Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream is a modern classic of American literature and is the cause for untold numbers of irresponsible Vegas road trips. Duke and Doctor Gonzo’s trip is “a gross, physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of life in this country.” Their ostensible mission is covering the Mint 400, but their actual goal is ill defined: That whole opening narration sets the tone of chaos and comedy told in a perfect deadpan that defines this book. Gene Siskel's "thumbs-up" review at the time also noted the film successfully captured the book's themes into film, adding "What the film is about and what the book is about is using Las Vegas as a metaphor for – or a location for – the worst of America, the extremes of America, the money obsession, the visual vulgarity of America." [45] Michael O'Sullivan gave the film a positive review in The Washington Post, writing "What elevates the tale from being a mere drug chronicle is the same thing that lifted the book into the realm of literature. It's the sense that Gilliam, like Thompson, is always totally in command of the medium, while abandoning himself utterly to unpredictable forces beyond his control." [46] Empire magazine voted the film the 469th greatest film in their "500 Greatest Movies of All Time" list. [47] HST: Oh, absolutely. But you know you’d be killed, of course, and that would add to it considerably – never knowing when the bullet was coming.

The album is presumably [ weaselwords] out-of-print, due to its relative rarity, but is sought after by fans for its high production values and faithfulness to the book's tone. Excerpts of it were included in the Criterion Collection release of the movie.

Wenner, Jann (2007). Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson. Little, Brown and Company. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-316-00527-2. HST: The mood of the McGovern staff on the Dakota Queen was very, very quiet. They had known for a long time what was going to happen. McGovern admitted knowing for at least a week.

In January 1976, Texas Monthly announced that Larry McMurtry had signed a contract to write a screenplay for a film adaptation. [3] Martin Scorsese, Ralph Bakshi and Oliver Stone each tried to get the film off the ground, but were unsuccessful and moved on. [4]a b c d e f g h i j k Ebner, Mark (January 1998). "Fear and Bleating in Las Vegas: Hunter Thompson Goes Hollywood". Premiere. pp.33–34 . Retrieved June 13, 2023. Edward Bennet Williams, talking loosely on a flight from Washington to San Francisco, Christmas Day, 1971

HST: Coffee is a drug… yes, there were drugs being used… booze is a drug… many drugs…. They’re all around us these days. HST: Yeah, but then the punishment would be the greatest too… it’s much more fun to run a political campaign than it is to be the candidate.

What is the book about?

When it was published in fall of 1971 many critics did not like the novel's loose plot and the scenes of drug use; however, some reviewers predicted that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas would become an important piece of American literature. is one of my favourite opening lines in literature. Two paragraphs later are the equally brilliant lines: a b c d Holden, Michael John Perry, Bill Borrows (December 1998). " Fear and Loathing". Loaded. {{ cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link) For the desert scenes, Pecorini wanted a specific, undefined quality without a real horizon to convey the notion that the landscape never ended and to emphasize "a certain kind of unreality outside the characters' car, because everything that matters to them is within the Red Shark." [25] For the scene where Duke hallucinates a lounge full of lizards, the production was supposed to have 25 animatronic reptiles but they only received seven or eight. [25] The production used motion-control techniques to make it look like they had a whole room of them and made multiple passes with the cameras outfitting the lizards with different costumes each time. [25]