..................

Describing a film directed by Terry Gilliam as "astounding" is redundant - Gilliam is an acknowledged master of the medium who pushes the visual possibilities as far as they can go. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas is another excellent movie from this director.

Fear And Loathing is the screen adaptation of the 1971 novel by Hunter S Thompson, the self-professed founder of "gonzo journalism"... a fast, furious and over-exaggerated writing style that became famous in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine. In loosely autobiographical style, it tells the story of a chaotic drug-laden visit to Las Vegas by Thompson's alter-ego Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and his unconventional attorney Doctor Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro). Tearing through the desert in a huge red convertible under the influence of a mind-boggling array of mind-altering drugs, Duke and his sidekick ostensibly cover a desert motorbike race and a national narcotics conference, but in fact spend most of their time in a drugged haze, trashing hotel rooms and going right over the edge in every way possible.
This story is the perfect material for a visually-oriented director like Gilliam; he takes its hallucinations, paranoia, weird perspectives and black humour and twists them as far as he can. From the opening shot, the viewer is given no chance to orientate himself to the real world... we are trapped within the characters' distorted frame of reference, speeding through the film at dizzying speed.
This may all sound quite boring and disgusting, but the sheer inventiveness of the direction and the electrically good-humoured performances by Depp and Del Toro make it a wicked delight. There are repulsive moments that won't please every viewer, but the overall spectacle of the gonzo journalist and his companion tearing up the scenery in their impossible quest to find the true heart of America is a dazzlingly fresh piece of film-making. See it for its "end of an era" connotations or its over-the-top abandon that makes Edina and Patsy look like schoolgirls in comparison... just see it.

[taken from http://www.festivale.webcentral.com.au/filmrvu/9807frvd.htm]

I love the "Too Rare To Die" narrative at the end.

Nice to know I am not the only one who saw this hilarious flick! More from Terry Gilliam, please.

When they DO become available, however, I highly recommend them. Gilliam is a talented storyteller, and that extends to his telling the "story" of the films themselves in the commentary tracks and supplements included in these sets.

"Baron Muchausen" is very underrated. So imaginative and bizarre. I think it was too much for the general audiences to digest all that at once!

The first of which is that the orchestration is incredible. This was back when Kamen was doing it all himself, and the attention to detail he paid, not only in keeping the score transparent to the film, but also in arranging Harry Barroso's song in different ways to keep the score from getting boring. Furthermore, the music goes in all directions, at one point having a "noir" sound, sometimes wafting muzak, here and there a little 1930s-style ditty, ethereal strings for some of the fantasies, and other sequences having a large scale action sound. Yet, somehow, despite the disparate nature of the CD, it all comes together.

The other reason that this score is brilliant is that, when listening to the climactic music from the latter half of the album, you can either take it seriously from a dramatic point of view, or think of it in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Either approach to the music works, and works well. The dichotomy is there, but the interpretation is LEFT TO THE LISTENER. It's interactive music.

"The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" is a bit difficult to find (and doesn't have the main title fanfare on it, unfortunately) but is well worth the search. Like "Brazil," it also features a variety of styles (although the longer running time of this album, 55 to "Brazil's" 39 makes it sound a little less eclectic), but is more solidly based on the lage scale orchestral sound (pitched somewhere between the romantic sound and a baroque era sound).

Andre and I are in complete agreement regarding the quality of these works.

I just need to add that the name of the brazilian composer who did "Aquarela do Brasil" (the song on which Kamen based most of the score) is not "Harry" - as listed on the cd liner notes - but "Ari" Barroso... Just little fault.

The funny thing is that Gilliam said he had the ideia of making "Brazil" while he was listening to Ari Barroso's song!!

Not least of its attractions is the side-story of how Gilliam stuck up for Kamen's score, at a time when studio head Sid Sheinberg was also throwing out Goldsmith's LEGEND in favor of the Tangerine Dream version.

This was a bit odd for me. I can dislike a movie on first viewing, then like it on a second viewing. Rarely if ever have I liked a film on first viewing, then totally hated it on second viewing, but that's what happened here.

I don't know if it was the druggy tone of the entire film, or maybe it was the way the Del Toro character treated women in the film that set me off the second time I saw it.

Yes, Gilliam's vision and visual style, so liked in previous films are here, but somewhere this film went so over the top that it left a very unpleasant taste in my mouth (not to mention a sick feeling in my stomach) from watching the excess of this film.

Nice try, Terry, but try, try again.

This isn't really on topic, but I'm curious:
What is the difference between
"Andre Lux, Unregistered,"
and
"André Lux, Member?"