MovieChat Forums > Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) Discussion > Better than fear and loathing - better t...

Better than fear and loathing - better than Depp

posted 19 years ago by wu_cube
36 replies | jump to latest

I didn't have very high expectations for this movie, especially after hearing everyone rate it somewhere between garbage and mediocrity, including Thompson himself. But it was perhaps due to my low expectations that I was suprised and pleased. This movie is great and I strongly recommend it to almost anyone. Sure, Thompson fans, those that have a familiarity with his writing will getmore out of it, but even those who've never heard of the guy will likely be impressed by the characters and chaos in this film. It's better than Fear and Loathing in the sense that it is much funnier. HST was, after all, and hilarious guy and a comic writer. Fear and Loathing, while it's a great film, it provides a very dark and demented view of the doctor and very few laughs. WTBR is more lighthearted and an all around better comedy. Depp and Murray are both great actors, but Murray is a comedian and Depp is just too friggin' serious. He brings little humour to Fear and Loathing. This all boils down to a minor matter of opinion of course, and all those who want to post objectory threads,I encourage you to do so. I encourage you to talk about how WTBR roam is cheap and cartoony and barely uses any of HST's actual writings. Talk about how Thompson called WTBR crap. Talk about Thompson had way to much hair in WTBR. Sure, these are all drawbacks, but it's still a great film. I'd give 'er 7.5 stars instead of 6. Mahalo.

[–] IanSchultz 19 years ago

Fear And Loathing is a lot better but Where The Buffalo roam is good

All right ramblers..let's get ramblin'
Seth Gecko (FROM DUSK TILL DAWN)

[–] howard-philip 19 years ago

This film is poorly made and makes hunter come across and some rambling drunk.

[–] wu_cube 19 years ago

Did you see HST on Conan O'Brien? "Rambling drunk" is by no means an inaccurate term for this guy... Sure, WTBR portrays Thompson as a "rambling drunk" and the result is a hilarious movie.

[–] thegreatjoebivins 18 years ago

The bottom line is: HST was a raving lunatic. That said, Fear and Loathing was closer to the mark when it comes to representing what Hunter was all about. Depp's performance was better because it was more method, Murray isn't a character actor and never really had the chops to take on Thompson's insanity. He did a damn good job considering, but he couldn't hold a candle to Depp. Other things which WTBR lacks are a good script, a genius director, and a decent Oscar Acosta.

On the other hand, it DOES have Odo from Star Trek!!

---------Read my webcomic at:
---------http://angelfire.com/rock3/thegreatjoe

[–] Rachel_62704 18 years ago

Hunter wasn't a raving lunatic; he was probably one of the very few people in this world who reach that high level of understanding that escapes most of us. He saw the world and everyone in it exactly how they are, not how the media portrays it. He was a visionary and a true gonzo journalist, and he is one of my favorite writers of all time.

Fear and Loathing is one of my favorite movies so it gets my vote. It shows the genius behind the madness, which is how I think Hunter would like to be seen.

"It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top."

-- Hunter S. Thompson

[–] paultagonist 17 years ago

WELL *beep* SAID! :-)

The real trick to life is not to be in the know, but to be in the mystery. -Fred Wolf

[–] rossdale_22 17 years ago

Murray did a much more accurate portrayal of Thompson, but overall Fear and Loathing was far better than WTBR.

[–] number909 17 years ago

Bill Murray is always cast as himself. I like him. He was good in "Lost in Translation', playing himself. WTBR is a film afraid of its subject. It took no chances. Murray is too deadpan. Depp is a good actor and he caught the spirit of the good doctor. I am quite familiar with HST's work and, in my opinion, WTBR is a mediocre film...at best.

[–] blammo_kaboom 17 years ago

well, I did actually meet him briefly when he spoke/rambled at the Upenn campus in the early/mid 90's and I've always been a giant fan of his work and just the plain overall soul shattering awesome chaos that he represented

he would definatly fit the classification of a raving drunk lunatic and I think he might even wholeheartedly agree with that statement and take it as a compliment..

how he "planned" his speaking engagements was that he'd start by cracking open a bottle of wild turkey and it was over when he reached bottom [or go on if there was another bottle to be had...]

he was a true iconoclastic individual who witnessed and sowed weirdness all around him.... even if parts of it were only in his wonderful head..

he grabbed life by the horns and ass raped it in such a way that made life feel that deep down, that maybe deep down, that she DID actually want him to mount her like that..

