Where the Buffalo Roam

Plot synopsis:
The film opens in the mountain cabin of one Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Bill Murray), gonzo journalist extraordinaire. He is holed up with his dog Bronco and a plethora of alcohol and drugs, struggling with a looming deadline to produce a magazine article about his eccentric former attorney, Carl Lazlo, Esq. (Peter Boyle). When his fax machine begins beeping with a call from his publisher, he angrily shoots it with one of his many guns (in this case, a .45 revolver); he then "get[s] a grip" and sits down to his typewriter. His voice-over narration reflects what he writes, as it does throughout the film.Fade to 1968, early in Thompson's career. He is holed up on an upper-story hospital room with a loud stereo, a pack of drugs and alcohol, and a nubile student nurse (Sunny Johnson). A nurse explains to a doctor that he arrived there claiming to have been chased by Richard Nixon and attacked by a swarm of bats. At this point, Lazlo, a wild-haired, mustachioed liberal attorney, arrives. Finding Thompson's room barricaded from the inside, he calmly walks through the neighboring (and occupied) room and, after helping himself to some of the patients' pills, climbs out onto the balcony and bursts into Thompson's room from the window. This sends Thompson's drugged-out companion into a nearly-catatonic state (she believes Lazlo to be a giant bat), but Lazlo remains calm as he offers his legal advice to Thompson and eats some food. (Lazlo eating some of Thompson's food is a running theme of the film and suggests that he [Lazlo] is not above sponging off those around him.) As the hospital staff begins to break down the door, Thompson and Lazlo unhurriedly escape and miraculously get down to Lazlo's car and escape just as the doctors and nurses break in.On the road, Thompson simultaneously drives and types Lazlo's running commentary about the sorry state of America's legal system, vis-a-vis their treatment of teenagers on drug charges. They arrive at the courthouse where Lazlo is about to go before a judge to defend a large group of kids who, in various combinations, have all been arrested for possession of marijuana. He insists on taking all the cases to bench trial, which serves only to irritate the judge and district attorney; all the defendants receive very harsh penalties. After one such outrage, when a teenager is given five years for possession of a joint, Lazlo reacts violently and ends up throwing the district attorney over the judge's bench. As the court is hurriedly cleared and Thompson struggles to snap pictures, Lazlo screams at him to "tell the world" what happened.Back at BLAST Magazine headquarters, Thompson's beleagured publisher Marty (Bruno Kirby) paces back and forth waiting for Thompson to deliver his story. Presently Thompson arrives, but teases Marty for a while before finally giving up the story in exchange for the cheque. Thompson's voice-over comes back in as we see Lazlo languishing in a jail cell with one of his defendants.Los Angeles, 1972; in voice-over, Thompson explains that Lazlo quit the legal system and dropped out of sight, and as the 60s ended many counterculturalists, in Thompson's words, "got off the boat," but not everyone did, including Lazlo, Nixon, and himself. Now a successful and popular writer, Thompson is in town covering Super Bowl VI (this is an error, as the 1972 Super Bowl was actually held in New Orleans). He arrives at his hotel in a hallucinogenic state, mildly assaulting his driver before remembering where he is and what he is doing. At the front desk, he terrorizes the clerk by ordering large amounts of electronic equipment and food (including 16 grapefruit), and proceeds to turn his room into a slightly grotesque piece of modern art, complete with toilet paper and variously-placed fruit. When the hotel staff comes to quiet him down (as requested by a professional gambler [Leonard Gaines] who "needs a super rest" for the game), they are sucked into his world and willingly take the marijuana and alcohol he provides.The next morning, Thompson is sitting in the hotel restaurant, eating a huge breakfast and listening to his tape recorder. His recording from when he awoke says that he did so to find that the hotel employees had broken in, drank all his liquor, did all his drugs, and stole his dinner. At the entrance, the aforementioned gambler is speaking on the phone with an associate, bemoaning his sleepless night; just then Lazlo appears wearing a Nixon mask, which prompts the gambler to give up on the game and go home to escape the "nuthouse." Lazlo sits down at Thompson's table, gives him the mask as a present, and then persuades him to give up on the Super Bowl story and go with him to some unknown destination. Outside, Thompson gives his tickets, press pass, and room key to two random guys, and they set off.On the road, Lazlo talks about where he has been the past four years; namely, becoming enlightened. He now is