Tripped Up - “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Grant Hiskes
Photo from Industrial Scripts
Before Johnny Depp or Benicio del Toro uttered a line from Terry Gilliam’s script, I was struck by a familiar quote displayed in the film’s opening sequence. “He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a fan” - Dr. Johnson. “Dr. Johnson” is a reference to Samuel
Johnson, and 18th century English writer. I first came across that quote when I first really started getting into reading for fun. That quote was listed under a chapter heading in Michael Lewis’ Liar’s Poker. Despite the proverb’s somewhat vague nature, this quote is a reference to alcoholism. “He who makes a beast of himself” is one who consumes alcohol heavily, trying to run away from the misery and angst of his everyday life.
The quote fits the movie perfectly even though the viewer is very easily hypnotized by the film’s psychedelic-esque visuals, intermittent rants, and largely nonsensical banter. And I for one think that “hypnosis: if you will is beautifully woven into the films’ overarching message. Keep the film’s opening quote in mind and bear with me here, Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and Dr. Gonzo’s (Benicio Del Toro) laced weekend doesn't really have a clear, central conflict. The sources of tension in the movie, the carpets appearing to move, Duke worrying the photographer is a soldier from the Vietnam War and Dr. Gonzo wanting Duke to throw the radio in the bathtub are all very short-sighted conflicts. They are all misperceived and don’t really have anything to do with the reason they are in Las Vegas for the weekend in the first place, so Duke can cover one of the biggest bike races of the year.
But that’s exactly the point. The drugs bring up some instances of paranoia sure, but what the drugs are really doing for Duke and Dr. Gonzo is distracting them from the monotony of everyday life. They are making beasts of themselves to get rid of the pain. As Depp narrates the film, we learn the sentiment of the time in which the film is set, 1971. Along with the Dr. Johnson quote, the opening sequence features clips from the era - a news flash about the Fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War, civil rights marches, and a clip of a hippie holding up a sign that reads “Peace Not Pacification”. Obviously, these are all symbols of the time. Through Duke’s paranoia about the war in a few scenes throughout the movie (when he sees the hunters at the race soldiers), we know Duke is uncomfortable with the situation around him and the ongoing war. Furthermore, the narration that recalls that first dinner with Dr. Gonzo discussing how the year 1971 was dreadful.
Interestingly enough, Duke does not really speak of the dread of the era again though until midway through the movie, the scene when he actually sits down to do what he was supposed to come to Vegas for, write. After Dr. Gonzo is taken care of, Duke looks back on his experience riding the wave.
“Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas, has it been five years? Six? It seems like a lifetime, the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle 60s was a very special time and place to be a part of, but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sensation knowing that you were alive in that corner of time in the world, whatever it meant. There was madness in any direction. At any hour you could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. And I think that was the handle, that sense of inevitable victory of the forces of old and evil not in any mean or military sense, we didn’t need that, Our energy would simply prevail. We had all the momentum, we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west. And with the right kind of eyes, you can almost see the high watermark, that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back”
Alas, we get a break from all of the antics arising from consuming what seems like every drug known to man, and Duke opens up. He acknowledges his role in the counterculture movement and a look at what made the movement so attractive to that generation of Americans. Doing drugs and riding high made them feel like they were conquering all of the evil in the world and living their lives to the fullest, very liberating. It does not just seem to be the liberating nature that Duke is chasing though, his character also seems to be trying to chase away the sobering motions of everyday life, the monotonous aspects that depress him.
The first time we really see this is when he goes to cover the bike race, which is ultimately his principal purpose for being in Las Vegas this week. Upon his arrival at the race, he says that even though he has been up all night, he has no need for complimentary coffee and breakfast but instead is a man in “need of strong drink”. His lack of interest in the race seems very clear in his character’s actions and body language, but what I find to be interesting that the way Depp narrates that scene is as if he considers it a very big deal. It’s hard to convey his tone exactly but he acknowledges that it's one of the biggest sporting events of the year. Despite this, Duke cannot seem to last in real life. He leaves after seeing a group of old guy hunters with an elk on the front and having his beer mug filled up with dust without even seeing the end of the race. As he admits after the fact, he is not quite sure who even won the race. The race seems to be an afterthought for Duke pretty quickly though as he and Dr. Gonzo soon find themselves back on the strip in another drug-fueled frenzy.
Raoul Duke going back for more in Vegas actually happens a couple of times throughout the movie. When he first sets out for California, he is pulled over by a police officer for speeding and then trying to dip. The police officer is pretty cool, but after he gets let off he soon runs into the Tobey Maguire hitchhiker character from the opening scene in the convertible. Authority symbolized by the cop and the ugliness of humans symbolized by the meme Tobey Maguire hitchhiker are two things Duke does not miss about real life, and he quickly finds himself heading back to Vegas for another drug session with Dr. Gonzo. When he returns to Vegas this time, Dr. Gonzo has an uncomfortably young woman, Lucy, in the hotel room whom he may have abused sexually by the end of the night. It’s clear that Duke is a little uncomfortable about the whole situation, but he ends up getting high as fuck and the worries go away. Towards the film’s end, Dr. Gonzo and Duke run into Lucy as she crosses the street. They turn around to head back to Vegas again as if they are running away from their problems, unwilling to deal with the consequences of their actions.
By the film’s end though, Raoul Duke seems to break free from the wave and get over himself to start living in real life again. The film ends with another Johnny Depp monologue discussing the legacy of Timothy Leary (the scientist who discovered LSD).
“We’re all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled the 60s. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary’s trip. He crashed around America, selling “consciousness expansion” without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all those people who took him seriously. All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy peace and understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole lifestyle that he helped create. A generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the acid culture: the desperate assumption that somebody, or at least some force, is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Acid was never meant to have all the answers. The psychedelic drugs offered a new perspective to the people of the time, as they still do today. Where it fell short though was that it never solved the fundamental problems with its users and the rest of the counterculture, it just distracted them from the pains of their everyday lives. Gilliam depicts that perfectly in this movie. There is no serious concern or conflict throughout the whole story as Dr. Gonzo and Raoul Duke are both subconsciously distracting themselves from their actual suffering the whole movie through the use of psychedelics. Fortunately for Duke, he comes to terms with himself by the end of the movie and gets over it. As the sign on the side of the road reads as Duke drives away at the film’s end “You are now leaving Fear and Loathing”.
