The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 27

FILM im A long and littered ether trail 'WtiereheBuffalfrKoam' is similar, in rcspertjobn-Byrum'a 'Heart Beat' (1981)? which rnminwi the often volatile relation- ship between: Jade Kerouac and Neal Cas-sady. rather than.depjcting what the duo did 'On the Road' so a tot is assumed. 'Buffalo' is a quicker-paced film, however, as we follow Thompson and Lazlo's manual history tour of hippy court battles in the 'Frisco of '68, the Superbowl. revolutionary uprisings, frenzied editors (in the film, Thompson works for 'Hast magazine, a thinly -disguised "Rolling Stone') and fear and loathing on the campaign trail of 72 (candidate Nixon's special message to The Doomed, during his urinal interview with Thompson is a classic that cant be quoted here). All this unfolds behind Ralph Steadmaa's Gooo-calugrapby titles and zaps along to Neil Young's nostalgic soundtrack, which includes such classics as Sob Dylan's "Highway 61.

Jimi Bodrixs 'All Along the Watohtower. The Four Tops, I Can't Help Myself The Temptations 'Papa Was a Rolling Stone. Creedeace's 'Keep On Chooglin' and Young's own version of 'Home On The Range and (with the Ill-member Wild Bill Band of Strings) the outrageous 'Buffalo Stomp. Thompson, new living near Aspen. Colorado, and allegedly running a porn theatre in San Francisco, was unhappy with the film.

Even though he lent his name to the character, was listed as "executive almost killed Bill Murray (death by research) and took a $100,000 cheque for the option, he refused to have any control over the finished product He said in a 1980 interview: "Options on things I have written have been paying the rent for years. The Las Vegas book has been optioned several times. It was a moment of terrible horror when I realised they were actually going to make this film! "John Kaye seemed to understand a tot more than came through in his script The script sucks a bad, dumb, low-level, low-rent script The first thing we agreed on was mat rd have no editorial control. I figured if you have one per cent leverage, you might be blamed for 80 per cent Since I have none, I cant be blamed for any of it At least I cheated the out of $100,000." "I hate to advocate drugs or liquor, violence or insanity to but in my case it's worked Bill Murray mumbles as Dr Hunter S. Thompson.

GREAT What kind of bad craziness was this? They could not do this to us! We had been waiting to see Ms film for five ripped and twisted years, and when we finally get a print hunkered down to Melbourne there is this very heavy gig out at the airport those guys in Customs are on strike and will not hand it over. "If we don't get it out and sent up to Sydney to be censored it'll miss its release howled distributor Sue Thompson. "Don't take any guff from 1 snarled. "What these people need is a bit of serious persuasion. A bit of dangerous lunacy.

My attorney and I will grab a doberman, some hunting knives and a .44 magnum and stomp on them. Zang! Bad confusion! Those poor doomstrucks won't know what hit them we'll rip their lungs out. pull all their teeth. All kinds of savage hell will break loose because there is nothing in this world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a bald hillbilly hack and a 120-kilogram Samoan shyster in the depths of a raw ether binge!" i Actually. Customs were goddamn lucky they went back to work before things had to turn ugly.

rHERE the Buffalo Roam' was made in 1980. It was the direc torial debut of producer Art Lin- i hate to advocate drugs or liquor, violence or insanity to anyone but in my case it's HUNTER S. THOMPSON. Km BiH Murray as HSJs counting buffaloes on the hospital watt. ARCHITECTURE PHGBHX SUXMS PASS For Docmmiog Stngtmt around variety of actrvnies at your own zmoe.

Perhaps gm to Jl 15 calendar events jter week i 20-35. 3D-5. 40--80 yr. or awn aajeajaoups. Xkpnu 40 speoai ma(si gnuf and nwjwipespie with Janwhw-wnfawntk.

Escape Melb on one of our monthry getaway weekends hobdays. 'oOT'OMawtestW4ichar-eKaTto as you wxe. tteiirbersrarp off fhiemt rUteatyte Chab iiiriTliri rf iniiinii i getaway Travel Club special-deals on son fMelvin and Howard) but was never released in Australia because mainstream distributors and exhibitors doubted if the tickets they could sell to the few who were familiar with the work and legend of Hunter S. Thompson would cover the print's airfare. The Great Doctor of Gonzo Journalism is probably no more well-known today (his output these past five to 10 years has not been exactly prolific) but the unknown TV comic who landed the role of Thompson in 'Buffalo' Bill Murray certainly is.

