Media Meditation #2. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is one of those movies that you just need to see. It is difficult to explain, but the movie has great examples of the four tool sets, so I figured it was a good idea to watch it and see what I thought. Just in case you have never heard or seen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, here is a quick plot summery. 

The movie was released in 1998 and directed by Terry Gilliam. It is based on a novel by the well-known writer, Hunter S. Thompson. The movie is about two men traveling to Las Vegas. One man is a reporter and the other is his attorney. The men are equipped with a suitcase full of drugs, which explains the movies psychedelic production technique. They descend to Las Vegas chasing the so-called “American dream” in a drug-induced haze, wrecking havoc wherever they go. The movie revolves mostly around the writer, which is somewhat autobiographical, based on Hunter S. Thompson’s encounters. The main character also looks and dresses exactly like him

Four Tool Sets

• First off, Fear and Loathing begins the movie with music and a title that is meant to resemble blood. This triggers the limbic part of the brain, because the music and the bloody image stimulate the brain. The reptilian brain is stimulated because seeing the blood triggers “fight or flight.” This movie affects the reptilian brain the whole time, because it is shot with weird angles, and it makes me feel anxious and stressed out.
  
• The movie’s production techniques are truly wacky. The strange angles and colors make the audience feel as if they are on the same drugs as the main characters. Once heavily induced, things in the movie begin morphing and changing shape, which I found very interesting. This is a rare production technique that you don’t see often, so it’s really appealing to watch.
  
• The value messages in the movie are a little tricky. I think that Hunter S. Thompson is either illustrating drugs in a appealing way, or a way that drives people away from doing them.  This is a value message because the movie is all about two men doing drugs and the affects of them, and it’s hard to see the distinction in the value message.
  
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas uses humor as a production technique. Watching the two men strung out on drugs is humorous and entertaining, and it draws the audience in. The movie also uses bandwagon, suggesting that everyone does drugs. Although the only people in the movie on drugs are the main characters, they make it seem like doing drugs is okay. 

Hunter S. Thompson was an American journalist and author, most famous for his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He is credited as a creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories. Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written subjectively, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first person narrative. The style tends to blend factual and fictional elements to emphasize an underlying message and engage the reader. 

Media & Culture talks about journalism as an art form. Throughout the first part of the twentieth century journalism followed an inverted pyramid style and the separation of fact from opinion. Dissatisfied with these limitations, reporters began exploring a new model of reporting called literary journalism. "Mixing the content of reporting with the form of fiction to create 'both the kind of objective reality of journalism' and 'the subjective reality' of the novel.'" This journalism adapted fictional techniques, such as descriptive details and settings and extensive character dialogue, to nonfiction material and in-depth reporting.