we're on a mission from god

wendy so i got that going darling

looks like i picked the wrong way to

quit sniffing blue light

of my life we enjoy your films

i thought they smelled bad on the

outside

welcome to vintage video where we're

re-watching the 80s so you don't have to

we'll be reviewing every major film

release of the 1980s in real time i'm

patrick o'reilly i'm jesse bayless and

i'm richard wells and today marks the

40th anniversary of the release of where

the buffalo realm on april 25th

1980. it was written by john k not

john k the letter but the name not

nothing to do with ren and stimpy

based on hunter s thompson's articles

the banshee screams for buffalo meat

and strange rumblings in asglan it also

features

uh bits of other thompson works

including fear and loading on the

campaign trail 72

the great shark hunt and fear and loving

in las vegas

it was directed by artlinson and

released by universal pictures

on december 15 1977 rolling stone

published the banshee screams for

buffalo meat

hunter s thompson's obituary for close

friend oscar zeta acosta

fierro an american attorney politician

novelist

and activist in the chicano movement he

was probably best known for the novel

autobiography of a brown buffalo

acosta first caught thompson's attention

in the late 60s as an attorney defending

the underprivileged against unfair drug

charges in east los angeles

which became the basis for thompson's 71

article

strange rumblings in aztlan the obituary

was written shortly after acosta's

mysterious disappearance and presumed

murder death

and was quickly optioned for one hundred

thousand dollars by tom mount

in the in the late 70s thompson didn't

object to the option and didn't even

want to see a script because of the time

fear and loathing in las vegas had been

optioned multiple times and never made

ralph stedman who provided illustrations

for thompson's articles was brought on

to

design the poster and eventually did the

opening credits font

at various points in pre-production jack

nicholson chevy chase

dan aykroyd and john belushi were all

considered for roles in the film

scorsese would have directed the

nicholson version

on set thompson and murray made changes

to the script at which point john k

stepped away from the production

according to the cast and crew it took

about two weeks

before bill murray completely

transformed into hunter so much so that

when he returned to snl in the fall

he retained the mannerisms and people

felt like they weren't dealing with bill

murray anymore

during the production hunter lived in

murray's guest house and they stayed up

all night together between shoot days

murray believes that he still has a lot

of thompson in him

and actually i read that uh when johnny

depp was brought on to play him for fear

and loathing that

he spoke with bill murray in advance and

he said make sure that whoever you play

next is nothing like hunter s thompson

because

you don't want to get stuck as this

character because i got stuck there in

my brain for a few years

yeah well and john went pretty in deep

too

didn't he yeah in terms of his method

acting like

learning learning his mannerisms he

spent a lot of time with him when when

they're making this movie

hunter s thompson was living in murray's

guest house when they made fear and

loathing

johnny depp lived in hunter's basement

that's awesome he lived there for months

before the production even

we start the film with shots of wide

open wilderness

and neil young sings a cover of where

the buffalo roam or it's not the song is

not called where the buffalo it's called

home on the range

correct over the opening credits with

the ralph stedman splatterfont

thompson is typing in a cabin under a

taxidermy bat

and drinking a lot of liquor and

screaming at a beeping fax machine

he tests his dog rocco's training to

attack nixon when it hears the word

nixon

not just nixon yes but specifically

nixon's testicles

right yes um he has a big

uh dummy with a nixon mask on and every

time he says the word nixon the dog

attacks it's crotch

the facts beeps again and he sends a

random page from a magazine back

and we flash back to thompson meeting

laszlo for the first time

so hold on is that how fax machines work

somebody could just beep at you and you

have to send them something

well at the time you would you would

send a message indicating that you were

ready to receive the facts on your end

and so you would get an alarm on the

sending end and then you would send it

that seems really rude and inefficient

especially in this scene the way it

plays out because he's trying to ignore

it but

um i don't know i mean i don't know a

better way to do it than that

well i'm just saying like you know to

if you aren't expecting it like somebody

didn't call you and be like

hey i'm ready to i'm ready to get a fax

from you just having your fax machine

start beeping at you seems really

well i think it was just because people

didn't have dedicated fax lines at the

time they were sharing it with a phone

line so it was like you had to switch it

over

so it was like hey we're ready to

receive your pages because

you're coming up on a deadline

but wouldn't wouldn't beeping it require

it to be plugged into that phone line

yeah they were both plugged into the

phone line but you wouldn't leave them

like that

all the time so it would just be a way

to indicate okay we're both connected to

the fax machines

okay sorry we've spent way too much time

learning how fax machines work

i was thinking it was more of of the

line of that

he had he had left his phone on the fax

machine and people were just trying to

call him

but the calls were all being routed to

the fax machine oh okay maybe

and when he stuffs the page and he's

like chew on that gibberish for a while

um i feel like the the retelling of this

story

is going to uh there's a lot of lost in

translation if you will

because bill murray's performance as

honor s thompson is really the most

fascinating

part of this movie um and so in just

retelling the story

i'm not gonna be doing his voice the

whole time and i'm not gonna go through

and clip every single piece of dialogue

but i think it's worth like actually

sitting down to see before

you judge it from just what we have to

say about the story here

i just wanted to point that out because

he really does a fascinating and

great job of impersonating hunter s

thompson to the point that

you watch a video of hunter s thompson

like going out to a shooting range with

conan o'brien like as recently as like

10 years ago and he just reminds me of

bill murray because

he took so much away from portraying

this character that they kind of merged

into one person

had to be more than 10 years ago now has

it been more than 10 years since he does

uh he died while i was still working at

pie town

yeah well that's that's less than 10

years ago

is it yeah because i i was already

dating jess

and we've only been together 10 years

when i started at pi town right

only 10 years it feels like a lifetime

yeah a wonderful lifetime

but yeah i don't think it's been super

long we have computers right

computers exist 2005.