actively trying to promote world revolution, and he does this with a small band of weirdos by smuggling weapons to revolutionaries in impoverished countries. At the ranch, Thompson quickly sees the futility of what Lazlo is doing but comes with him anyway to a rendezvous at a isolated airfield, where Lazlo's group will load up a plane with guns and fly it away. At the airstrip, however, a police helicopter arrives and begins to descend; Lazlo and his group escape in the loaded plane, but Thompson refuses to follow, and the police follow the copter.Later in 1972, Thompson is covering the presidential campaign, but takes some time to appear at a university for a Q&A with the students. The hall is packed and he is very late, and needs to be coaxed quite a bit by the event coordinator to even go on at all, but eventually goes out and wows the crowd with his eccentric views and answers. One student asks about Lazlo and puts forth the idea that he never really existed; Thompson responds that he was real, but he was now believed dead.Back on the campaign trail, he gets on the press plane that follows Richard Nixon (referred to only as "the candidate") around. He stands out starkly from the rest of the buttoned-down reporters, dressed in Bermuda shorts, a loud Hawaiian shirt, and a maroon sports jacket. Onboard, he frightens the young reporter next to him (Michael Cornelison) by producing an enormous hunting knife to slice his grapefruit ("They never search me"), then by speaking into his tape recorder about being divebombed by poisonous ravens on his way to catch the plane. Just then, the candidate's aide Dooley (Mark Metcalf) comes in and throws Thompson off the plane, demanding that he fly on the "zoo" plane with the technicians.The zoo plane is considerably different than the straight-laced reporter plane; the people are all hippies and drugs and alcohol flow freely (even amongst the crew). Also onboard this flight, though, is another reporter, Harris from the Post (Rene Auberjonois), due to overcrowding on the other plane. He sits down next to Thompson and tries to settle down to work, but the loud noise and constant physical distress drive him to distraction. That is, until Thompson produces some "headache pills," his blue ones; Harris takes two, and within an hour he is in the grip of Thompson's powerful hallucinogens. By the time the plane lands, Thompson has switched their clothes and infiltrates the reporter entourage by posing as Harris.As he washes up in the bathroom, Thompson gets a surprise visitor: Nixon himself (Richard M. Dixon, but voiced by Brian Cummings) comes in to relieve himself. Thompson launches into a tirade that the country is divided into the "Screwheads" and the "Doomed," who live in fear of the Screwheads. He asks Nixon what the country is doing for the Doomed, to which Nixon replies, "Fuck the doomed!"Back aboard the reporter plane, on which Thompson has reappeared disguised as Harris, he suddenly spots none other than Lazlo walking across the tarmac, wearing a three-piece white suit. Realizing that the appearance of Lazlo will destroy his chance of continuing on the campaign trail, he hurriedly invites the same young reporter that he terrorized before (who does not recognize him in his disguise) to sit in his row and tell Lazlo that the seat between them is taken. He does so when Lazlo boards, but Lazlo ignores him and sits down next to Thompson. He begins telling him, in an increasingly excited and loud voice, about his new plan: to buy land in the middle of the desert and build a socialist paradise. At this point Dooley arrives and, fed up with Thompson, promptly throws him off the plane for good; when he insults Lazlo, Thompson punches him in the face and the two escape while Thompson holds the reporters and Secret Service at bay with a fire extinguisher (he gets a good shot in on Nixon when the candidate pokes his head out of his door for a moment). On the runway, Thompson watches as the plane takes off and tells Lazlo that he won't help him with his project, because Lazlo is "insane, a raving maniac."Back in the present at his ranch, Thompson finishes the story and sits down next to his dog to read him the end. Reading, he speaks of how Lazlo and Nixon were both gone (the latter being eaten by white cannibals on an island near Tijuana), and that he, Thompson, got out because, through it all, it never got weird enough for him.

Tags: flashback

Review:
The plot is peppered with "respectable" places being dragged into mayhem, and "respectable" folks trying (unsuccessfully) to cope behind plastic smiles.It even ventures into some higher themes, such as innocent kids being jailed by a heartless criminal system, and Thompson's own struggles between being a practical reporter and a fun-loving idealist (notice how Lazlo repeatedly re-surfaces just when Thompson starts to take on "real" jobs).It's biggest fault, however, was that it failed to achieve any of the higher accomplishments of HST's writings.