and left her blushing and quivering, but fully satisfied and content all the way through to her bones....

the universe bent towords his will where ever he walked, like those science documentaries describing how gravity works using heavy balls indenting a cloth that represented the fabric of the universe and showed how smaller objects got caught in the well of the cross-dimentional rift that is his soul

no, I hadn't altered my mind to go see him, nor is it altered now [except by a little sleep deprivation] but by just being in near orbit of him, you somehow felt as if you'd somehow spent one too many days ingesting several different substances that "your friend, who's good at chemistry" dreamed up and slipped into that pudding cup he knew you always had with lunch, just in some depraved experiment to document how thier effects on you presented while you went about your normal day....

really, it did feel like that.... I'm not embellishing it at all actually... [ok, just a little maybe...]

I mean most "famous" people out there don't have that factor going on at all but there are some where it's not their fame but who just by the simple fearless act of daring to be themselves that thier mere presence just passing by you is enough to leave you in awe and wonderment, even if you had absolutely no clue who they were or that they were even famous...

some people are just born with that, I dunno.. destiny maybe, and hunter was definatly one of them...

a doomed mutant playing his own weird part in helping define the psyche of american culture...

rest in peace, gonzo. rest in peace...

I apologise for the flowerly, pretentious rant. I'm not one of those people I described above and have to resort to mimicry as a form of praise and flattery as I don't really have words of my own....

yet...

I think I finally need to get some sleep, it's been almost a fell 2 days and the hallucenations are just kicking in from sleep deprivation... [not altered, just insomnia...] again, apologies for my lame attempt but I just watched WTBR along with F&L in LV also..... and I kinda locked into that dialoug, lol... and hunter always inspires me, I'm so glad that I got to even briefly meet him and see him in person as there really won't ever be another person ever quite like that at least in my lifetime...

[–] 14bmail 17 years ago

Thanks for your post. Appreciate someone who met him posting in here :D

[–] kuruptt 17 years ago

Nicely said rachel and blammo (get some sleep *_*)
I havnt seen WTBR yet but will get it soon. Loved F&L :P
Hunter to me was deffintly an inspiration . Great writings and great outlook on the world.. how it feels it should be.

[–] fortydayweekend 17 years ago

For a sleep-deprived stream of consciousness rant, that was awesome.

[–] BobCH88 17 years ago

"Murray did a much more accurate portrayal of Thompson"
I know, his portrayal was so dead on that he did'nt even need to shave his head to convince you how Thompsonesque he was!
Bwahahahahahahaha.
Gimme a break. He never convinced me that he was doing anything more than a bad HST impression in that movie. Depp IS the same Raol Duke in the movie that I read in the book, no question.

[–] cosi-3 17 years ago

Fear and Loathing did not demand Depp to be hilarious, simply for that was not the overtone of the movie.

Movies that are hilarious by nature often destroys any serious connotation and you simply could not have that with Fear and Loathing as it needed to portray itself in particular light, which it did and did so well.

Fear and Loathing was funny, in spurts, but only enough so as to not ruin it's intention.

[–] lisabickmore 17 years ago

I love Fear and Loathing and Where the Buffalo Roam but i thinl that Johnny Depp's protrail of him is a lot more accurate as he did spend weeks following Hunter around perfecting his character.

I have to advocate drugs, alcohol and insanity to anyone but they always worked for me. - HST

[–] simbob4000 17 years ago

Wasn't Bill Murray friends with Thompson.

SimonpieterOnTheGeoPoliticalClimateOf TheWorldToday: We live in a new world with a global day

[–] lisabickmore 17 years ago

Yeh. They both invented the sport Shotgun Golf together lol.

I have to advocate drugs, alcohol and insanity to anyone but they always worked for me.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] bobtheyak 17 years ago

You also have to keep in mind that Hunter was a generally playful guy. Bill Murray portrays is playful side, whereas Depp portrays his more poetic side.

[–] paultbaker 17 years ago

Keep in mind WTBR is based on Hunter & his writing, including 'F&L on the Campaign Trail' & 'F&L at the Superbowl'; FLLV is based on one specific novel, which even Hunter admitted was mostly exagerated fiction (though clearly based on HST's 'reality').

WTBR cover's everything from Gonzo defending the poor in court, to traveling with the press covering Nixon, to the Superbowl, to late-night plane deliveries, to hippy-radicals in the desert.

FLLV is just about one (long) weekend.

As for who makes a better HST/Duke; both actors lived, drank, shot guns, etc. with HST.
Both have terrific, bizarre takes.
But again, Murray's doing Hunter, Johnny's doing Duke.

Check the special feature on the Criterion FLLV: "Fear & Loathing on the Road to Hollywood" from the BBC, done in 1978. You can see Bill Murray and his brother Brian Doyle 'campaigning', two years before WTBR was made.

"Film is a mosaic of Time."
-A. Tarkovsky

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] carl_must_die9 17 years ago

"I've never heard HST admit that Fear and Loathing was mostly fiction."

i dont know if ive heard him say it but ive read him say it, somewhere in the great shark hunt and its long so im not looking for the page number for you

"I'm not saying all of Vegas was true, because odds are Hunter S. Thompson and Oscar Acosta would have probably spent the rest of their lives in prison if it wer"

have you read anything other than fear and loathing in las vegas??

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] dop-16 17 years ago

That statement of the book being mostly fiction.. I'm not sure if I recall spotting it as well.

But anyhow, the "Fear and loathing.." seems to be kind of clip-arted product, Hunter placed events etc. from his other journeys to the novel, so perhaps we could start arguing should it be called fiction or not, if the events are real but not in correct contex..

Loathing is very very Hollywood, and most people don't know anything about it being 'based on a true story'. And when they hear about it, they won't believe it. I hope the upcoming Rum diary-movie will boost Hunter up as a legendary writer, rather than place more 'weirdo'-stamps on him.. (check out the discussion on "Buy the ticket, take the ride" 'documentary')

[–] Billy_McAvoy 17 years ago

"Fear and loathing" was entirely fiction, a mixture of many trips from LA to las vegas (he was a huge sports gambler).

I hope they don't make Run Diary into a movie, that was his first and worst novel. There is little content there but a narration of drinking and working at the san juan newspaper. His political stuff in the 70s and 80s was indeed legendary.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] Billy_McAvoy 15 years ago

How do you know that Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas was mostly fiction?

HST said so himself in many interviews.

...Guess What S1m0ne! We have now entered an age where we can manufacture fraud faster than our ability to detect it

[–] intowiz2 17 years ago

comical writer what are you smoking?

[–] gogoyubori 17 years ago

I like both movies, though i admit i like Fear and Loathing better. Bill Murray and Peter Boyle played more realistic characters, probably closer to what Hunter Thompson and Carl Lazlo were really like. Fear and Loathing was more of a send up of their alteregos, Raoul Duka and Dr. Gonzo. They were characters based on the two, and Johnny Depp and Benicio Del toro did a great job of that as well.

He can become one of those...cool guys.

[–] janyeno 17 years ago

I really do think Murray's potrayal of thompson was better than depp's... but I liked fear and loathing better than where the buffalo roam.

Last Seen: 300 - 10/10

[–] olebiscuitbarrell 17 years ago

HST wrote somewhere in the great shark hunt (possibly in the introduction) that Fear and Loathing did exaggerate a few things but that it was mostly true.

Aint seen this movie, would it ruin my experience of FFLV? (book and/or movie).

On another note, I'm still delaying watching a scanner darkly cos i'm waiting to get the book back from a friend to read once more before keanu reeves possibly ruins the book forever. Anyone know if this will happen?

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] Step-Ladder 16 years ago

"Fear and Loathing, while it's a great film, it provides a very dark and demented view of the doctor and very few laughs. WTBR is more lighthearted and an all around better comedy. Depp and Murray are both great actors, but Murray is a comedian and Depp is just too friggin' serious. He brings little humour to Fear and Loathing."

What? Did we watch the same film? Fear and Loathing is absolutely hilarious! Depp's performance is probably one of the funniest performances I've ever seen from any actor ever. Oh man, his delivery, his mannerisms and facial expressions...how can you say he was too serious? xD

Also, I acknowledge the fact that your post is over 2 years old, and you haven't posted in ages, but I had to say it anyway.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] ethermusic1981 10 years ago

What? Did we watch the same film? Fear and Loathing is absolutely hilarious! Depp's performance is probably one of the funniest performances I've ever seen from any actor ever. Oh man, his delivery, his mannerisms and facial expressions...how can you say he was too serious? xD

It's called an opinion, Step.