2005. okay so only 14 years so i don't

know how i thought it was 10 years ago

anyway it wasn't exactly 10 years to the

day like richard suspected

a little bit more yeah i remember when

he was on conan though and i was

watching that clip and i was like this

just feels like the bill murray

portrayal

but yeah so we flashed back to san

francisco in 1968

a car is parked over a curb on like a

roundabout in the middle of a parking

lot

and uh a nurse is telling a doctor that

thompson is having paranoid delusions

about richard nixon and a swarm of bats

pursuing him

up in his room of this hospital he has

persuaded a nurse out of her uniform

and into partaking in drugs with him he

is dictating

an article into a recording device the

article is titled my attorney versus

american justice

laszlo quickly arrives at the hospital

and

he follows the loud music that's playing

from thompson's room to find him

but instead of going through the hallway

door he climbs out onto the ledge from

the neighboring door because he doesn't

want the

the hospital staff to see him well i

think because the door is locked oh was

it

because bill murray's barricaded himself

in the office right that makes sense

but uh so he comes in through the window

and he terrifies the nurse

because she thinks he's a bat right

because they're all having

bat delusions because of whatever

specific drug they're on

it's a recurring theme in these thompson

films and books

and there was a there's a bat hanging in

his office like above his head which i

thought was a nice

sort of touch like he's got a generally

cottagey type feel to his office like

it's all wood paneling

and um you know big fireplace and stuff

but i like the i like the bat that hangs

over him

yeah and in the in fear and loathing

like there's bats chasing them

down the freeway at the beginning of the

movie right and you cut to like one that

they ran over with the car that's like

smashed to the freeway

out in the middle of the desert but so

thompson smuggles lazlo out of the

hospital they leave out the window of

course and

while they're driving laszlo decides

he's going to give some statements on

the article

as thompson is driving him to the

courthouse and and typing

yeah he's driving and he sets up his

typewriter on it this cool little

desk platform that he has in the car

so that he can type while he's driving

like texting and driving isn't bad

enough like full-on

full-sized typewriter in the car and

laszlo is very comfortable

with this whole situation he's like i

mean uh hey you're really getting all of

this

yeah he's not worried about the driving

he's worried about the typing it reminds

me of that simpsons episode

when he gets all the accessories for his

car and he's got like a microwave and

all this stuff plugged into his car

we got all the extras yeah was that the

canyon arrow episode or

or or was it the um is the rv it was he

was dec he was decking out his regular

car so it wasn't an rv

then it wasn't the canyon arrow and it

wasn't the one where he designs his own

car

a lot of vehicular simpsons episodes um

at the headquarters for what is it blast

magazine what do they call

it yeah blast yeah which is playing the

part of rolling stone magazine in this

film

marty lewis as played by bruno kirby is

demanding that

uh paige find hunter s thompson who is

past his deadline

uh paige is one of the bobs from office

space right

a lawyer sits with laszlo and thompson

and

suggests that he stop representing poor

people

uh they're they're in like a diner

somewhere and and he says you know

there's a lot of money to be made

as an attorney and i we need people at

my office and we could set you up and

he's like

no i represent the people and he's like

yeah but these people are terrible

you're representing the wrong people

and they get really mad and kind of flip

out on him they

basically start a fight in this room but

then we move to the courthouse

where laszlo is talking to like 19

co-defendants at the same time

and he talks everyone through the

process you know don't talk out of turn

and we got to be polite in there and no

smoking no drinking no

whatever well yeah he's also like

talking to the people who are going to

be in the gallery of the courtroom right

yeah to keep the ruckus to a minimum

yeah thompson finds a woman who is

running like a blood drive

and i think he's pretending to take her

blood like as a joke

it's an upsetting scene an extremely

upsetting thing i literally had to pause

it and walk away from the movie for a

moment because

i would be screaming bloody murder to

get this man away from me

as he pulls a needle out of a bag and

tries to bring it to my arm but i also

got the impression that this

extra was not prepared for this action

to take place because she doesn't react

to it the way a person would

yeah she just kind of was like what are

what are we what's happening now okay

you have my arm okay what are we doing

and she's like

no no yeah and he's like oh i missed it

i'm gonna have to do it again

yeah it's just like but he pulls a

little a little syringe out of a medical

bag and pushes it into her arm but it's

it doesn't have a needle in it but i

don't know if it's supposed to or not if

he's just pretending or if he's actually

trying to take her blood

because she's like oh are you going to

give some blood today like i'm actually

here to pick up

dropping off of picking up laszlo is

approached by the prosecuting attorney

who tries to you know shit-talk him

before they go into the courtroom

and laszlo basically hands him the

leftovers of the sandwich he was eating

and says i'll see you in court

the guy's like i don't know where to put

this sandwich that i have now

laszlo tells the judge that he'll be

representing all of the cases

marty somehow finds thompson in the

courthouse lobby

doing push-ups yeah and he reminds him

that he has 19 hours until the deadline

which i feel like if you worked with

hunter s thompson for any length of time

you wouldn't bother to tell him like

remind him about this stuff because he

clearly doesn't care

well i mean i guess uh you gotta do what

you gotta do

yeah but i just wouldn't go in person

when there's still a whole day left

given his propensity to wait until the

last second and marty also lifts off

like a list of other things like that

he's in trouble for

like bills and things like that and he

says i couldn't care less about those

yeah like it's the story that i want and

he's also like

it's clear that marty has to put up with

a lot of thompson's crap because he's

kind of their star

columnist it's not just like it's a

story that he cares about

it's clear that people specifically care

about hunter's work

and so he kind of has a lot of leverage

on on marty here

laszlo questions the cop involved in one

of these arrests

who really had no probable cause right

it sounds like he accused them of having

marijuana

and he patted him down and then took a

cigarette box off of them

and then when he decided to check inside

of it which he shouldn't have

