Where The Buffalo Roam is easily one of the weirdest movies I have ever seen. It's "the movie based on the twisted legend of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson," and with the executive consultant being Thompson himself (although Thompson states that he only "wandered around and fired machine guns on the set.") It was made in 1980, but set in the early '70s, and features a cast of Peter Boyle and a young Bill Murray as Hunter S. Thompson. Knowing Bill Murray from a few other films, I was expecting him to be funny and goofy as always, but he ended up being even better than I had expected. He really got into the role and perfectly captured the wild personality of Thompson (so much so that when Saturday Night Live's 5th season started, Murray was still in character!) To someone who is not familiar with Hunter S. Thompson, this movie may seem super wacky and weird, but it makes more sense, if that's possible, when the viewer understands Thompson's tendency to be crazy and unpredictable. You probably have to be a fan of Thompson's to like this movie, otherwise it would most likely seem like a jumbled mess of nonsense.
During his time spent on the campaign trail, Thompson encounters presidential candidate Richard Nixon in the bathroom and goes on a rant about "the doomed." I thought this scene was especially interesting because the whole time he is making his point, Murray is changing out of his old clothes, putting on new clothes, cleaning up his shoes, and freshening up. I found it interesting that this transformation (even if only on the outside) took place in such a short amount of time. It stood out to me because it was shot in a different location than the rest of the movie (in an enclosed space-a bathroom) with Murray looking completely different. The camera work throughout the movie was nothing fancy, but I wasn't expecting it to be since the movie is more of a light-hearted comedy. Some of the editing was interesting though such as when people were shown moving in super fast motion in some scenes. The use of this technique contributed to the movie's goofy feel. I also noticed that there were a lot of panning shots and then zooming in on a character. These types of shots helped to keep the pace of the movie when the camera was focused on one person for a time.
Being a fan of Hunter S. Thompson myself, I found the movie to be funny and overall an accurate portrayal of what Thompson was really like. But, like I said before, I think you would have to be a fan of Thompson to enjoy this movie, simply because it is so weird and wacky. Bill Murray did an amazing job as Thompson and I think the movie did a great job of creating a spot-on image of Hunter S. Thompson, which is why I give this movie 4/5 stars.
