Scott LeBrun
Bill Murray essays the role of notorious real-life "Gonzo" journalist Dr. Hunter S. Thompson in this somewhat biographical, offbeat cult comedy. He's not particularly reliable (at least, not in this portrayal), and has a pretty carefree approach to life, not to mention a highly substance-enhanced approach to life. His compatriot in some of his experiences is the equally deranged attorney-turned-revolutionary Lazlo (Peter Boyle).I've read that this so-so picture only kind of scratches the surface when it comes to Thompson, not bothering to really give a measured portrayal of the man or illustrate just what made him so interesting as a writer and personality. There's still some comedic value, though, in the way that Murray's Thompson brings so much chaos to his surroundings, how he can spit in the face of decorum. There's not much of a "story" here, but screenwriter John Kaye and producer / director Art Linson use some Thompson experiences as set pieces: the prosecution of several youths on drug charges (for which the writer is present), the so-called coverage of a Super Bowl game, and, most memorably, Thompson becoming part of the entourage covering the Richard Nixon presidential campaign. (This leads to an encounter between Thompson and Nixon himself.)Ultimately, the cast is better than their material. Murray looks like he's having a "high" old time, and Boyle is just wonderful. They are very well assisted by a gallery of familiar faces such as Bruno Kirby, Rene Auberjonois, R.G. Armstrong, De Wayne Jessie, Mark Metcalf, Janit Baldwin, Jerry Maren, Craig T. Nelson, and Nancy Parsons. The music score is by rock superstar Neil Young.At the very least, "Where the Buffalo Roam" has inspired this viewer to actually check out some of Thompsons' writings and see why he is so revered.Six out of 10.
tieman64
"The Sixties were an era of extreme reality. I miss the smell of tear gas." - Hunter S. Thompson Hunter S. Thompson came to prominence in the 1960s, when he wrote about his experiences as an embedded journalist within the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang. He then reported on various national election campaigns and began to popularise a form of "Gonzo" journalism. Part journalism, part memoir and always written in the first person, Thompson's style of Gonzo typically mixed observations, emotions and facts with wild exaggerations and bizarre humour. "Some people will say," Thompson said, "that words like 'scum' and 'rotten' are wrong for Objective Journalism, which is true, but they miss the point. It was the built-in blind spots of the Objective rules and dogma that allowed Nixon to slither into the White House in the first place." In blurring the lines between fiction and nonfiction, Thompson thus sought to convey a deeper truth. To shake up the status quo. Objective journalism, he believed, controlled by mega-corps, interest groups and which hid a firm political stance behind a guise of apoliticism and neutrality, "is one of the main reasons," he said, "that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long."Unsurprisingly, Thompson was influenced by the anti-establishment prose of Beat writers; he was hostile to the powers that be and viewed them all as the populace's enemy. In 1968 he'd witness the infamous police brutality beatings outside Chicago's Democratic Convention. Disillusioned, he'd start seeing even the Democrats as an arm of imperialism and violent repression, both at home and abroad. "The Democratic Party has never recovered from that convention," he wrote. "It is a wound that still festers." In 1970 Thompson would run for sheriff in Aspen, Colorado. Here he passionately campaigned for the legalisation of drugs, though all the while his pen continued to spit scorn at public figures, presidents and politicians. "How low do you have to stoop in this country to be president?" he wrote of Nixon, a man he'd routinely describe as a murderer, pig and idiot.Slowly, however, Thompson would grow disillusioned. Spotting the right-wing trajectory of all US parties, he became more and more convinced of his own irrelevance. He turned to drugs and alcohol, became increasingly demoralised and attempted to hide from an American political reality he found increasingly ugly. "He was impassioned to make the system work, and make the system good," his first wife would say, but it's precisely the mistaken and futile belief that the "system" could "work" and be made "good" that contributed to Thompson's demise. He'd commit suicide in 2005, shooting himself one month after George W. Bush's second inauguration. His suicide note read: "No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 