I can’t make up my mind: does the trailer for Terry Gilliam’s Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas laugh with you, luring you into a sense of “hey, you can totally read Hunter Thompson’s book as a buddy comedy about the Sixties”, or does it laugh at you, in a grand, evil plan to suck money out of unsuspecting moviegoers?
The trippy ambiance is laid out for anyone to see, except for the more explicitly disturbing bits (White Rabbit, anyone?), and there is a sense that larger things are at play here - see the gorgeous “bat county” sunglasses shot, or poor little Christina Ricci being (we assume) left alone to fend for herself. On the other hand, compared to what happens in the movie, the score is cut and used in a drastically different way: same tracks, opposite situations. Everything sounds so much raunchier, and so harmless here, it might even work as a recut trailer.
Three Dog Night pops up at 1’ 12”, and that’s probably the moment of truth.
Random wisdom from YouTube commentators: “I love this movie. It appeals to all generations.”
In retrospect, evoking “MTV”, “safe sex” and “Beavis & Butthead” in the ZOMG 1993 flash cards didn’t do any favors to Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused.
It’s supposed to sound like “the more things change…”, but the overall effect is much closer to “come see how your parents used to have fun, you lucky bastard you.”
The multiple interconnecting storylines did result in a ton of choice material for cutting a trailer. However, it all seems much more - together than the actual film, which is lovely, yes, and fun, sure, and ultimately depressing as fuck. Kid trying to throw a party behind his parents’ back comes off as a major narrative thread (it isn’t - shades of House Party, maybe?); Rory Cochrane is displayed as a leading player (he isn’t); images and out-of-context lines point towards a familiar stoner comedy angle (not by a long shot), while the whole boy / girl going through the initiation routine is missing (and you get plenty of that).
