Where the Buffalo Roam Reviews

This should have been a great movie. The life and crazy exploits of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson are prime material for a funny, biting satire on Vietnam and Watergate, but something went wrong. Maybe it was the wholly unfocused script or the thoughtless direction by producer-director Art Linson. It certainly wasn't the casting. Bill Murray is fine as Thompson, having been allowed by the writer to follow him around and study his movements, mannerisms, and voice. Unfortunately, Thompson got fed up with the way shooting was going and disappeared from the set, leaving the filmmakers to destroy whatever potential his character had--and they did. Borrowing heavily from his books Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, the film is a series of unrelated incidents based on the highlights of his writing, resulting in a sporadically amusing, frustratingly scattershot look at Thompson's life and times.