done because at that point there wasn't

a threat to him and there wasn't a

threat to the general public

but he found that there were it was full

of joints basically

um but he's trying to make it sound like

there was a physical threat to him like

there could have been a

there could have been a small bomb may

have been concealing a small plastic

device exploding device of some kind of

so i checked i opened up the cigarettes

and i checked inside that's why

he's like the bomb are you kidding like

hunter s thompson like stands up to like

talk to the courtroom like how

ridiculous is this

and all the while like hunter as

thompson is there's like a a legal

student who's in the court to observe

right he's been slowly but surely

getting him drunk yeah

he's sharing his uh his drink with him

and the guy didn't know how strong it

was because he's lost it very quickly so

the next defendant sits down and it's

kind of

he reminds me of like uh like harold

from harold and mod probably 19 or 20

sits down

and he is talking about a previous

arrest and time that he served

for for one literally a single joint he

went to jail for 18 months or something

like that

but this time he was caught with a pound

of marijuana

which he says he was holding for someone

else which is kind of the go-to defense

for i don't have a defense here but he

won't give up the name of the person who

he was holding it for so the judge gives

him three years

that's the scene where bill murray is

like to the to the legal council is like

i don't think he's gonna talk and the

guy's so drunk it's like he's name he's

not gonna talk i'm sorry judge

the kid's not a squealer and then the

judge says do you understand your

sentence and he says no i don't and then

he says

five years to life so he just extended

the sentence two years because he

thought that that was talk back

even though he literally just doesn't

understand like why is it three years

um but laszlo blows up and uh chews out

the judge

and throws the the prosecuting attorney

over the court yeah thompson turns in

the article with two hours left to print

and he's almost handing it to marty and

then pulls it away at the last second to

like

just espouse more of his philosophy and

marty's getting really impatient with

him

so these articles must just be so

incredibly amazing

for everyone to put up with all of the

[ __ ] that they put up with

yeah i mean they kind of were and he

obviously won a lot of awards for his

writing and everything

for the style of his prose have you ever

read his

any of his books or his articles they're

really fascinating i think the dialogue

like the

the voiceover of fear and loathing is

pretty

accurate and almost taken word for word

from the book yeah

and that's the way he wrote it's kind of

funny because bruno kirby is playing a

very similar character that he'll play

in good morning vietnam

yes of the guy who has to put up with

the

the popular person who doesn't

understand why he's popular but has to

deal with it yeah

and who's really funny but also super

unprofessional

so we flash forward to uh thompson

writing an article about the super bowl

in 1972 he checks into a hotel and as

he's checking in he makes

an absurd list of demands as well get

the room service while we're cracking

too

how about three crab louies for starters

three crab looms uh quarter shivas

lots of ice oh lots of ice it's not

spice

gritter mezcal and uh 16 grapefruit

getting all this um it's like the list

from

airheads when they're trying to like get

their demands met

uh 67 copies of moby dick

the movie or the book you made a book

out of that

yeah i think so yeah i get the book one

of the things is he wants 16 grapefruit

this is the scene that seems like it's

out of fear and loathing yes like

no i know it's not specifically this but

the whole the whole check-in scene and

the the grapefruits

that come into play later marty calls

the hotel to dispute some of

the things that thompson has requested

um i think the hotel calls him

and said there's a guy here they wanted

to double check all this

stuff and he's he's like down the line

approving a lot of it but then some of

it gets weird he's like

no you don't need a video camera you

don't need a television you don't need

because he he literally flew the whole

way to los angeles

he has tickets to the super bowl but he

wants to just watch it in his hotel room

he doesn't want to go to the game

because

he wants to tape the game so he can

watch it later yeah he's like i wanna i

want the instant replays and i want the

he's like i'm not gonna get any of that

if i go to the field um

but when he's talking to uh to bruno on

the phone he's like

what does that sound and he's like i

didn't hear anything he's like get the

goddamn cap off the phone

they think they're playing with children

here like there's spies listening in on

this just an article about the super

bowl

but then uh back downstairs in the lobby

they're they're getting some noise

complaints

about the 20th floor because uh he's

just going nuts up there he's just

inviting a bunch of the

hotel staff up to the room and forcing

them to reenact the super bowl yeah

well pre-enact oh yes laszlo goes to

visit thompson

while he's having his breakfast on game

day and uh he basically says i got

something that's more important so we're

gonna go

you're gonna get in the car and you're

gonna leave with me and when they're

pulling out of the parking lot they see

a guy

and they're like hey you want tickets to

the super bowl this is super bowl i

think

six in 72. i'm trying to remember what

the roman numeral said outside the

building

he basically just he holds his tickets

out the window he's like you want

tickets to the game he's like oh yeah

man these look really real how much you

want for him he's like who said sell

why don't we do a trade here and he's

like

i'm at that that bottle of wine he's

like this this bottle of wine which is

probably like a garbage bottle of wine

it's in like a paper bag

and they're like yeah here you go and

he's like i like that hat too that's a

that's a swell hat and he's like all

right here you go here's my hat and

here's the wine and we get the tickets

and they're like oh yeah you're probably

gonna want these press passes

and uh and here's my room key yeah my

room key and drink vouchers and he's

like

everything's all set up in the room so

you can just head right in and he's like

press pass what is going on here is this

real

then they just drive away they pick up a

hitchhiker

which uh this is another scene from fear

and loathing in las vegas

which in in the other film is played by

spider-man

the hitchhiker they pick up and uh they

scare them by just doing a lot of drugs

and swinging around weapons in the front

seat of the car after they pick up a

beer no thanks how about some either

finder man tom mullin was probably not

even born when that movie came out no he

definitely wasn't

it's always weird though how they make

toby mcguire look in the in that part

yeah cause he's like albino almost and

