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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), directed by Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam (Brazil, 12 Monkeys), stars Johnny Depp as journalist Raoul Duke and Benicio del Toro as Duke’s attorney, Dr. Gonzo. Based on the book of the same name by Hunter S. Thompson, which was originally published as a two-part series for Rolling Stone magazine in 1971, it not only chronicles the journalist and lawyer’s three day drug binge in the city of sin, but also points out the shortcomings of an era that had so much potential.

After being assigned to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race by an unnamed magazine, Duke and Gonzo travel to Las Vegas in a red convertible with a copious amount of contraband in their possession. They also decide to take this as an opportunity to to find “the American dream.” However, while under the influence of nearly every drug known to man, the journalist blows off his assignment and is left with an expensive hotel bill he is unable to pay. Initially choosing to skip town, Duke is forced to return after he is given a second chance to attend the District Attorney’s conference on illegal narcotics. While there, the journalist and his attorney observe the comically out of touch guest speaker and attendees, which are made up of police officers from all across the country. But, their journey to the heart of the American dream takes a dark turn when their bad habits begin to push them to the brink.

One of the most common staples of Thompson’s work is his comedic, but still critical view of conservative America. While the film’s source material provides a harsh critique of the era, it only draws on a few years of history, which didn’t even see President Nixon’s infamous Watergate scandal in 1972. However, Gilliam’s film adaptation, with over twenty years of hindsight, saw the Regan administration (1980-1988) and the Gulf War (1990-1991), both of which were similar to the counterculture’s prime areas of protest.

Inspired by a real life trip with his lawyer, Oscar Zeta Acosta, who disapeared in 1974 and is now presumed dead, Thompson employed his highly subjective blend of fact and fiction that has become known as gonzo journalism. It was also common for the author to incorporate himself within his work. This allowed Thompson to provide one of the earliest retrospective works on the 1960s counterculture movement. One of the reasons why Duke chooses to keep himself in a perpetual state of intoxication is so he can remain oblivious to the evident failures of a generation that was supposed to change things for the better.

“There was a madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda… You could strike sparks in anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, and that we were winning.” Duke would continue with, “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-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.” - Hunter S. Thompson

Similar to one of Gilliam’s earlier films, Brazil (1985), a slapstick comedy that depicts a dystopian future where we have become overly reliant on flimsy machines, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas paints an absurd portrait of Viva Las Vegas (1964), where like that film’s protagonists, its characters in search of their own version of the American dream. Perhaps this is why honorable morals, which were accompanied by strongly questionable acts, were abandoned for the convenient comforts of conservative America?