Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) dir. Terry Gilliam
Starring: Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, Gary Busey

***1/2

By Alan Bacchus

I’ve only now recognized the mad genius of this picture. Yes, for years I loathed Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as an unruly carnivalistic and pointless exercise in excess and glorification of drug use for comedy. I could never see the creativity or challenge in dramatizing a drug trip.

Sure, this new Criterion Collection version of the film is probably the best it’s ever looked, but somehow the maniacal, giddy camera work of Terry Gilliam along with the equally maniacal performances from Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro have now tuned me in and turned me on. Fear and Loathing is a carnival and should be enjoyed as such. It’s an event of pure and harmless visual pleasure, a fun ride through the psychedelic ‘60s.

As Raoul Duke (aka Hunter S. Thompson), we see Johnny Depp in a role tailor-made to his brand of stardom. Depp is not so much an actor as a performer. He will likely never win an Oscar because he fits best into caricatures of people. Think of his best performances and arguably all of them are covered up with actor’s business or over-the-top/grotesque make-up of some sort. Depp, wearing a bald cap and bounding through Gilliam’s wide-angle frames twitching with paranoia, is so darn pleasurable to watch. And that’s really the only way to analyze this.

Del Toro is even more startling, sacrificing mind and body in portraying Duke’s lawyer, Dr. Gonzo. Not only does Del Toro pack on a good 40 pounds of natural unenhanced flab, his manic and aggressive hallucinations while tripping on drugs is terrifying.

Gilliam admirably peppers in numerous cameos, including Mark Harmon, Tobey Maguire, Ellen Barkin and Cameron Diaz along the way. It’s a roll call of celebrities that fits perfectly with the glitzy Vegas background.

Along the way, Gilliam admirably conveys Thompson’s sharp critique of the American dream and the fallacy of the drug movement as a means to free one’s mind. Instead, he shows the substances debilitating their abilities and stunting their potential.

Thankfully, there isn’t much of a ‘message’ to sober us. Via Gilliam and Hunter S. Thompson, and through the safety of Blu-ray, we can freely enjoy the fruits of their drug experimentation and engage in the hallucinatory experience of LSD, ether, mescaline, cocaine and adrenochrome without ever trying them. Considering the horrifying experience of our heroes, I will forever stay on this side of the TV and trip out only by proxy.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is available on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.

TIFF 2009: The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassis

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) Dir. Terry Gilliam
Starring: Christopher Plummer, Lily Cole, Tom Waits, Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Verne Troyer.

*1/2

Guest Review by Greg Klymkiw

Like most viewers, I am both cursed and blessed with a continued and confused love-hate-indifferent relationship with the mad visionary filmmaker Terry Gilliam. From his first exposure to the world as the animator of the surrealist interstitials within the legendary BBC sketch comedy “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, through his ups (“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, “Twelve Monkeys”, “Time Bandits”, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”), downs (“Brazil”, “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen”, “The Meaning of Life”, “Tideland”) and in-betweens (“The Brothers Grimm”, “The Fisher King”, “Jabberwocky”), I look forward to each new picture with an uneasy mixture of anticipation, apathy and dread. This, of course, is not a bad thing. It’s his ability to continually get projects off the ground that defy all odds and instil such a wide range of emotions that finally entrench his place in the world as an artist who continues to make the world a better place to live in. In spite of this position of consummate artistry, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” is a picture that falls short of in-between status. It’s not quite as low on the totem pole as “Tideland”, but save for a mere handful of saving graces; it’s pretty much unwatchable as it is inconsequential.

As a simple morality tale layered with images of occasionally astounding beauty, the picture is not without some dollops of merit, but as a simple morality tale that has any real entertainment value, a compelling narrative, a forward drive that urges us to stay with it, an audacious aesthetic that dazzles and provokes us, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” is sorely lacking. It is, in a sense, about as dead as its dear-departed supporting player, Heath Ledger.

The rather unexceptional, though vaguely serviceable narrative has the title character (Christopher Plummer) presiding over an old style travelling show – not unlike what might have appeared in travelling carnivals in days gone by – where dressed in Swami-like garb and accompanied by his daughter and assistant Valentina (the eye candy that is Lily Cole), Parnassus gives audiences a chance to choose between an experience of great beauty and one of utter darkness. Mr. Nick (Tom Waits), AKA the devil, appears to remind Parnassus that he will soon be claiming Lily on her 16th birthday as per their ages-old bargain which bestowed immortality and eternal youth upon Parnassus. Always willing to consider new wagers, Mr. Nick agrees that the winner of Lily will be whoever manages to first enlist five souls and for his part, Parnassus promises Lily’s hand in marriage to whoever helps him achieve his goal successfully.