more years than I needed or wanted. Relax. This won't hurt." Released in 1980, "Where the Buffalo Roam" is a semi-biographical comedy. Drawing from several of Thompson's works ("Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail", "The Great Shark Hunt", "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" etc), the film stars Bill Murray as Thompson. Murray perfectly mimics Thompson's distinct mannerisms and style of speech, and the film is fittingly wild, anarchic, undisciplined and irreverent, but director Art Linson is too much of a novice to make things work. The film plays like a bad Altman movie.Still, "Buffalo" captures a certain spirit. It's a David vs Goliath battle, albeit one in which David, like the buffalo, seems doomed to extinction. Perhaps the film's best sequence takes place in a courtroom, where we see early signs of later Anti-Drug Abuse Acts. Some of the more overtly racist pieces of legislation, such acts routinely lead to the handing out of 5 year sentences to those in possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine. In order to spend the same 5 years for possession of powder cocaine, though, you'd need to be caught with 500 grams. Why this 100:1 discrepancy? Because expensive powdered cocaine is the drug of choice for upper-middle class suburban whites and white-collar bankers. Crack, meanwhile, is all black baby. In other words, the scales are calibrated to persecute based on race and socio-economic status. There are two sets of rules, one for those with power and social capital, and one for the rest. We see this even today, with cases spiralling around figures like Bradley Manning or even Aaron Swartz, the guy who committed suicide when faced with 35 years in prison for downloading academic articles, a crime apparently worse than any law breaking Wall Street CEO, Blackwater executive or corrupt politician. Dissent is tolerated up to a point, but once you trespasses upon the sacred turf of corporate profits and military power, then action must be taken.Better than "Buffalo" but less interesting and more conventional is "The Rum Diary", which stars Johnny Depp as Thompson. Set in Puerto Rico, its another David vs Goliath story, Thompson and his band of oddball outsiders waging wars against criminal-capitalist cartels, indifferent civilians, standing up for the little guy, and attempting to turn a sell-out newspaper into a weapon of righteousness. Significantly, Thompson and his fellow prose warriors are either drunk, stoned or outright insane. They live physically in one period of time and mentally in another, ahead of their time and therefore incompatible with it. Directed by Bruce Robinson, the film's beautifully noirish, sexy and structured as an old, classic noir mystery, though such a cosy and familiar tone is perhaps unbefitting of Thompson.Strangely, both "Buffalo" and "Diary" end on a note of optimism. They pine for days before today's moribund liberalism. Terry Gilliam's "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas", in contrast, is explicitly about defeat, his Thompson reduced to just another hedonistic consumer.7/10 - Worth one viewing.
johnnynitro37
Very interesting to see everybody's opinion on this film...from the Murray fan's who know nothing of Thompson to the Thompson fans who think nothing of Murray. To those who have seen both Buffalo and FnL, it should be apparent that either HST really acted like that, or Depp just copied Murray. Either way, this film falls just short of passable only due to Linson's mis-direction...The film seems to serve better as a pastiche of popular Thompson pieces rather than a cohesive succession of events...with no overarching direction, the movie dovetails into preachy idealism and disjointed plot angles that ultimately don't arrive at a narrative conclusion...Still, as has been the common disclaimer, the movie is necessary for anyone who considers themselves to be rabid HST fans...It should be noted, also, that several critics, and even HST himself, have hinted, if not completely insinuated, that his use of drugs in his work, to an extent, was exaggerated for numerous reasons, not the least of which is to expand and authoritative his voice as that of his disgruntled generation...I cringe when I see so many people who seem to be more fascinated by his drug use than his actual body of work...Obviously he used a fair amount of drugs in his life, but it seems to have cast a permanent, impenetrable shadow over his legacy, as if using copious amounts of drugs somehow solidified his credibility...I like drugs, but this misunderstanding of HST and his work is demeaning both to his family and his future...
