Out of this world … Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features
As Dumbo once sang: “Seeing things you know that ain’t/Can certainly give you an awful fright.” Maybe that’s why depicting characters hallucinating on illegal substances is such a challenge for film-makers.
Where, in more innocent times, a trippy scene might have been a welcome excuse to whip some fantastic tricks from the film-maker’s toy box, the tendency in recent years has been to get all Requiem for a Dream about the horrors of mind-altering substances, just to make sure the message to impressionable youth is nice and clear.
And then there’s the question of how to actually approach the tricky business of simulating a trip on film. Should your imagery mimic a hallucinatory experience visually, or should a movie trip simply be a celebratory adventure into absurdity, as in Dumbo?
How close can and should a filmic depiction of a psychedelic experience get to the real thing? Ponder this question as you take a look through these classic examples of cinematic tripping, and as a measure of their success, maybe wonder whether you’ll be able to handle them when they all eventually get re-released in 3D.
1) It’s just plain odd that one of the most memorable trips occurs in a children’s film. When Dumbo accidentally gets drunk, he experiences this beautiful, dazzling musical celebration of unreality.
2) Matt Dillon’s questionable hobbies in Drugstore Cowboy produce a hallucinatory effect which has cows, syringes and spoons spiralling through the sky. But focusing as it does on conveying a pleasant feeling, this one’s serene rather than disturbing, “like we just got back from church”.
3) The spectacular, lengthy hallucination montages of Altered States are in a league of their own. As an American scientist uses drugs and other methods to research different states of consciousness, William Hurt’s Eddie Jessup experiences bouts of tripping that are unforgettably gory, provocative and bizarre. Scary stuff.
4) The improbable pairing of hard living and musical theatre in Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz results in some stunning hallucinatory scenes, like this one in which Joe Gideon directs his own hospital deathbed “performance” as his daughter lectures him on the consequences of his life of vice.
5) Fireworks, flying animals and song-and-dance numbers are all very well, but arguably scenes like this one from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas depict the real essence of a mind-bending drugs experience: looking a bit silly in public while attempting to do something that really should be quite simple. Soon, even the carpet will be out to get you.
Last week, Hanzohattori (Joel Snape) rolled up his sleeves to select the best bar brawls on screen. Here are his top picks from your suggestions:
1) There were dozens of top-notch suggestions – but if we’re being strict about what constitutes a bar brawl, pool halls (Mean Streets) and gunplay (Desperado and, erm, Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker) don’t count. However, as Mike65ie rightly points out, you’ve got to have the Duke throwing haymakers – even if he’s in London, rather than Texas. Check out Brannigan.
2) As scamble and TessMorris both noted, it’s virtually impossible to pick just one of Roadhouse’s many, many fights. But this one’s a good start.
3) Nodule made some fine picks, including Steven Seagal’s pool-ball-sock-of-doom from Out for Justice. But for machismo, flash moves and an amused James Earl Jones, you can’t beat Best of the Best.
4) In case we’re forgetting how horrible real bar brawls can be, well done to stokroos for suggesting Chazz Palminteri’s vengeful biker bashing from A Bronx Tale: “Now youse can’t leave!”
5) But this week’s winner is simply an all-time classic – five minutes of chair-smashing, room-wrecking carnage from the phenomenal Dodge City, nominated by ColonelCallan and found by ExFi. Look how happy they all are at the end.
film Clippings
fear and loathing, illegal substances, tricky business
