Synopsis: Raoul Duke, a journalist (Johnny Depp) and his lawyer, Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Torro) travel to Las Vegas to cover a number of news stories in the 1970s. It's not a difficult task seeing how Duke is a brilliant journalist and can write the hell out of anything. The only problem is that these two are completely strung out of their minds by doing every drug known to man. It's to the point, where they are on a constant high and have completely lost touch with reality. Duke, now, must find a way to regain enough of his consciousness in order to find reality again and get ride of the devil haunting him. But is reality all that much better than the magical drug world?Should You Watch It? This movie is a definitely behind the scenes movie because it shows you exactly what it is like to be high, all the time! The way a drug addict perceive the world while being high is very well portrayed in this film. The only problem that this film may run into with some viewers is that there really isn't much else beyond seeing the world through the eyes of a drug addict. The highs and lows of being on a drug is related to the 70s anti-war protest and how society, like being on a drug, goes through the highs and the lows, and is always trying to find their true identity which is constantly being hidden by drugs we can't see.
Things to Watch Out For: I don't even want to think about how a person would watch this film if they were high themselves. Their head might just explode. The camera and cinematography is a work of art mixed in with brilliant acting. It is truely a treat to watch. But it might get old during some parts because there is not really a structured story in there. There are also plenty of cameos by noticable stars including: Tobey Mcguire, Cameron Diaz, Christina Ricci, Ellen Barker, and Gary Busey.
Things You Don't Expect: This movie is very episodic, meaning that Duke goes around from one place to another doing crazy drug induced things along with his crazy lawyer. There really isn't a resolution of any kind. There really isn't even a realization on Duke's part of what he has to do. Of course, the moral of the story is that drugs are bad so you shouldn't do them and here's what happenes when you do. But the heroes of this movie, especially Depp's character just doesn't do enough to make us feel that he's really changed. I don't know, perhaps that was the intended resolution based on the ending in the novel but for a film, it felt imcomplete.
Final Comments:
Story: 7.5 (Hunter S. Thompson: Novel. Terry Gilliam, Terry Grisoni, Tod Davies, Alex Cox: Screenplay)
Direction: 8.5 (Terry Gilliam)
Acting: 10.0
Cinematography: 9.0
Music/Sound: 7.8
Final Score: 8.5
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