Beware: those expecting the post-'Buffalo Murray of 'Caddyshack. 'Stripes and 'Ghostbusters (Murray playing Murray and winning) will be disappointed because in this film he uses all his skills of improvisation and impersonation acting! to be the berserk, manic, violent, drug-addled former Rolling Stone political correspondent. Thompson, listed in the credits as "executive lived with Murray for the three months of filming, so we can assume Murray's crippled, toping walk, guttural, incoherent mumbling and acrobatic cigarette holder is pretty dose to the right stuff. Hunter Stockton Thompson, now 48, made his mark with a now-legendary rambling, crazed memo to Scanlons Monthly' editor, Warren HincMe, detailing the disasters that befell him on a Jean-Claude KiUyChevrolet assignment, spitting venom over 'Playboy's' refusal to run the story that they had commissioned. HincMe ran the memo, and the manic Gonzo style in which the writer's highly adrenal emotions dominate was born.

journalism involves telling the story. New Journalism involves the intrusion of the writer at the moment of telling the story, Gonzo involves the intrusion of the writer at the moment of the event often, ia Thompson's case, there would be no story if he had not been there to cause it The best of Thompson's Gonzo was 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' (1971), "a savage journey into the heart of the American Dream" he took with his legal aid lawyer friend Oscar Acosta (aka The Browa Buffalo "he was one of a kind, a who dropped out of law, dipped into revolution and is now missing, presumed dead. The manic Peter Boyie, the top-WHed star of "Where the Buffalo Roam, plays Oscar here, called Karl Lazlo bat 'Buffalo' is not the lunatic Las Vegas gig. Liason and screenwriter John Kaye took an option on Thompson's magazine article The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat', so the film traces Thompson and Lazlo's friendship through the age of Nixon (1968-72). "It was fast, strange times, and we worked in fast, strange and when the going gets weird, the weird torn pro." anvay Reciprocal visiting nghts, to Phaenwt Wide rnetnbership drscoutns.

Ourfwsts-mriB make your welcome and enettte tou jkoo Mb -out! SBsSi Melbourne Phoenixl IVING 2B7T793 PO Mom 45. South Xana DAY CONCOKD TREE SINGLE THE BBIABS Historic Homestead Han taan, Mt tMaa Open Oays Sawali Vyst Saaxtav drwSS tt anal pan DEVONSHIRE TEAS AVAILABLE Anstviojfy aRof MS D11 rOR Valhalla manager Sue (no relation) Thompson, this is not her first encoun-ter with the Gonzo Geek God. hsi did a lecture tour of Australia hi October 197 ('Anything Could Happen!) and Sue was at his Melbourne Town Hall gig. "I was late he was later andhemum-i bled and stumbled and bumbled inooherentty for half an hour and finally had to be carried off me stage," she recalls. "Totally ripped.

A mess. But I've always i been curious to see what the film was like i and we gotsick of waiting for someone else to i bring it out, so we bought a print ourselves, sight rmeea." Gonzo cinema management. Towards the end of the film, Murray i Thompson declares that neither Nixon or Lazlo survived the era. dropping out because i things got too weird, "but I'm still around, 1 because it never really got weird enough for 'Where the Buffalo Roam never really got weird enough for me, either it tacked the frenzied, manic energy of Thompson's writ-i tog and Acosta's personality but most fans i of the pair's exploits should enjoy this tribute i to them. We were somewhere around Richmond, on i the edge of the city, when the film began to i take hold I 'Where the Buffalo Roam' (based on the twisted legend of Hunter S.

Thompson) will bring fear and loathing to the Valhalla Cine-i ma, Richmond, every night until 17 January i at 9.5 pm. I 2S-55 yea. friday and Sunday anht get togathar 0.30-1 mm. for inqyiriei aad Makings phona 221 5S27. IMembars S14 an anawiiig) 3 ESSEX ROAD.

MT. WAVER4JEY The historic an the Natxaal si GULF STAHON Open FAMILY HAT SUNDAY 5th JAN. family riarrnlia ZJi Devonshire apple tNJbMav scyiitiaj. spinning, animals. -Yea tnt.

Tana fca mniM PU0UC SPEilflS SELF CrFI3uCE NEW 10-WEEK COURSES 8EON JAN. 28TH. JAN. 30TH AND FEB. 3RD.

PRIVATE LESSONS AVAILABLE I Class aroit 12 persons fully equipped studio) BOOKfltSS S092636 9 am-11 pro DAILY FUBUC SPEAKING ACADEMY ftiwwuat. ff. Turner. AAQS, MAST. A AM 970 HIGH ARMADALE Friday 3 Joarary 1936 i-.