Where the Buffalo Roam

I'd like to take a moment to comment on a film I saw recently. Being a huge fan of both Bill Murray (possibly my favorite actor) and Hunter S. Thompson, I was quite stunned to randomly discover Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) while wandering around the video store. Why I never knew this movie existed is beyond me. The film stars Bill Murray as Hunter S. Thompson, with the great Peter Boyle portraying the infamous attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta, referred to in the film as Carl Lazlo.

Right-off-the-bat, it's important to differentiate this film from the well-known Thompson adaptation Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. Although based on Thompson's true-life experiences, the characters Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing are just that: characters. They're caricatures, exaggerated to a fictional degree by Thompson's imaginative storytelling. In Where the Buffalo Roam, Murray and Boyle attempt to portray Thompson and Acosta as they were in real life. Both films succeed in my opinion, but they're two different animals.

The film plays like a quasi-biopic, bringing to life various snapshots of Thompson's life. Those familiar with Thompson's works Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 and the Rolling Stone article "Fear and Loathing at the Super Bowl" will recognize some of the situations depicted in Where the Buffalo Roam. There's no continuous storyline, but Carl Lazlo (Acosta) serves as the common thread that somehow ties the separate "episodes" together. In fact, if the movie can be said to be "about" anything in particular, it's about Acosta, his influence on Thompson, and their strange relationship. Bill Murray, in a role that really foreshadows the amazing characters he would go on to play later in his career in movies such as Lost in Translation and The Life Aquatic, is brilliant as Hunter Thompson. Although Johnny Depp's performance as Raoul Duke was marvelous, it takes an actor with Murray's quirky sense of dark comedy to capture the essence of the real-life Thompson. As a complete vision, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in probably the superior film, but fans of Hunter S. Thompson and/or Bill Murray should definitely give Where the Buffalo Roam a viewing. And oh yeah, the film also features a minimalist soundtrack by none other than Neil Young.