Quote Originally Posted by Gandalf_The_Grey
Fair enough DragonRider; I've only seen Fear and Loathing followed by a few random youtube videos my friends were gawking over like a sermon from Jesus Christ himself. Seems my view of his works may be too limited; I figured Fear and Loathing was typical of his doings.
Yeah, some people do take their HST worship a bit far, and mostly for all the wrong reasons. He's great, but not for the drug use, or for the movies, or for the interviews.

Here is my Unpopular Opinion on the subject: Fear and Loathing is not a very good movie, and people who think it is great are just into the drug scene aspect of it. They are really missing out on what Thompson was all about: writing, language and social commentary. Very little of that comes through in the movie.

Some books just do not adapt well to the screen. Did you read Dune, and did you see Dune the movie? The book was great, and the movie sucked by comparison. The reason is that all the action in the book is internal. It's all about what different people are thinking as a scene plays out, not about what they are doing or saying on the outside. They are constantly playing mental games, trying to outwit each other, guessing at the enemy's motives, so there is nothing to show on screen.

Fear and Loathing is not as good as a movie as it is as a book, because the best thing about the book is how things are described, not the actual scene or setting itself. The same thing is true for Hitchhiker's Guide. If you strip out the description and just show what was described it comes off weak.

I also think Thompson does not come off well in interviews. I've only seen one or two, and I only really remember seeing him once on Letterman. He doesn't deliver as well in person as he doen in his writing.