this film is a masterpiece. a great satire of the american dream and its own moral and spiritual destruction seen through the eyes of a drug addled journalist. director terry gilliam created a coherant vision from this "unfilmable" book. johnny depp and del toro ARE the characters..depp lived with thompson and got into the man's head. the film is layered to seem like a funny drug film. then it devolves into a social commentary and descent into madness. the dvds are loaded with commentaries and docs about this fil, book, and madman!