Where the Buffalo Roam | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Art Linson |
Produced by | Art Linson |
Screenplay by | John Kaye |
Based on | "The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat" and "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan" by Hunter S. Thompson |
Starring |
Bill Murray Peter Boyle Bruno Kirby René Auberjonois |
Music by | Neil Young |
Cinematography | Tak Fujimoto |
Edited by | Christopher Greenbury |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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99 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $6,659,377 |
Where the Buffalo Roam | |
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Soundtrack album by various artists | |
Released | 1980 |
Genre | Rock, R&B |
Length | 38:00 |
Label | Backstreet/MCA |
Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | link |
Where the Buffalo Roam is a 1980 American semi-biographical comedy film which loosely depicts author Hunter S. Thompson's rise to fame in the 1970s and his relationship with Chicano attorney and activist Oscar Zeta Acosta. Art Linson directed the picture, while Bill Murray portrayed the author and Peter Boyle portrayed Acosta, who is referred to in the film as Carl Lazlo, Esq. A number of other names, places, and details of Thompson's life are also changed.
Thompson's obituary for Acosta, "The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat", which appeared in Rolling Stone in October 1977, serves as the basis of the film, although screenplay writer John Kaye drew from several other works, including Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, The Great Shark Hunt, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thompson served as "executive consultant" on the film.
The film opens in the Rocky Mountains on the Colorado ranch of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, a journalist furiously trying to finish a story about his former attorney and friend, Carl Lazlo, Esq. Thompson then flashes back to a series of exploits involving the author and his attorney.
In 1968, Lazlo is fighting to stop a group of San Francisco youngsters from receiving harsh prison sentences for possession of marijuana. He convinces Thompson to write an article about it for Blast Magazine. Thompson's editor, Marty Lewis, reminds Thompson that he has 19 hours to deadline. The judge hands out stiff sentences to everyone, and the last client is a young man who was caught with a pound of marijuana and receives a five-year sentence. Lazlo reacts by attacking the prosecuting attorney and is then jailed for contempt of court.