he's got like the the really crazy

receding hairline like where he's

like got almost no hair on the top of

his head but it's also bleached white

and all of his facial hair is bleached

white

like it's very weird they scare the

hitchhiker so much that he leaves which

is the same thing that happens in

uh the other yeah the other movie um but

laszlo takes hunter to this shack out in

the middle of the of the wilderness

where he's been selling guns to like

gorilla armies

hunter tells laszlo like this is crazy

and i'm gonna go i think what's best is

if i go back to the hotel because this

is a mistake

and uh this is gonna be this is gonna

cause problems for everybody

what you were doing before was

defensible and you had the people on

your side i think you're going to lose

them

if i write this article lasso doesn't

quite let them leave yet

they they hang out to receive a shipment

of guns by via airplane in the middle of

the night

and like a gunfight breaks out while the

plane is landing

and it ends up just taking off again and

not dropping anything off

oh i forgot to mention too that when

they were while they were at the

shack in the in the wilderness they were

watching the tv

to watch the super bowl and the guys

that they gave their press passes to

like wander through the press box on

television um and they just take over

the mic and start shouting to their

friends

so after the the missed connection with

the guns shipment

we cut directly to thompson going to

speak at a university

um there's not really a lot of purpose

to this scene other than to show i guess

like the public opinion and specifically

like college-age public opinion of honor

s thompson which is that he was kind of

a

celebrity well i think it's also to to

work work in a situation where he

basically says that laszlo

is gone right yeah so that he thinks

he's dead

yeah um and he's drinking and smoking

like while he's giving this presentation

to the kids who are asking like oh if we

drinking smoke is that going to make us

better writers

i was just wondering if you could tell

me um if you thought that drugs and

alcohol would make me a better writer

that's a good question it's like oh well

why don't i why don't we do a little

test here and he like takes a joint out

of his pocket and lights it

and if people are throwing throw him up

there yeah the stage is covered in

joints

i like the look on the teacher's face in

that scene when the joints start flying

just like something

okay i'm getting fired but she seems

oddly like

it's not like she's appalled by it yeah

she seems kind of like a hit the hip

teacher

yeah i mean you you'd have to be to be

the person presenting hunter for that

right

we move uh basically to thompson

boarding a press plane

during the the nixon campaign though

he's never referred to as nixon in

this section of the movie they call him

the candidate he gets on the press plane

and like some of the other journalists

recognize him

and they're like i think it's funny like

he's kind of their mascot a little bit

they're they're like oh he's like a

celebrity journalist and he's kind of

fun and

it'll be cool to have a hunter s

thompson story but then very quickly

he's approached by dooley with the

campaign

dooley played by mark metcalf yeah which

i think is the first actor

so far that any of us has directed

this is true because jesse directed him

for her senior

yeah it did you didn't know that huh did

you tell him not to wear the pledge pin

no i did not he uh he did the the voice

over for

her yeah stop motion animation he was uh

at the time that i was in college he was

one of

one of the local celebrities he um he

had moved to wisconsin he

opened a restaurant there and

um i please tell me they served beef

yeah it was a steak steakhouse yeah

i think it was at least i don't i don't

think i ever actually went to the

restaurant but i did reach out to him

and said

hey i'm doing this student film and i

would love to have you do the voiceover

and he was

very kind and gracious and and did the

voice over for me and

and he did an awesome job too he did a

great job but here

he's playing a mean guy and he kicks

hunter off the plane and i

i did like that some of the other

journalists are like hey dooley let him

stay he's got as much right to be here

as any of us yeah now you're i'm gonna

kick you off the plane before i let him

come on this plane

um but he gets sent to the zoo plane

which is like the

the back up press plane which literally

has zoo spray painted across the front

of it

it's all like the cameraman and the crew

yeah for like all the coverage

or also like lesser magazines and other

journalists that they don't care about

um other people that are getting

downgraded like harris yeah

who seems to have screwed up somewhere

in the recent past and got downgraded

to the zoo plane and it's not happy

about it i

love i love the comedy is it always like

this no it's usually much worse

must just be waking up wait do they

start cooking

but i also like that the flight

attendant is like when hunter's getting

on the plane she's like oh they kicked

you out huh

sorry here's a beer she just like

totally gets it

thompson sits down next to harris who's

played by renee aber genoa

yeah and uh and he drugs him immediately

because he's taking some of his leads or

whatever for

to make the flight more comfortable

right because he says he's got a

headache and

and he's like i got the the prescription

yeah he's like i'll take two's like yeah

take two

that's what i did i never had anyone

complain about the blue ones

so yeah it's like these are gonna make

me sleepy no sleepy no no

that's not gonna be the problem so uh

harris

also makes the point that he only has to

ride on the zoo plane for like the first

leg of this trip

that he was supposed to switch planes

when after they

stop wherever they are and so when they

they land at the first stop

people are kind of getting on and off of

the plane hunter goes to use a restroom

that's like near where they landed the

flight

and uh basically harris is so drugged

out that he

his plan now is to just pose as harris

and get on the plane in his stead and

leave harris on the zoo plane but he's

going into the bathroom to like clean

himself up

and uh he suddenly finds himself alone

in this bathroom with nixon

who goes up to pee in a urinal

and then thompson starts giving him you

know one of his standard like

drug-fueled lectures well i love that

that nixon is having like

obvious problems yeah attempting to

urinate he's just like

he's like like having serious problems

getting a flow going

yeah and it seems like some of it is

hunter's fault like hunter's taking his

shoes off and

slamming them on the walls for no reason

but every time he hits the walls it like

freaks

it freaks nixon out and he like

convulses while he's trying to pee

but he asks him you know what's what's

your plan to deal with the doomed

and the and the what does he call the

screw head the screw heads

and he's like [ __ ] the doomed they get

on the plane together

