There’s a cliché about how the young who aren’t liberal don’t have a heart, and the old who aren’t conservatives have no head. I feel a similar sentiment about the work of Hunter S. Thompson. I loved his books like “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas” when I was in my 20’s, but I can’t identify with them anymore.
What used to feel like, for the most part, relatively harmless mayhem at the expense of the squares, now seems like pointless antagonizing. What can I say? When you work for years and you deal with enough real-life situations, you may not find somebody dicking around wage workers, hitchhikers and the like so funny.
Even so, there still are some laughs to be found here, if only at the sheer audacity of our protagonist. Bill Murray as Hunter S. Thompson is quite watchable, but I couldn’t shake the feeling Murray was playing Thompson as part of a SNL sketch. His performance seems more like his character in Caddyshack channeling Thompson. Yet Murray seems to be having a great time, and that joy is infectious.
I am surprised Murray does not completely lose himself in the role, as he supposedly spent a long time hanging out with Thompson in preparation. Never having seen footage of the real Thompson, I don’t know how many of his real-life mannerisms were employed by Murray. All I know is, throughout the movie, I always saw the actor behind the illusion.
Peter Boyle fares slightly better as Thompson’s equally-unhinged lawyer, but I suspect that is largely because he is playing a fictitious character. Well, a character based on a real person, though I assume as a loose adaptation.
It seems strange to recommend Where The Buffalo Roam. My opinion of Thompson’s books has worsened over time and I didn’t fully believe Murray in this role. Yet there is still something fascinating about watching somebody recklessly driving not because they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but because they were typing at the time. Well, there were likely some drugs and alcohol involved, too.
Dir: Art Linson
Starring Bill Burray, Peter Boyle
Watched on Shout Factory blu-ray