It's like they shaved off the surface 50% of Thompson's work and discarded the rest.Compare this to Fear and Loathing, which was darker and more counter-cultural, and contained whole narrations excerpted from the novel.
The latter perhaps has less appeal to the average viewer, but I'd think more to a Thompson fan.All-in-all, this film is a light-hearted romp into anarchy, and worth watching.
Not for the casual Fear and Loathing Fan. I finally watched this movie after watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas about 50 times and reading almost all of Hunter S.
Fist of all, as far as the comparison to Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas (1998) goes, these films are completely different beasts.
Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas is a visually dazzling, imaginative, cinematic adaptation of HST's novel and Where The Buffalo Roam is a quirky, splendidly fun quasi-biographical journey and pure snapshot of life.Bill Murray is fantastic in this film.
The whole film itself, mainly because of Murray's characterization and the realistic structured style of the abrupt interconnected randomness of everyday life, is infused with a undying sense of fun and love for words, imagination, writing, and the whole creative process, which seems to me to get more to the core of HST as a man than the various vignettes of Fear & Loathing.Where The Buffalo Roam is wildly entertaining, frenziedly hilarious, and immeasurably fun.
But when the general viewing audience, who presumably do not have a true passion for HST and his works, views both films and are given the choice between the legend and the man, they more often choose the legend, which is usually the trend in history.Whereas Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas has a romance for the stories and the myth, Where The Buffalo has a romance for the man and the process, and both have it for his personal style, politics and priorities..
Thompson's work and having seen  Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I instructed my faithful DVR to record  the movie at 4:30 one Sunday morning.
From the  dead on impersonation of Dr. Thompson's mannerisms by Bill Murray to  the militant antics of 60's radical lawyer Peter Boyle (Lazlo)  throughout the movie, these two more than faithfully portrayed the  crazy antics well documented in Gonzo journalism.
Although "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" captures Thompson's writing, "Where the Buffalo Roam" gives more of a realistic insight on Thompson and Acosta.
It also captures different stories from some of Thompson's other work, my favorite being the piece from "Fear and Loathing: On The Campaign Trail '72", Thompson's first hand account of Nixon's campaign for office.
This film's problem is that it is too "screenwritten" (Lazlo replacing The Brown Buffalo, "Blast" Magazine replacing Rolling Stone, etc.) and lacks the weird surrealism that a drug-fueled observation of American culture at the end of the 1960s deserves, if not requires.It does play a bit like Caddyshack, as someone else pointed out, and it's hard to get really invested in the characters.
The problem is the script, more than anything else.Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by contrast, does well with the surrealism and depravity but fails to make the full point I think Thompson was trying to get across - the decadence and over-the-top performances (especially of del Toro) are distracting, and really all of this is supposed to be about the death of the American dream, and the end of what was (to some) the best decade on record, or at least the one where people thought, for a time, they could make something of American life.
Both movies hint at this but don't go into it enough, in my opinion.Where the Buffalo Roam captures a little of the sadness and the creeping hopelessness of the early 70s (along with an indication of the hangover awaiting that generation in the 70s), but both movies fall far short of Thompson's books and writing in my opinion.I was particularly saddened that both movies left out the "We're looking for the American dream" bit at the taco stand, because I think that was important, and the F&L Vegas story seems decontextualized without it (in terms of having a fairly serious (and sad) point under all of the humor and excess).In any case, both movies are worth a watch but ultimately unsatisfying.
But if you are into Hunter Thompsons work, or Bill Murray, you will definitely enjoy this walk on the wild side7/10.
I also liked this movie, tho, Fear and Loathing was a much better film..
Bill Murray did an outstanding job of capturing HST's voice inflection and mannerisms Granted this film appears more low budget than Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (also a great movie), however that does not mean it is any less funny or enjoyable to watch.
Virtually every gag falls flat as the movie bemuses you with badly it can mess up something with so much humour potential.On the bright side, it's interesting to see how many scenes Terry Gilliam stole directly from this film for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and how much of Johnny Dep's acting style for that film was taken from Bill Murray..