and then yeah he snuck onto the press

plane but laszlo

is on his way and and who he thought was

dead but

shows up here yeah and he's like trying

to show how he expanded his gun running

business and he's like oh look at all

this paperwork i have like

this is our new it's like a land he's

got land to build on

and thompson's like you got to get out

of here right now and dooley notices

the the argument between the two guys

and he's like thompson i told you to get

off this point who is this guy like both

of you need to get off here right now

and then the fight breaks out

right um but they bust open a fire

extinguisher and blast everybody

with this like flame retardant like

stuff including nixon who like peeks

through the door to see what's going on

on the plane

it's great that uh was it dooley grabs

the flight attendant to like

block getting hit by the fire

extinguisher one of them does

it might have been somebody else but in

order to like not get hit by the fire

extinguisher she grabs the flight

attendant it uses

her as a human shield yeah but they get

thrown off the plane

and on the runway the engine like the

the blast of the engine is blows all the

paperwork out of

laszlo's hands and it's all over the

runway and the two of them are like

running around trying to collect the

paperwork

and thompson's just watching the plane

fly away and basically like

the story of the campaign trail leave

yeah and he's just like all right i

guess this is what the article's about

now

well he and he was really mad at laszlo

because he didn't want

to go along on his crazy adventure

i thought was like an interesting turn

for the character because

yeah he wanted to do his job and not

just go off on this

you know crazy idea of i wasn't even

entirely sure he wanted to go build

some sort of compound of something yeah

restarting what he had going

at the previous place but at this point

like hunter's like

you're already like too loopy for me to

deal with you like you're

you're off the reservation you want to

you know fund all these

cartels and give weapons to people and

laszlo thinks he's going to help form

like a revolution with all this money

but

he's just causing a lot of problems

which is why the actual person ended up

like

moving his operations to mexico and that

was when he was killed on some

ship like possibly killed i think his

family thinks he was murdered

but the official story is that he like

drowned like he fell off a boat and

drowned but they never recovered the

body or anything so

but then obviously uh well that's the

end of the the story basically he

finishes writing the article

he's sitting with his dog and his nixon

dummy in his cabin

and he says it never got weird enough

for me

and then uh and then that's kind of it

much like fear and loathing in las vegas

it's it's

more of a collection of scenes yeah and

and there is

like a narrative of the sort i feel like

there's actually more connective tissue

in fear and loathing than there is

i i agree but it's really

the movie is made by the performances

right right

exactly but it's basically a reenactment

of

four or five separate articles that he

had written over the course of his

career with rolling stone

and then pieces of some of his books

but he wasn't in this movie he wasn't

writing for rolling stone

no well it was rolling stone but they

called it blast magazine because it

didn't have the rights to it

okay that makes sense yeah but um in

this movie he's actually hunter s

thompson in the movie fear and loathing

it's an adaptation of his book fear and

loathing in las vegas so the character

is raul duke

right and laszlo isn't called laszlo

right

no gonzo dr gonzo doctor

oh okay it is that simple then because

they called what hunter s thompson was

doing the whole time gonzo journalism so

i guess that was just a reference to

that i didn't realize they just

literally gave him that name

but it is the last character he

yeah my attorney understands this

concept despite his racial handicap

i i love the last line of fear loathing

too when he's like watching him get on

the plane he's like

a high-powered mutant of some kind never

even considered for mass production

too weird to live and too rare to die

but yeah that that second movie had been

in development for longer than the first

one like

from even before when the first one came

out right and gilliam did a lot of

rewrites

yeah um but originally it was going to

be jack nicholson

and marlon brando were going to be the

two characters but they were

too old to play the parts um by the end

of the 70s

marlon brando that would have been a

mess

well i think it's also an interesting

choice to go anglo with the attorney

character because

he was a hispanic person in real life um

and i know that there was

kind of an uproar when they were gonna

use i forget

like peter boyle's playing this laszlo

character

who i think was going to be named like

vasquez or something in the movie and

all these like

hispanic groups were like you can't just

hire a white guy and have him play a

mexican guy in this movie

and so they're like fine then he's

playing a white guy his name is carl

laszlo now

um also interesting that peter boyle

gets top billing

yeah i think he was the bigger name at

the time for sure

it's just yeah i mean it's just i was

like when i was watching the opening

credits i was like wow peter boyle gets

number one and i mean he was kind of the

focus

of most of the articles that made hunter

famous

so it does make sense that like you

could interpret him as being like the

main character of this movie

and it's just you know he's like the guy

leading the band that and almost famous

that

the kid is constantly like encountering

right

but yeah uh i guess at one point dan

aykroyd and john belushi were gonna play

the two characters

i don't think that would have been

anywhere near as good yeah well belushi

died before

that could even get any kind of real

um momentum but an accurate just doesn't

physically i don't think so either i

mean he was much skinnier at the time

but not that much skinnier yeah no

offense mr akroyd but

but also i don't think i've seen dan

aykroyd like

stretch and play somebody like this

you know that that's this out of their

own character

well you should see uh nothing but

trouble nothing but trouble

he's a very character in that very

different character yeah he plays the

the insane elderly judge 100

year old judge of this small town but uh

he's crazy have you not seen nothing but

trouble i haven't oh it's a

it's a magical journey yeah we'll get

there for sure

it would have been interesting too

though if two ghostbusters had both

played

hunter s thompson but yeah there's still

time

they're making ghostbusters more

ghostbusters movies johnny depp could

still be in one

that's true i thought you're gonna say

they're making more ghostbusters every

day

john malkovich was also at one point

considered for the role of duke and

fear and loathing but that didn't end up

working out but i feel like he's

he's a good match physically and then at

