blog 8 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

I enjoyed watching the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I heard a lot about it so I was excited to see it for myself. While watching it I felt slightly confused by some scenes. Although the initial scenes of drug use were very intense the underlying meaning of the movie was clear to me. Since we brought up the idea in class about finding the American dream it was easier to make opinions about why these two men were inducing these harmful acts upon themselves. They were trying to escape their painful feelings and find something new.

In the Movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas the characters Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) make beasts of themselves by taking many illegal drugs to mess things up in their heads. They hallucinate and have strange things happened to them. They become violent but do not realize that they are doing this very harmful thing to themselves because they think it is just a rush. Their actions seem immature as if they never grew up form being kids. The substances they use are very harmful to their perception and their actions. They make fools or beasts out of themselves when they experience the drugs effects. The quote “He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man” states that someone who can find something to cover up the pain can get rid of it. This statement is not true because just because you medicate emotions doesn’t mean they won’t return or disappear. Raoul and Dr. Gonzo were not relieved of their pain it was merely covered up by psychedelic thought due to their over intake of all kinds of drugs especially acid. The characters publicly humiliate themselves which doesn’t push them any closer to recovering or relieving pain they might have in their lives.