Editing Review: Fear and Loathing In Las Vagas

Though the success of this film was heavily down to the performance of the actors, the believability or the uncanny resemblence to what it feels like (I imagine) to be heavily intoxicated on drugs is a marvel.

Edited By: Lesley Walker

In this scene in particular when the main character Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) starts tripping it feels like a journey within itself. This is down to the pacing as the outrageousness of what Raoul sees slowly grows from believably stemmed to out right foreign.
The scene stars out slowly, the first sign of a drug induced state when Raoul takes a second look at the valet, whom transformation is smooth, leading us by breadcrumbs to put ourselves in Raouls state of mind. The way he tries to keep his mind straight by repeating the facts about who he is and why he's there through voice over whilst the sounds around his outside of his head seem distant and echoed denotes the way that even in a drug haze you have some form of rational thinking, though it is trapped and ignored. The second wave of distortion of the carpet moving and crawling like vines, is plausible though still outlandish and makes for a good gateway for the next sequence which drags us out of the mind of Raoul and into the observation state. How his behaviour, though internally rational is seen outwardly as weird.
I appreciate that there is no need for a soundtrack over the scenes as it has there are already so many factors to contend with, being pulled in and out of Raouls mind and keeping up with his cracky tales.

 Fear and Loathing In Las Vagas (Gilliam, 1998)