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Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas author Hunter S. Thompson has another Fear and Loathing book that would make an even better movie. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 is nonfiction, but Thompson's "gonzo" approach and hyperbolic writing style make it anything but boring. And while it's over fifty years old, it remains relevant as potential satire.
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 chronicles that year's presidential election, starting with the Democratic primary, all the way through Democratic candidate George McGovern's crushing defeat by incumbent Richard Nixon.
A Campaign Trail '72 movie could use that story as a prism through which to reflect urgent concerns about the looming 2028 election cycle.
Hunter S. Thompson's Overlooked Nonfiction "Fear And Loathing" Book Is Begging To Be Turned Into A Movie
The Pioneering "Gonzo Journalism" Text Would Make A Startling Satire Film
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail has all the madcap energy of the better known Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but it harnesses this energy for a purpose. Author Hunter S. Thompson was legitimately terrified that America was sliding towards authoritarianism all the way back in the early 1970s. The book finds him violently, and repeatedly, ringing the alarm bell.
Campaign Trail is a fleshed-out version of Thompson's political coverage for Rolling Stone during the '72 election. Yet it is as much about Thompson's drinking, smoking, cavorting, and chasing down leads behind-the-scenes as it is about the election itself. Which is exactly why it is long overdue for a movie adaptation.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas featured Hunter Thompson's over-the-top alter-ego, Raoul Duke, but the author did more than just fictionalize himself. He notoriously aggrandized himself, transforming into a character in real life. A Campaign Trail movie could be as much a biopic as a biting social satire with something vital to say about contemporary American politics.
"Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail" Is Still Relevant 50+ Years After Its Publication
In wider popular culture, Hunter Thompson is best known for writing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but his career was defined by his political writing. Over 20 years after his death, no ambitious filmmaker has yet come along to try to tackle that material, but now is the perfect time, and Campaign Trail is the perfect text.
A Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail movie could stand alongside films like Eddington and One Battle After Another as an urgent political satire for the current fraught, fractured political climate. It would also allow for a critical re-evaluation of Thompson's body of work, which is far greater than just Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Release Date May 22, 1998
Runtime 118 minutes
Director Terry Gilliam
Writers Tony Grisoni, Alex Cox, Terry Gilliam, Tod Davies
English (US) ·