Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson; what was Thompsons aim with this novel?

Question

Watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas last night which is an adaptation of the novel by Hunter S. Thompson (I haven't read this). Does anyone have an opinion on whether Thompson was making any moral or political point with this novel? The film always leaves me feeling a little unsatisfied that nothing has really been resolved or achieved.

Answer 1

Thompson finds in Las Vegas the dark heart of the American dream - he equates the excess, greed and vulgarity of the city with everything that he sees wrong with US culture after the failed idealism of the 1960s.

Answer 2

Thompson's aim was to go on a journey to find the heart of the American dream. He wasn't making any moral or political points, he just wanted to find out whether this 'mythical' dream existed.
He could have gone anywhere, but he chose Las Vegas.
I've seen both the film and read the book, and the book is far superior. The book is an American classic.
To find out whether Thompson found what he was looking for, I suggest you read the book.

Answer 3

Read the book. Hunter S. Thompson was a writer. There's a film, but Thompson doesn't even begin to come across until you actually read his point of view, see the way he structures his points and get a handle on the way he uses character.

The movie is just that: a movie.

Answer 4

I've read the book and watched the movie. Both are great.

It's hard to say what Hunter was aiming for. There might be some interviews you could find.

From my take on the story. It's simply a great character drama. Two complex characters with a lot of problems.

Answer 5

Perhaps the purpose of the movie (and maybe also the book {which I haven't read}) is to leave you feeling that nothing has been resolved or achieved

But the message could also be: sh*t happens

I don't think that their is really a story. I think it is more about perceptions and how the person right next to you might see the world completely differently to the way you do.

If you wnat to find meaning in the film it would be in the closing lines, "he was too weird to live and too rare to die." That, I think, is the whole point of the movie.

Answer 6

It is the best. The book is better than the movie, but the movie is a close 2nd. Also, read HST's Eulogy for Nixon. That is side-splitting. A great deal of HST's stuff is brilliant. Hope you aren't offended by blatant drug use and vulgar content (part of what makes his books genius!)

Answer 7

I've seen the film and liked Johnny Depp and his friend's performances. I haven't read the book though. Since Hunter didn't make the film, I don't suppose the film has anything to do with his moral or political philosophy.

Answer 8

i don't think that thompson had any particular aims. the whole point of his writing and his life was to just go along with the flow and see what happened. if nothing happens well thats just as relevant a story as if something amazing had happened. although something amazing and drug induced always does happen to thompson. i dont think morals or politics really come into it, gonzo journalism is all about the writer himself not the world around him.

Answer 9

Call it american existentialism (read the book, also Albert Camus' "The Stranger" and J.P. Sartre's "Naseau" ). The point is the embracement of choas. One can only create a certain amount of it, but choas surounds our everyday life , as Thompson shows, the world is what we make of it because we can't make anything of it so it keeps on doing what it does. Try to make sense of it, I dare you.

Answer 10

I don't know whether he had a particular aim, maybe he was stoned when he wrote it but I read it whilst staying with a friend on his boat in Marina Del Rey in LA and laughed myself silly........and later when I did get to visit Las Vegas....well, it is one crazy place!!!!.........Read the book, you'll probably enjoy it more than the film, which I have yet to see........