nathan Raoul Duke
Tobey Maguire Kim Hasper Hitchhikers
Cameron Diaz Bianca Krahl TV reporter
Larry Cedar Oliver Rohrbeck Car rental employee
Gregory Itzin Bodo Wolf Employee of the Mint Hotel
Chris Hendrie Hans Nitschke Executive director
Gary Busey Hans-Jürgen Wolf Highway cop
Verne Troyer Rainer Fritzsche Waiter
Michael Lee Gogin Stefan Krause Waiter
Ellen Barkin Joseline Gassen Waitress
Michael Jeter Georg Tryphon L. Ron Bumquist
Craig Bierko Peter Flechtner Photographer Lacerda
Christina Ricci Sonja Spuhl Lucy
Mark Harmon Erich Rauker Magazine reporter
Flea Rainer Fritzsche Musician
Brian Le Baron Sven Hasper Parking assistant
Richard Nixon Helmut Gauss Richard Nixon
Harry Dean Stanton Werner Ehrlicher Judge
Christopher Meloni Oliver Field Porter Sven at the Hotel Flamingo

Soundtrack

The score was written and recorded by Ray Cooper and Tomoyasu Hotei .

On July 21, 1998, a soundtrack was released by Geffen Records with a total playing time of 58:34 minutes.

No. title Interpreter Duration
1. Combination of the two Big Brother and the Holding Company 5:47
2. One tooke over the line Brewer & Shipley 3:43
3. She's a lady Tom Jones 3:14
4th For your love The Yardbirds 2:36
5. White rabbit Jefferson Airplane 3:13
6th A Drug Score Part 1 (Acid Spill) Tomoyasu Hotei 0:52
7th Get together The Youngbloods 5:41
8th. Mama told me not to come Three Dog Night 3:51
9. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again Bob Dylan 7:27
10. Time is tight Booker T. & the MG's 3:29
11. Magic moments Perry Como 3:04
12. A Drug Score Part 2 (Adrenochrome, The Devil's Dance) Tomoyasu Hotei 2:27
13. Tammy Debbie Reynolds 3:03
14th A Drug Score Part 3 (Flashbacks) Tomoyasu Hotei 2:26
15th Expecting To Fly Buffalo Springfield 4:18
16. Viva Las Vegas Dead Kennedys 3:23

The following songs can also be heard in the movie, but they are not included on the soundtrack.

title Interpreter
Ball and Chain Big Brother and the Holding Company
It's Not Unusual Tom Jones
Jumpin 'Jack Flash The Rolling Stones
lady Beck, Bogert & Appice
Moon crap The Out-Islanders
My Favorite Things The Lennon Sisters
My Love, Forgive Me (Amore Scusami) Robert Goulet
Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band The Hollyridge Strings
Somebody to love Jefferson Airplane
Spy vs. Spy Combustible Edison
Strangers in the Night Wayne Newton
Thinking of Baby Elmer Bernstein
You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me Frank Sinatra
Yummy, yummy, yummy Ohio Express

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Additional scenes in the Director's Cut
  2. ↑ Stephen Holden: A Devotedly Drug-Addled Rampage Through a 1971 Vision of Las Vegas New York Times , May 22, 1998
  3. ^ Roger Ebert, May 22, 1998
  4. ^ Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ Francesco Tornabene for Funkhaus Europa
  6. ↑ Joe Queenan: Cult films: just bad movies in a good disguise? , The Guardian, June 19, 2014
  7. ↑ a b c Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on April 28, 2013 .