Analysis of film openings: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The film starts with a series of archival footage (from the 1960s mainly centring on youth led protests against the war in Vietnam) whilst the song "a few of my favourite things" plays over, this instantly places the film in the late 60s early 70s time period (the book was written in 1971) , this is further reinforced by the period appropriate music that blares out of the radio along with news broadcast reporting the number of American GI who are succumbing to a number of illegal drugs.

The film then cuts to the films title of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" in blood red and in a deranged typography that is idiosyncratic of the book and of the spirit of the film as a whole; the colouration of this text (blood red) and the animation that follows (the dribbling off the screen) this connotes quite obviously to blood and given that it follows this archival footage could be trying to say that these are dangerous times. This statement could be seen as the preferred meaning, although the use of blood splatters between the pieces of archival footage (though it supports the "dangerous times" theory) it could lead to a opposing meaning that this is a horror movie (which isn't wholly untrue) as usually blood splashes are a stereotypical feature of horror films, particularly the slasher sub-genre.

Although, any misconceptions will be blown away as soon as the title sequence has finished, as the voice over starts and the "red shark" "drives" the quote off the screen with an extremely well executed wipe, an editing technique that is hardly used at all in professional films, this thus signifies to the audience that this will be a rather unusual experiance and a rather unusual film. You could also interpret it as showing the two protagonists emerging from the archival footage, from the 60s; this also fits in with the film's theme of the down fall of the American Dream and the end of the 60s.

The camerawork is also quite notable in the opening sequence as it tries to get you into the heads of the protagonists, so the camera work tries to reflect their moods. Which is why the film starts with steady camera moves, this reflects the optimism of the characters, whilst the shots (close-ups and long shots mostly) try to stimulate the effect of the undisclosed narcotics - the juxtaposing of long shots and close ups, which creates a disoriantating effect on the viewer. This gives the audience a taste for things to come (as the characters engage in the taking of more narotics and their mental states start to decrease, the camera work and the whole style of the film changes to reflect this, becoming more and more disoriantating for the viewer), this then makes this sequence more effective because of it, becoming an introduction to the film; but it should also be pointed out that techniques used also make it incredibly attention grabbing and and so pulls the audience in. In short, it's very effective.