#Fear and loathing in las vegas poster full#

вЂњThis one sounds like trouble,вЂќ his attorney responds. This Faulkner-style trip to Vegas was an escape from some pretty heavy shit indeed. Thompson was going crazy stuck between two worlds, that of the law enforcement agency he suspected of deliberately killing a journalist, and that of Chicano revolutionaries who вЂњwouldnвЂ™t need much of an excuse to chop me into hamburgerвЂќ.

Thompson was working in Los Angeles on a story about the вЂњaccidentalвЂќ killing of journalist Ruben Salazar by the Los Angeles County SheriffвЂ™s department, and he was being assisted in the story by Acosta. I think it is important to understand what was going on in their lives in вЂњreal lifeвЂќ at the moment they decided on the trip to Las Vegas. The rest of the story is true only in the sense that truth is beauty, therefore beauty is truth, and this story is one hell of a beaut.

Gonzo, his вЂњSamoan lawyerвЂќ, was really Oscar Zeta Acosta, a Chicano activist (and lawyer, and author). Raoul Duke has been hired by a вЂњfashionable sporting magazine in New YorkвЂќ to cover the вЂњfabulous Mint 400вЂќ which is вЂњthe richest off-the-road race for motorcycles and dune-buggies in the history of organized sport-a fantastic spectacle in honor of some fatback grossero who owns the luxurious Mint Hotel in the heart of downtown Las Vegas.вЂќ And a voice was screaming: вЂњHoly Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?вЂќ

#Fear and loathing in las vegas poster full#

I remember saying something like вЂњI feel a bit lightheaded maybe you should drive.вЂќ And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. It has the best opening line of any book since вЂњA Tale of Two CitiesвЂќ: YouвЂ™ve probably already heard the drugs quote, right from the start, and rather than set the tone, it seems pedestrian once they get to the underage girl from Montana and the American Dream itself. This is the most manic of ThompsonвЂ™s books. This was ThompsonвЂ™s first book-length team-up with illustrator Ralph Steadman, whose images do as much as to define gonzo as ThompsonвЂ™s ravings do. The only way to prepare for a trip like this was to dress up like human peacocks and get crazy, then screech off across the desert and cover the story. And then the tape recorder, for special music, and some Acapulco shirts. But the race is quickly lost in ThompsonвЂ™s trademark gonzo mania:Д«ut first we need the car. Thompson is ostensibly traveling to Vegas to cover the вЂњMint 400вЂќ, presumably a motorcycle race.