Now I'm no movie critic and I don't think these comment things should be taken serious at all considering the majority of the people on this thing sharing their two cents haven't spent any time in a film studies course, creative writing course, and have no real true understanding of the art of film.
A d*mn good documentary would be Fear & Loathing on the Road to Hollywood, which can be found on the Criterion Edition of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (a fantastic representation of Hunter and his work but thats for another comment board).Bottom line folks, the movie is sh*t.
Thompson book and seen every documentary that has come out and I can give my honest advice, as a person well versed in the Gonzo world, that this movie is NOT HUNTER S.
I loved the book 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' and was so disappointed by the ludicrous cartoon-like portrayal realised by Johnny Depp in the film, 'Fear and Loathing'.
His Thompson was simply buffoon-like and completely one dimensional, and despite everything else being good, (especially Benicio del Toro), for me, Depp ruined the whole feel.Bill Murray on the other hand perfectly captures Thompson's eclectic, cynical intelligence and projects him as a whole 3-dimensional person who is believable, even through his substance-addled behaviour, from start to finish.
It's not funny enough to be a comedy, it doesn't seem to have any point to make & so doesn't work as satire, & it completely fails to convey the insane, savage & hilarious spirit of Hunter S Thompson's writing.Bill Murray, while doing a pretty good impersonation of Thompson's voice & more pronounced mannerisms, really just acts like Bill Murray with a cigarette holder sticking out of his mouth for the whole film.
The angry, driven, borderline psychotic journalist is nowhere to be found in this film, just a kind of goofy idiot that makes you wonder why anyone would bother to make a movie about him, or why anyone would read any of his writing.Peter Boyle as attorney 'Carl Lazlo', a character better known as Dr Gonzo in Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, or as Oscar Zeta Acosta in real life, is completely & utterly miscast.
It was fun to see Bill Murray as HST, having only seen Johnny Depp as HST in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (I watched this movie for the first time recently, Aug 2008).
I think he did pretty well, probably better than I expected.The relationship with Lazlo is very much the center of the movie, which I thought was funny/strange/interesting/disturbing, much like the relationship with Acosta in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, only more fun to watch, because Peter Boyle was a genius!
Thompson, and Me".Entertaining movie that could have shown more about how HST worked and how GONZO came about.
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....
Why is this film not more widely known?Bill Murray turns in as fantastic performance as Hunter S Thompson and the whole feel of the movie is really enjoyable.I won't go into the detail of the movie as other users already have.
For fans who thought "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas" was a bit over the top, there's always "Where the Buffalo Roam"- a look into various different events in the life of Hunter S.
Where "Fear & Loathing" makes full use of Thompson's "point of view" in scenes filled with hallucinogenic ramblings and drug addled visions, "Where the Buffalo Roam" tells the story in a more straight forward manner, from the perspective of an outside observer.
Or maybe I'm just holding him to the high standards Benicio Del Toro created when he portrayed Oscar Zeta in "Fear & Loathing".Contrary to the great similarities I saw between Bill Murray & Johnny Depp's portrayal of Hunter S.
While Peter Boyle's "Oscar" was seemingly straight laced and subdued, only loud when he needed to be, Benicio's portrayal was of the drug addled, out of his mind, loud and crazy all of the time "Oscar", which after reading Oscar Zeta's two books "Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo" and "Revolt of the Cockroach People", seems much more appropriate.
(both books are highly recommended reading, if you are at all interested in radical lawyering).All in all, I would say this film does a pretty good job of telling a straight forward story in a manner that's easily understandable & enjoyable.
Thompson was a crazy, drug addled, mostly unintelligible man - which is why I preferred Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
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.
Having said that I will admit that "Buffalo" seems fractured and does not have a definite beginning and ending, but Murray captures a lot of Thompson's mannerisms and the episodes the movie is composed around are all interesting and fun to watch.
If you are interested in Thompson and like Bill Murray as an actor, "Buffalo" will be right up your alley and a comparison with Gilliam's "Fear and Loathing" is interesting, especially when you've already watched the real Thompson in one of the documentaries..
You never hear this movie mentioned when people discuss Bill Murray's best films, but it is one of his classics, and I don't think I ever saw Peter Boyle any better.
