Project 9 Movie Review

       Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

My all time favorite movie would have to be Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.  Not only because Johnny Depp was such a great actor in it, but also because the film had an unbelievable plot with a whole new style of filming.  In the film Johnny Depp played a character named Raoul Duke who was a small time reporter accompanied by his attorney Dr. Gonzo played by Benicio Del Toro. 

The director Terry Gilliam managed to take the film and add absurd illusions and unbelievable images throughout the film.   The movie had to deal with Johnny Depp and his associate taking massive amounts of just about every drug known to man while on a business trip to report on a race in Las Vegas.  He filmed the movie from their perspective most of the time to show the audience what they were experiencing through their drug craze weekend in Las Vegas.  Terry even changed the way voices were being heard by the Actors in the movie while under the influence of the drugs.  To give the audience the full experience of what the two were experiencing throughout the film Terry Gilliam used his directing skills to truly make you believe they were in a different world for the majority of the movie.

To show how absurd they were acting Terry also showed other peoples point of view of Johnny Depp and his Attorney while they were drug crazed going into different casinos.  At one point Johnny Depp even loses his mind while at a bar and everyone in the area turns into reptiles or dinosaurs of some sort.  He snaps into these illusions throughout the film to help the audience understand how messed up he actually is at that time.

Besides great acting and visuals the film also had a great choice of music.  The music came the 60’s and 70’s because music from that time had a very psychedelic sound, which goes perfect with the state of mind of the actors during the film. It included tracks such as White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane and Lady by Jeff Beck.

There honestly have been no movies that I have seen that can compare to this one in my opinion.  People have tried to make movies similar to this, but haven’t came close because this movie is so brilliant.  One other key feature in this film that gives confusion and emptiness is that most of the dialogue is coming straight from Johnny Depps thoughts and at some points he doesn’t know if he’s talking out loud or to himself.  Here is an example of this technique when Johnny Depp said, “He’d report us at once to some kind of outback Nazi law enforcement agency and they’ll run us down like dogs. Jesus, did I say that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me?”  He has no control over his mind and doesn’t even realize if he is thinking his thoughts or mumbling them out loud.  This movie is one of a kind and will always be in my top movie choices.