Enter the late Heath Ledger as Tony, a young man who is rescued by the Parnassus team from the end of a mysterious noose that appears strung over a bridge. Tony is the eventual Prince Charming who will come to the rescue. However, as everyone knows by now, Ledger tragically died during a brief hiatus from the filming with only a portion of his role in the can. Here is where I tip my hat to Gilliam. His solution was an inspired rewrite and to ask Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to play the role of Tony in the three dream worlds that had yet to be filmed. A brilliant solution and it is a marvel to see how it plays out (all three are remarkably charming – even more so than Ledger himself). Alas, we are only blown away because we KNOW about the challenges Gilliam faced in order to save the film. In fact, he does make the movie marginally better because of it, but if one considers the narrative itself and imagines Ledger living to complete the whole thing, all one is left with finally, is a trite and unevenly paced morality tale. A tired, sad excuse of a movie with only flashes of what Gilliam can do when he is working at the peak of his powers.

For me, Gilliam is at his best when the narrative completely demands an alternate reality rooted strongly in character. This is why “Twelve Monkeys” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” are such relentlessly brilliant, disturbing and hilarious visionary works and why many of the others are total wank jobs. “Brazil”, for example, is a movie bereft of character and one I tried to sit through over its entire life as a film about twenty times. When I practically nailed my feet to the floor to sit all the way through the director’s cut of “Brazil” on laserdisc, the experience was as painful to me as an attack of kidney stones I had some years before. “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”, however, does not even inspire the kind of hatred I felt towards “Brazil” which at least is an extreme emotion and one that contrasts my utter indifference towards the new picture.

There are, as previously mentioned, some meagre pleasures to be had in Gilliam’s film. The stand-ins for Heath are all wonderful, but again, I also wonder if my goodwill towards their performances has something to do with the knowledge that all three of them bestowed their considerable fees upon Ledger’s daughter as a trust fund to contribute to her well being as she grows to adulthood. Christopher Plummer is, as always, in good form, but I almost wish he’d been far less restrained than he is – especially given the flamboyance of the role. In fact, the movie might have benefited from an all-out Plummer special hambone-deluxe as he provided in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” where he played the evil, Shakespeare-spouting Klingon villain General Chang. That said: Plummer’s occasional verbal sparring with Tom Waits in “Parnassus” is moderately engaging.

Sadly, and in conclusion, it’s the tragedy of Heath Ledger’s death that makes “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” at all watchable, but without this knowledge, the picture simply doesn’t have enough going for it to stand up on its own two legs. A pity.

“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” is playing at the 2009 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival and will be theatrically released post-festival by E1 Films.

THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN - 20TH ANNIVERSARY

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen – 20th Anniversary (1988) dir. Terry Gilliam
Starring: John Neville, Sarah Polley, Uma Thurman, Eric Idle

***

I personally think “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” is an overwrought mismash of cinegarbage cobbled together without any flow or consistency. But since the film has always been a love or hate film this is no big surprise. Of course the film has found its audience and the rest is history. But the most fascinating aspect of the new 20th anniversary of the Baron Munchausen film is the DVD's accompanying documentary which tells the whole story and debunks all the myths of the making of the film.

Gilliam’s films always seem to produce the best making of documentaries, “12 Monkeys” contains one of the best-ever DVD special feature making-of docs, same with Vincenzo Natali’s self-contained one-hour long doc “Getting Gilliam” about the making of “Tideland” and of course the great feature doc “Lost in La Mancha” about the famous Don Quixote disaster.

It’s 20 years later since Munchausen and the warring parties that fought the battle of this film has kissed and made up (kind of). This has allowed everyone the freedom to speak their minds and really tell what it was like, warts and all, to make “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen”. It’s a great no bullshit documentary which could only occur after the film has marked its place in cine-history as one of those film failures that has now found its audience

The film was Gilliam’s first project after “Brazil” which was a famous public battle to have his director’s cut released in theatres. Through mutual colleagues Gilliam teamed up with German producer Thomas Schuly ("In the Name of the Rose") who convinced him to save some money and shoot the film in Italy. Unfortunately the minor savings were offset by the cultural difficulties working with the notoriously difficult Italians. As a result, before the film even went to camera the production was behind schedule and over budget. In the end, the film cost double it’s budget and became a black mark on Gilliam’s career.

Eric Idle, who plays the character of Berthold, is wonderfully candid about working with his good friend Gilliam, plainly saying, next to boarding school, it was the most traumatic experience in his life. Sarah Polley, who famously wrote a deriding email to Gilliam and had it published in the Toronto Star, goes on camera and speaks truthfully about the traumatic experience. But the blame game between Gilliam and producer Thomas Schuhly is the funniest interaction. According to Gilliam Schuhly’s conniving business practices made him persona non grata midway through the film. Schuly absolves himself from blame and claims from the get-go he was working to make the best film with the budget he had. It all becomes a marvelously enjoyable experience to watch conflict with a smile.

My thoughts and opinions on Munchausen-the movie aside, Gilliam is a great storyteller and his final comments sum up perfectly the whole experience. The tale of the 'Munchausen disaster' was wrapped up nicely in the eyes of the press with its box office failure. Despite it’s ‘good reviews’ the film’s fate was decided before it was even finished. This is a shame, because it now appears to be one of Gilliam's most popular films. Gilliam hardly suffered from the negative press, he has continued to make unique personal visions - with the hotly anticipated "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassis" still in production.

“The Adventures of Baron Munchausen – 20th Anniversary” is now available on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment