One of my favorite film adaptations is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I watched the film first which I liked a lot and peaked my interest into reading the book. The movie captivated me with the use of humor and creativity so I wanted to see what the book had to offer. After reading the book I came to the conclusion that the book was better than the movie for many reasons. The main reason is because the movie altered certain parts of the book.
When the book came out in 1971 had impact. It represented a portion of the American mindset. The book was more than just a story about drug use it was about the American society for that time. The author Hunter S. Thompson showed how Americans at that time had high hopes for the “American dream” but that dream can come crushing down with American reality. One thing that caught my attention was how in the book the main characters say they are searching for the “American dream” many more times than the movie references. Another difference I noticed was how the book describes certain situations and characters. While in the movie certain situations are set up by visuals and don’t need to be explained the explanations in the novel offer detail that I didn’t pick up in the movie.
The movie is thrill ride with the main goal of entertaining the audience while the book offers much more than that. It challenges the reader intellectually and will change the way one thinks about the world. Reading the book allowed me to pick up on the little things that slipped by so fast throughout the movie. It is very important to read the text with the content in mind. If I read this book with no clue about the time period or what the “American dream” was I would think that this book was just about two guys going to Vegas and trying as many drugs as they possibly can while it means much more than that.
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