one point i guess john cusack wanted to

do it

because he had directed like a stage

play performance of some of honors

thompson's works i mean i could see him

with the look yeah i just and i love

john cusack and

this would have been at the height of

his kind of ability

yeah but i don't know if if i thought he

could pull it off

yeah and uh but apparently as soon as

thompson met johnny depp he was like

this is the only person who can

play the part for me but i still think

bill murray does a better job of

emulating hunter specifically yeah i

i i wanted to bring this up i was really

torn about which performance i liked

better

and and which movie i like better i mean

they're both amazing performances yeah

uh they're they're you know when i was

first starting

where the buffalo realm because i hadn't

seen it in a little while probably not

since we worked at blockbuster

yeah um uh i was just thinking oh man

this is

starting off a little a little weird uh

with the whole fax machine scene i

really don't know what's what's

happening here

yeah um but once when it got once it got

moving i was like this is really good

i think all that interstitial stuff was

kind of an afterthought

or at least it feels that way that they

were like these scenes need to get

connected more

like let's book in the movie with

something but um

yeah it's a little weird it gets off on

the wrong foot i feel like

starting it with the car parked on the

thing at the hospital would have

made more sense because it opens with

it's such a

it's such a static shot and this it

looks like a saturn live set

yeah it does like it it just felt it

just felt very fake

that's part of what makes me think that

it was an afterthought is that i think

they shot that

in one day on a sound stage after they

were like well the movie's done

and we need some help in the edit so

let's put something together that kind

of squeezes it into a story

but um i think that um johnny depp's

performance

really emphasizes a little bit more of

the

like psychosis and the like drugged out

you know episodes that he has which

i don't think was a very big emphasis in

this movie

yeah i think um that hunter actually

i don't think he liked either film a lot

but i think he praised both performances

obviously

and i think both of them really get

hunter s thompson right

i think the difference is that johnny

depp was playing hunter s thompson even

if he's doing it really well he's he's

emulating honoris thompson

and bill murray is just that he is that

person

like it didn't it never feels like he's

pretending like

at times you even forget that he's

playing another character because it

just feels so much like the bill murray

that we know right like johnny depp is

doing the caricature

right yeah and bill murray is just doing

the real version

but i do think between the two films i

prefer

fear and loving in las vegas like if i

had to sit down and watch one of the two

of them

it would be that one even if i prefer

bill murray's performance yeah yeah i

agree with that

just because terry gilliam is an expert

filmmaker

and his direction totally saves what

could have been

a totally like meandering nonsense story

and i i'm a sucker for anything terry

gilliam does

it also helps that he does so much

practical work um i mean i know there's

a lot of cg in that movie still

but um so much of it is practical that

it's like and just weird lenses and

he he really captures like the the manic

energy that

that hunter s thompson is always

bringing to everything it it feels like

just one long

article when you're when you're watching

the movie and i

i just crack up listening to the voice

over whenever he goes into like some

weird

stretch of nonsense your dead

grandmother crawling up your leg with a

knife in her teeth

you don't look portuguese

that's good stuff uh whereas the

director for this film art linson

um has mostly producing credits

um he actually produced fight club dick

tracy scrooged

fast times at ridgemont high well

scrooge's another bill murray

right um and he also produced melvin and

howard which we'll be discussing later

this year

um he only has one other directing

credit he directed the wildlife

in 1984 but

he also has producer credits on a bunch

of de niro movies

so he uh produced untouchables heat

um what just happened did you ever see

what just happened i did not say that

i didn't see it either but it's adapted

from a book written by linsen

about his experiences in hollywood and

then most recently

he wrote the comedian which de niro

starred in also oh yeah

writer john kaye this was his third and

last screenwriting credit

um for 20 years until lulu

with patrick swayze and melanie griffith

which he also directed

um in 19 or that this was 1980 so that

was 2000 that he did that

the dp for this film was tech fujimoto

yeah who is amazing uh he was a dp on

star wars silence of the lambs

the macgyver pilot sixth sense devil

that thing you do gladiator ferris

bueller's day off pretty in pink death

race 2000

just a lot of classic beautiful things

he he does these

like shots where he he likes to have

people look directly into the camera

um and he likes to do like really flat

and extreme close-ups

uh you can always tell when he's

when it's in behind the lens yeah and uh

we'll see him again later this year

uh lensing uh melvin and howard which is

another uh

linson production and also borderline so

he has two more films that we'll be

covering

the composer for this film was neil

young this was the first of very few

films that young composed

the other two were dead man from jim

jarmusch which stars the

the other hunter s thompson johnny depp

and uh he also uh composed greendale

which is a musical film that he directed

himself but all of his other composing

credits were

for concert films of his own work i

don't recall was their

actual score in this film it was

i mean it must have been subtle i

remember i remember when the songs

played

yeah i think um all i all i recall

is the home on the range at the

beginning and then those the horns from

that song come back in at various times

throughout the movie at like yeah

high energy points but the rest was like

popular music yeah

most most of it was actually just yeah

music

i don't actually remember score aside

from that

maybe that was it but it was enough to

get him the credit yeah

um we said before peter boyle was laszlo

um he's probably i think of the monster

from young frankenstein first for him

um he was wizard and taxi driver he was

jocko dundee and johnny dangerously the

leader of the dundee gang

um that's such a great movie i'm excited

for when we get to it

um mr moon and yellow beard yes

he'll be in uh beyond the poseidon

adventure or he already was

that was that was a failure before 1980

um

and uh so this this confused me because

he played joe in a movie called crazy

joe in 1974.

i was like that's weird this whole time

i thought that movie was just called joe

but it's called crazy joe

and then i noticed he's also joe in joe

from 1970.

