The American Dream: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Production Notes
A brillantly idiosyncratic commentary on what Hunter S. Thompson referred to as 'The Foul Year Of Our Lord, 1971" and an exaggerated account of a personal oddyssey carreening between the hilarious and the horrifying, Thompson's novel Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas has today become required reading on many college campuses.
It hit stands in October 1971, on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, which introduced the readers not only the works of Thompson but the demented illustrations of Ralph Steadman.
After the second part of the series appeared in the following months Rolling Stone, fear and loathing in las vegas: a savage journey to the heart of an american dream became the premiere offering of the straight arrow books, Thompson/Steadman adventures went on to capture pivotal moments throughout the '70s.
the fact the book remained unfilmed for more than 25 years testifies to it's singularity and perhaps to the notion that it was waiting fot the right filmmaker. And so, when Terry Gilliam made himself available, it was a perfect marriage: a work by one of America's most visionary writers, brought to the screen by one of film's most visionary directors.
Thompson's astonishing tale was based on a journey he took with friend and associate Oscar Zeta Acosta, a noted Chicano lawyer and activist, ostensibly to cover for Sports Illustraited a popular off-road race, the Mint 400, in Las Vegas. "My idea," wrote Thompson, "was to buy a fat notebook and record the whole thing, as it happened, then send in the notebook for publication, without editing... But this is a hard thing to do, and in the end I found myself imposing an essentially fictional framework on what began as a piece of straight/crazy journalism."
"Fear and loathing in Las vegas has all the elements of classic mythical stories," noted producer Laila Nabulsi. "Raoul Duke [Thompson's alter ego, played by Johnny Depp] and Dr. Gonzo [Benicio Del Toro] are the two anti-heroes that go to hell, take the magic cookie, tilt the windmills and survive, and we go through that journey with them. It's scary, it's funny, and what was true in the early '70s is just as true today."
One reason that Terry Gilliam was excited about the possibilities of Fear and loathing was Johnny Depp, whom Gilliam considered "the best actor of his generation." Depp's commitment to the project and to Hunter Thompson was steadfast from the beginning.
'Fear and loathing has been screaming to be made into a film since it was published," stated to actor. "The book came out out of the beginning of the death of the American Dream. but Hunter was still out there searching for it, searching madly, hoping that the Dream still existed, and all he found was madness in every direction, and tragedy and greed. This book represented a great quest for Hunter, and a kind of exorcism at the same time."
But Fear and loathing is not a one-man show. Raoul Duke without Dr. Gonzo is unthinkable, so Gilliam and his collaborators needed to find an actor who could equal Depp in passion, creativity and fearlessness. It soon became clear that Benicio Del Toro was their man. The Puerto Rico-born, New York trained actor has made an explosive mark in The Usual Suspects, projecting charisma and taking risks that made him the perfect choice to inhabit the wild, unkept, brilliant man-child that is Dr. Gonzo.
'They're two romantics," Del Toro said of the Raoul Duke-Dr. Gonzo friendship, " with no melody left to dance to. So they're quite afrade , lonely and full of anger." Since Gonzo was described by Thompson as impressively overweight, the svelte Del Toro has to gain 35 to 40 pounds to inhabit Gonzo's physical being. He also grew long hair and an impressive mustache. "Benicio's physical transformation was incredible," said Depp. 'he really commited himself and focused and got in there and did it. Finally, he was very proud of his belly, like a Puerto Rican Buddha."
as for Depp, he prepared for the role by spending time with Hunter Thompson at his Woody Creek, Colorado, home and on the road. " first of all," recalled Depp, "i read pretty much everything of Hunter's writting that's been published, and also lots of stuff that hasn't. I spent a number of months with Hunter, studying him, spending time with him, staying up at his home. I even became his road manager for a while."
Fear and Loathing in Las vegas began principal photography in that very extravagant city of the title during a month of guaranteed heatstroke, with Gilliam and company turning back the clock to 1971. Production designer Alex McDowell and his team were challenged with recreate the city in al of it's pre-family-friendly gaudiness, including the now-deceased downtown Mint Hotel and the fictitious, wildly colorful Bazooko Circus Hotel and Casino. The Fear and Loathing roadshow also traveled out into the sizzling Nevada desert to recreate the Mint 400 off-track race, as well as extensive sequences of Duke and Gonzo's anarchic journey through the wastes of California and Nevada.
Following the completion of location work, the company returned to Los Angeles for several weeks of filming in and around the city, as well as elaborate interiors constructed at Warner Hollywood Studios.
In the end, everyone involved had their own interpretation of the 50-odd shooting days that resulted in this film adapation. "No one has enough money to pay for the experiencen i've had on this movie," Johnny Depp concluded. "To be able to spend that amount of time I did with Hunter, and then work with Terry, Benicio and the incredible company of actors and crew. Going into the project, i knew that this would be our one time--and one time only--to make it happen right. I think the whole crew felt that, so every day was like a kind of odd celebration."