![]() ![]() The “electric snake” that is seen by Duke after they have checked in at the Mint Hotel ( LV, p. There are reflexive references to the book throughout: the hitchhiker picked up by Duke (Johnny Depp) and Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) is wearing a Ralph Steadman-designed Mickey Mouse top, a variant on the Mickey-Mouse-with-swastika t-shirt he sports in the original Steadman illustration ( LV, p. Thus the dangerous scrapes of the protagonists are put in the context of the far more destructive actions of the American government, especially in South-East Asia. The film’s title appears in red on a black background in Ralph Steadman’s familiar Gonzo font, then drips away like blood, revealing the novel’s epigraph from Dr Johnson: ‘He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man’. The movie opens with an ironically deployed showbiz number, ‘My Favourite Things’ from The Sound of Music, playing over newsreel footage of anti-Vietnam War protests from the Johnson presidency. Although the plot is very close to that of the novel, Gilliam is not afraid to depart from the book on the level of style to create his own interpretation. ![]() ‘Terry Gilliam’s work is the most significant adaptation of Thompson’s fiction so far. ![]()
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