so there he's in two movies where he

plays a character named joe who's the

titular joe

is it are they not they're not related

to each other

um uh bill murray was hunter s thompson

oh yeah i was also gonna say like

everyone loves raymond yeah well it was

a big

big long run from young frankenstein

that is absolutely the next thing i go

to

i've never seen a single episode in that

show oh lucky

is it good no it can't be that bad it

was on for like 10 years

it's a standard sitcom yeah i i like ray

romano i i think that it's

has i mean everybody does funny moments

it has funny moments it has funny

moments and uh who was the who was his

wife it was the toy story

it was mrs potato head right uh yeah who

cares about the woman he spent his whole

life with

uh peter boyle does that's who bill

murray was hunter s thompson

uh you know him so i don't have to say

anything

um his best movie is life aquatic we all

agree

um he was already pretty big from snl

but this is right before he fully

exploded

um with his movie work he sent

hesitation

well you actually kind of got me in uh

it was like i was like

i don't know if i agree with that but i

don't know if you disagree with it

but better one though they're all kind

of tied i mean uh

you know uh scrooged is wonderful

because

his speeches and that yeah are really

great and he really

you can tell that he's really behind

them yeah

um and uh i i love

scrooge so much so yeah it's it's it's

hard to pick i just want to throw

one that i particularly like and then

pretend that we all like it

and i love live aquatic um bruno kirby

is marty lewis i love bruno kirby

the late bruno kirby we lost him um

there's a lot of lights on this one

yeah um obviously bruno kirby was

amazing in good morning vietnam we said

before

uh he was the young clemenza and

godfather part two

um and he's fantastic in a couple of

billy crystal movies when harry met

sally and the city slickers

i do love him when harry met sally like

the pairing of him and carrie fisher

yes i was like i've never had anyone

quote me to me before

uh harris from the post was renea

bergenwa who

uh we're gonna date the recording here

but i feel like it's worth pointing out

we just lost him in the last like week

or so yeah um

and this happened to somebody else over

the course of the podcast that

we talked about oh danielle danny aiello

yeah pad passed away and uh

and we talked about him in the defiance

episode like he was still around but

just know we're we're banking these and

recording them in advance and

we we didn't want it to look like we

don't know these people just died we

care a lot about them we're just

we're losing them after we discussed

them but um renee obviously uh we had

him as

uh reverend mulcahy and mash um he was

odo on star trek and the chef and the

little mermaid those are the credits

yeah we kind of already talked about i

don't want to not acknowledge him

but we talked him up a lot in the he's

terrific yeah

um rg armstrong was judge simpson

he played prune face and dick tracy

which the director of this film produced

he played general phillips and predator

and he was

the old man on millennium

on the tv series millennium yes okay

not the movie not the movie which is

fantastic and everyone should see it

but the millennium series was supposed

to be like chris carter's like

x-files yeah that uh didn't work out

they they had a crossover episode or two

it wasn't a bad show either

no i watched it yeah yeah i liked uh

it was nice yeah um

danny goldman was porter i don't

remember who

porter was but uh he played captain

merhardt in mash

he was a medical student in young

frankenstein with peter boyle

and uh he did the voice of brainy smurf

on the original series 225 episodes you

know who he is

who's that i think he must be the guy in

the courtroom that he gets drunk

oh yeah if he's in young frankenstein i

can picture he's the one who's like

calling him dr frankenstein it's it's

frankenstein

oh okay that that has to be that that

probably is him

so dwayne jesse's credit is coming up

here this uh this threw you off a little

bit yeah

so i was i was doing some imdbing while

we were watching the movies because i

thought that was a really

unique name well actually this was when

we were watching

our next movie our next friday the 13th

no gord of course yes sorry

they're all blended together now uh we

were watching corp and i saw the name

i'm like i just saw this name and i was

trying to figure out which movie i saw

it in and it was

this one where the buffalo roam right

but i couldn't find it on imdb because

he wasn't listed by that name apparently

the reasoning for that is because his

name is now otis day

which is the character that he plays in

national lampoon's animal house

they're playing kind of a a parody of

moore's day and the time called otis day

on the knights yeah

and uh it was such a popular group

that he changed his name to otis day

so that he could be known as his

character from that movie literally kept

the band together and they still

performed to this day as the as otis day

do they really do they perform around

here um you can look on their website

you can

you can sign them up for like personal

appearances

but yes he he also will appear in our

next film

which uh released in theaters six days

after where the buffalo roam

mark metcalf was dooley he was doug

niedermeyer in animal house yeah

um he plays colonel niedermeyer and the

stupids

from the same director john landis he

also

uh well known for the master on buffy

the vampire slayer which is like the

leader of the vampires i forgot you know

what because i i always think that doug

jones doug jones plays so many

characters on that

um and he was also the narrator for the

furry revolt

quinn k redeker was the pilot

he has a story credit and was nominated

for an oscar for

deer hunter oh wow that's an interesting

credit i i do love that scene because

he's drinking a beer

while hunter's piloting yeah because he

lets hunter

fly the plane and that's when harris

comes in and says my turn to fly

he's like this guy for real's like well

i don't think he's instrument rated

we have brian cummings doing the voice

of richard nixon

because the voice is obviously dubbed

over a person who looks like nixon

but the guy who does the voice name is

brian cummings

very accomplished voice actor he was the

stove

in beauty and the beast he was doofus

drake

on ducktales he was awk and fern gully

which is one of the two like sidekicks

of the bad

fairy character um he was papa bear on

the berenstein bears

he was arnold mousenegger on two rescue

rangers episodes and he is not related

to jim cummings

you can put your phone down

sonny carl davis was typanian

he played the delivery man in the first

two evil bong movies

and then after that he played rabbit in

the next six

evil bong movies which included five

sequels and a crossover with the ginger

dead man films

i know not of any of these titles

neither do i

our next uh our next credit is richard m

dixon

as a candidate another person who

literally changed his name for work

the guy who plays richard nixon his the

actor's name is richard m

dixon he was born james laro

he first played nixon on film and tv in

1971 when nixon was still president

including a guest appearance on david

frost's show six years before the famous

frost

v nixon interviews he also he went on to

play nixon

in eight more films sometimes credited

as the president or here as the

