Where The Buffalo Roam

Where The Buffalo Roam

The cinematic renderings (and portrayals) of one Dr. Hunter S. Thompson have ultimately turned out to be a mixed bag, perhaps because Thompson himself was such a crazed yet enigmatic figure. The original, one, true “Gonzo Journalist” (even as several others have since professed to have taken after him but never really lived up to his reputation) defined his style as being a reporter who not only covers a newsworthy event, but consumes enough drugs and alcohol in the process in order to get themselves completely caught up in said event leading to a succession of crazed, manic behavior that may or may not get them in some amount of trouble before writing their piece in an insane, fever dream style that may or may not be totally accurate. Obviously, in the modern age in which we live, journalists with that kind of go for broke style might not last very long, but at least we still know that lies and inaccuracies (as usually delivered by stoic, strait laced personalities hoping to unduly influence the masses at large) remain a large part of modern day journalism in today’s world of cable news. As for Thompson, he would commit suicide by gunshot in 2005 (with his grandson in the next room), reportedly despondent over the cultural impact of 9/11 and said by many to have never been the same as a writer after his traumatic divorce from his first wife in the late 1970s. As for the limited cinematic adaptations of his works, the one true masterpiece that stands head and shoulders above all is Terry Gilliam’s Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas from 1998, with Johnny Depp nailing the role in grand form and then later reprising it (as a younger version) in 2011’s The Rum Diary. But as great as Depp was, a lot of people fail to realize that there was a much earlier film made based on Thompson’s work, and that was this 1980 release that obviously produced mixed results. Cast in the role of Thompson here was Bill Murray, on the cusp of superstardom just as his run on Saturday Night Live was ending and he (like Depp) actually spent some time with Thompson himself in a sort of “boot camp” to get into the proper frame of mind for playing him, a process that reportedly took a bizarre turn when after filming ended, Murray was said to have stayed in character (even on the set of SNL) still smoking from the cigarette holder along with talking and acting like Thompson so much that his friends and loved ones actually feared for his mental health. Dedication to the role or not, what we actually got on screen would pale next to Depp’s later work, since Murray (who already had a “wild man” reputation of his own even before this) seemed to really be doing a hybrid of both his own persona and Thompson’s, sort of filtering it down through himself in order to make it just how he wanted it to be while also lacking the brilliantly manic physical humor that Depp would display. As for Thompson himself, he was paid to be an “executive consultant” (as he was on Fear And Loathing) and later was quoted as saying that he did little more than just walk around on the set before blasting the final product when he saw it, seemingly appalled at the script which was really in many ways a mishmash of various references to different elements of his work rather than being a direct adaptation of any of it (although Thompson is still the main character nonetheless), with the directing duties being handled by Art Linson (known as a “superstar producer” behind many classic movies) who utterly failed to bring the drug user POV factor to the story like Gilliam would later do. Thompson would even attempt to doctor the script himself personally but it did little to help. All this is without mentioning the most controversial dynamic of the film which is the inclusion of the character of Dr. Gonzo (a.k.a. Oscar Zeta Accosta), Thompson’s infamous Samoan attorney (who was actually Mexican) who was brilliantly essayed by Benicio Del Toro in Fear And Loathing but whom here is renamed Karl Lazlo and portrayed as being a radical left wing white guy played by Peter Boyle. Despite that, it can almost be said that Boyle (who still sports a similar look to Del Toro) actually manages to outdo Murray in the fact that at times his performance is the funnier of the two. The film is roughly split into three parts, each with Murray’s Thompson in the lead crazily drinking and drugging away as we see the controversial climate of the early 1970s. The first segment concerns Thompson covering a big drug trial in San Francisco which is actually just a bunch of kids being brought up one after another in separate cases of possession and Boyle’s Lazlo being the legal counsel for all of them in front of a painfully hardass judge (R.G. Armstrong). Interestingly, despite Murray’s wisecracks from the courtroom gallery, the whole thing takes on a rather serious tone as Lazlo (who we’ve seen earlier being complimented by another lawyer on his litigation skills before being offered cases with “real” clients which he turns down) watches one defendant after another being found guilty and then given extremely long and unjust sentences for simple marijuana possession although his defensive strategy of simply just railing against the unfair system doesn’t help much either before he loses his cool completely and attacks the smarmy prosecutor (possibly because he has finally figured out that he is playing in a rigged game). The second segment sees Thompson on assignment to cover the 1972 Super Bowl, arriving at his hotel room and soon turning it into the hottest Super Bowl party going (Thompson’s thing in this movie always seems to be in starting “spontaneous” parties wherever he goes that even winds up getting employees and staff members caught up in it) as he takes it so far as to stage an elaborate football game of his own in the room while his constantly pissed off editor (Bruno Kirby) continuously presses him for having the story ready by deadline. Suddenly, Lazlo (having quit the legal profession and long since believed to be dead) reappears and persuades Thompson to forget about the game and come join him at his remote compound which is actually a dilapidated house where he seems to be trying to build some kind of a halfass revolutionary “movement”. The third (and by far the best) segment shows Thompson as a credentialed reporter covering the 1972 Presidential Campaign. After being thrown off the main plane with all of the stuffy “mainstream” reporters, he is placed on board the so called “ZOO” plane with all of the technies instead, an amazingly laid back flight experience complete with guys tossing a football around the aisles and the pilot casually sipping a beer while he flies the plane. Then through an extraordinary set of circumstances, Thompson (while impersonating another reporter) finds himself in the position of getting to interview President Richard M. Nixon (played by a famous impersonator at the time) while he’s standing at a urinal. This scene (and Nixon’s response to the questions) is easily the funniest in the whole movie, reinforcing the motif used throughout of Thompson’s neverending disdain for the man and his way of doing things. Even as the movie goes off the deep end in the home stretch in terms of realism (both Thompson and Lazlo would probably be easily caught and sent to a federal penitentiary for many of their actions), at least then the movie finally takes on an air of subversiveness and anarchy that was mostly missing throughout, but still the key element as the movie ends is in the Thompson character’s rejection of Lazlo’s extremist values, ultimately concluding that his former friend and attorney has gone way off the deep end in wanting to use violence to change the system that he once worked within but now despises. How any of this relates to the real life Thompson’s friendship with Dr. Gonzo is anyone’s guess (although Oscar Accosta was a major figure in the Chicano civil rights movement and often railed against the system for being racist), but in terms of this film having a solid story in its own right this is where the whole thing finally gels and actually has a point, for as crazy as Thompson was, he still knew the basic rules and tenets of society and was able to work successfully within them without sacrificing his own subversive integrity, in the process becoming a respected legend with his own unique voice and thus leaving his mark on the American psyche forever…

8/10

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