As I've seen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, who is based on the same story by Mr. Thompson, I saw Johnny Depp instead of Bill Murray sort of all the time.
I was thinking stuff like "hey!, they're talking the same way!" and stuff all the time, but anyways...I'm a huge fan of Mr. Thompson, and this movie really breathes the vibes and feel of his wicked, unbelievable stories.
Where the Buffalo Roam is a great movie showcasing the irreverent life of the gonzo journalist Hunter S.
Thompson (I don't exaggerate when I say the man is my hero), a heavy reader of his books and articles, and a Gilliam fanboy who's seen "Fear and Loathing" approximately 700 times, I was like a kid on Christmas when I found out that there's ANOTHER movie about Dr. Gonzo starring Bill Murray, one of my favorite actors.
Little did I know the disappointment I was in for.While Bill Murray, despite not resembling HST in the least, had his mannerisms down pat in this role, this film completely mangled Thompson's character.
The film touches on actual issues such as the War on Drugs only to create the illusion of some counter-culture message, but it never actually quotes any of Dr. Thompson's biting insight on the era portrayed in the film.I could also cite how Peter Boyle was entirely wrong for the character he was playing and a number of other issues I had with this movie, but in a nutshell, the most glaring problem with "Where the Buffalo Roam" is that it takes some of Hunter S.
Stick with "Fear and Loathing" for your HST dose in film, Depp portrays a better Thompson, Del Toro is an infinitely better Zeta Acosta, and Gilliam as a directer just plain "gets it.".
Bill Murray was hysterical in portraying Hunter Thompson via some of the funniest scenes in any movie ever.
i am a huge fan of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and when i rented this i thought i would be getting the same crazy stuff from F&L, but i was pleasantly surprised when i saw that it actually took a more serious approach, it was still very much a comedy, but it still seemed to take itself seriously, and i liked that.i haven't decided who i thought did a better thompson, bill murray or johnny depp.
I would first like to say that I have never been a huge Bill Murray fan (he plays the title character) but when I saw him in Where the Buffalo Roam, I developed a new appreciation for his style of comedy.
To be honest, the story tend to drag a little (much like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; which easily could have been 1 1/2 hours shorter) but the characters are what keep you hooked.
Where The Buffalo Roam, has good direction, a good adapted script, good comedic performances by Bill Murray (who plays Hunter S.
I read his book Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas and loved it.
I also saw the film adaptation of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas and thought it captured the book perfectly and I loved it.
anyone who is a fan of fear and loathing in las vegas must see this movie.
If you ever have read Fear and Loathing and want to see something that tries to approximate the book, get the Johnny Depp movie.
Bill Murray did an equally good job in playing the wacky journalist and the movie took a more direct approach to Dr. Thompson's life.
Although it lacks the visuals & brilliant imagery of FEAR & LOATHING, true fans of Thompson should love it none the less..
Murray plays an almost slapstick version of Thompson, especially when compared to Johnny Depp's brilliant (but incomprehensible) Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas..
But "Where the Buffalo Roam" with Bill Murray portrayed Thompson in a far more realistic light.
Where the Buffalo Roam is a semi-biographic, loosely based on reality, film about Gonzo journalist Hunter S.
While it in no way equals Fear & Loathing as a cinematic creation, Where the Buffalo Roam is a very worthy film by its own right, and as a portrayal of the actual Thompson it's probably better; Murray does a wonderful job, maybe not a eccentric as Depp but closer to the man himself; and the movie is very successful in showing just what made Thompson a unique individual, a cult figure and a landmark personality in the world of journalism.
let's see, first of all i never saw Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to ever hear about Thompson.
If for no other reason to see the film, therefore, is for Murray, who brings a random absurdity of his own that somehow helps to bring a little more depth than the script allows.So, if I were to recommend which Thompson film to see first, I would go to Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.
However, if you're more of a Murray fan than Depp's, and might feel tipsy by Gilliam's style, then you might like the slightly safer insanity of Linson's film.
The film plays like a bad Altman movie.Still, "Buffalo" captures a certain spirit.
Before Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas there was Where the Buffalo roam before Johnny Depp there was Bill Murray.
Not filled with wild antics and chaos like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas more of an insight on the gonzo journalist.