candidate

this was his last appearance as nixon

susan kellerman was the waitress uh she

played the mother of

lotka kaufman's character on taxi

um she was grace and beetlejuice

and uh she's not related to sally

kellerman in any way

was grace the real estate agent no grace

is the woman who is the date

of dick cavett that comes to the house

she's one of the people

in like a fancy dress sitting around

okay yeah

um craig t nelson was the cop on the

stand i wasn't sure if we were

if you were gonna include i was like

he's kind of unclear there's no way i

also

touch on that come on the furtive

movement was like

some of the best acting in them it was

great

um he was coach um he was

in poltergeist the dad and he's

obviously mr incredible everybody knows

craig t

nelson yeah uh dennis o'flaherty hold on

sorry no that's right we're done

oh okay the end anyway we're gonna have

them back

for private benjamin oh yeah that's true

later this year

um dennis o'flaherty was secret service

man number two

uh he wrote for teenage mutant ninja

turtles biker mites for mars

captain n and the game master nice uh

street sharks

a lot of classic uh fox animated

saturday morning cartoons

uh nancy parsons was the head nurse

she will be ball breaker in porky's i

think next year or maybe

82 she's mrs kruger in sudden impact

and she will be back later this year in

motel hell

there's also a credit here that i want

to mention jerry maron

who plays the bell man that's uh one of

the two

uh dwarves that works in the hotel that

he's staying at

during the super bowl stuff um he is one

of the lollipop guild members

really yeah he was the last surviving

member of the lollipop guild

he doesn't look at that old in this

movie at all

well that was what 39 and i think he was

a child who must have been

um but he survived long enough to appear

like in an episode of

seinfeld in 2000. he was 98 when he died

so we had two people in seinfeld

who else was in seinfeld mark metcalf oh

was he he was the maestro

oh okay that makes sense um but yeah

jerry marin um

he also played a child ape in planet of

the apes

he played a [ __ ] and hello dolly

although

um something weird here a lot of these

are uncredited

i'm not saying that he didn't appears

these characters he's clearly there on

screen

but if he's not credited then why would

they say [ __ ] if he's a dwarf

isn't he technically the dwarf in hello

dolly if he's uncredited

just whoever entered it decided what

they thought um he was i guess

he plays someone in tron there's no

character name it just says tron

uncredited um he was also in at the

circus with the marx brothers

he was the oldest living actor to have

appeared in a film with the marx

brothers

at one point um he's one of the dinks

in his baseballs yeah he's also credited

as little critter

in house the william cat comedy horror

film

that was great and the trivia on imdb

says he

is also in fear and loathing but he is

not

um i looked it up and it's a completely

different actor at fear and loathing so

they just screwed that one up jess

uh that's a definite up for me yeah

uh very very large up yeah i'm i'm

in agreement with you guys and i think

uh it probably deserves to be a double

feature with fear and loathing yeah i

think it's worth watching them back to

back because i did that today and it was

very interesting

where do you think it goes in your

letterbox list

i it's i i i so what i'm debating right

now is whether it's number one or number

two

oh wow so i

so hard i think i'm gonna put it as

number one right now all right had you

seen this before or no

i have oh okay um what do you think uh

very very similar like i'm like going

through my top three

uh i think i'm still very enamored with

the ninth configuration in my mind and i

was like yeah that movie is just

so new to me um and i just can't get

over it

um so i'm gonna put it in my number two

that was the yeah because

ninth configuration is at the top of

mine too so yeah that's the one i i

can't i was debating because i

configuration isn't the top of yours

then i am looking at richard's list you

are

oh little little darlings is on top of

your list

shoot i really love a little darling

we're not going to require you to leave

it at the top of your left then i'm

putting it at number two

it's above ninth configuration but it is

below a little darling okay

and then you said it's right below ninth

configuration so you're both putting it

at a number

yeah it's like yeah it's i'm so confused

now

uh yes so yeah uh ninth configuration is

still number one but

fear and loathing sorry where the

buffalo roam is

my number two all right um

you guys didn't drag that out long

enough i have no idea where i'm putting

it

i like this movie but i don't think i'm

gonna put it as high as you guys did

no i mean it's still on my top

i'm gonna say eight but i'm actually

gonna put it

this is gonna go in seventh place for me

it's between

uh the fog and my brilliant career it's

just above my brilliant career

well it's that's in a that's in a rather

similar place to where i have it sure

yeah no it's not

those movies are higher on me well i

feel bad i feel like i'm crapping on the

movie because you guys have it like

right at the top

what do you have up there though because

you have some my top six

are forbidden zone the changeling ninth

configuration little darlings

mad max the fog and then this okay

so but yeah i think that's where it goes

for me

and i have a lot of those similar movies

in my tops

well then i feel less bad i liked this

movie guys i did

don't feel bad again my list is

is what movie would i want to re-watch

right yeah and

i would rather you know i liked my

brilliant career but

if i'm going to re-watch a movie right

now it's going to be where the buffalo

runs yeah i agree

um all right well i think that's about

everything for this one

if you guys have any thoughts you'd like

to share with us we are vintage videopod

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where as i've said before you can find

each of our full movie rankings for the

year

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vintage video podcast thank you so much

for listening and i hope you'll join us

next time

when we'll be discussing gorp which imdb

calls

a slapstick comedy about the wacky

antics of a group of waiters

at a jewish summer camp in upstate new

york

we leave you now with the trailer for

gorp

in a recent statement leading members of

your community have condemned a new

motion picture

entitled gorp as being totally

unredeeming

and offensive here in a rebuttal is the

producer of gorp

mr i am gross

ladies and gentlemen considering only a

very few of your so-called concerned

citizens have actually seen my new movie

i've taken this opportunity to show you

the paying public

a selection of scenes proving once and

for all

that if gorp is offensive it's equally

insulting to everyone

corp is a film made without any

prejudice

to sex i'm just here to have fun sex and

fun no commitments

just like the guys right religion

[Applause]

[Music]

age all right you little grunts you want

seconds huh

animals

[Music]

weight

[Music]

or complexion on the plus

side gorp is contemporary in its

treatment

of sexual morale

honest in his depiction of rebellious

youth

outspoken language

[Applause]

[Music]

and completely unsanitary

gorp the comedy that miles off

with something to offend everyone

just when you thought it was safe to go

to the bathroom