I heard of Bill Murray’s performance in Where the Buffalo Roam on the Joe Rogan podcast, with Rogan saying Murray did a better performance as Hunter S. Thompson than Johnny Depp did in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Before that podcast, I had never known about the film.
Anyway, I watched it last night on Netflix and really, really enjoyed it! I was especially amazed that Lazlo was played by Peter Boyle, only knowing him from Young Frankenstein and Everyone Loves Raymond. Bill Murray was, indeed excellent as Thompson.
I’m a HST fan, have read most of his stuff, seen Fear And Loathing numerous times…and I haven’t seen Buffalo either. I can’t help but feel like Murray would treat the role with a more maudlin approach rather than the more cerebral one Depp gave us.
WTBR is a great movie! Man, I need to watch that, I haven’t seen it in years.
I still threaten to gnaw skulls occasionally, though.
It’s sillier than F&LiLV, but I’ve always thought that Murray captured a certain essence of HST. If you’ve seen interviews with the man, you’ll know what I mean.
Count me as one who’s seen it, although years ago. I remember enjoying it tremendously, and have no doubt I would today. It seemed to fit Murray’s onstage persona pretty well at the time (combine the lounge singer character (did he have a name?) who sang “Staaar Waaars! Gimme those Staaar Waaaars!” on SNL with Carl from Caddyshack, and you have Murray’s HST).
I think it was better than the Fear and Loathing adaptation (which was ok, but really never had a chance to convey the essence of the book, which all about Thompson’s prose - somehow seeing a guy tweaked on a human adrenal gland is not as funny as HST describing it), and I think Bill Murray did a better job of capturing Thompson. There was a dryness to how he did it. He wasn’t being campy.
I remember seeing an interview with Thompson, some little TV magazine local show. Aside from the fact that they had to caption him because you couldn’t understand a word he said, it cracked me up how close Murray had gotten.
Well that, and the fact the the interview ended rather suddenly because he scared the crap out of the reporter & crew.
I guess that shows how different people can have opposite takes on something like this; As I saw it, Johnny Depp’s pathetic, cartoonish, laughable, “performance” as Hunter S Thompson had me running for the theater exit within the first 45 minutes of “Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas”, while I thought that Bill Murray was spot-on as HST in “Where The Buffalo Roam”…
Wow…you thought Depp’s portrayal was that bad? Surely we can agree that Depp’s rendition* looked* the part so much more than Murray’s did…because Bill Murray just looks like Bill Freaking Murray!
Bill and Hunter hung out a lot at Hunter’s Aspen digs while the film was being made. They got into a discussion about Houdini and his escapology. It degenerated into a “who’s better at escape artistry” dispute, which ended with Hunter tying Billy to a lawn chair and pushing him into the pool. Billy nearly drowned before Hunter dove in an pulled him out.
Billy apparently got so into the role he virtually became Hunter Thompson, complete with the black glasses, cigarette holder and nasty attitude. As filming dragged into the fifth season of SNL, this really didn’t help matters backstage.
That’s beyond perfect—I have a buddy who hung out with Bill Murray after a Cubs game for a few hours last month, and said he is actually a pretty nice guy, all told; My friend said that when people came up to Bill and spouted a “Caddyshack” or SNL catchphrase at him, Bill would wince and get rid of the guy ASAP, but if someone would actually engage him in an adult manner, he was quite polite and friendly to them…
I may be a lurker, but I think both portrails of HST are true to what I’ve read. However, Murray, captures " The Spirit" while Depp captures, " The Man" ! If that makes any sense to someone.
