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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Rum Diary - A Screenplay by Bruce Robinson (view source)
Revision as of 07:40, 25 December 2011
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Kemp has lied his way onto a failing newspaper in San Juan, Puerto RiceRica, as the only candidate for the job, and in a semi-comatose state induced by too many miniatures from the hotel minibar, stumbles into a conspiracy of epic proportions, via classic bar room brawls and nightclub mayhem. On the way he (almost) writes horoscopes and bowling championship stories, meets the fantastically erotic girlfriend of the evil businessman, and teams up with a proto-Nazi out of his mind on a cocktail of hootch and LSD, and a photographer side kick. There is no question that this is Hunter S Thompson territory, especially when all the above is combined with a witty, slow-talking hero who in spite of his alcoholic haze sees clearly through the exploitation of a third world country by its massive first world near neighbour.
What Robinson brings to this 60s cross between Bond, Marlow and Dean Martin is a fantastic sense of pace and action. If you have never read a screenplay before, this is an excellent one with which to begin as the witty scene setting and punchy sequencing of action makes the images both unroll before you while catching the wry grin on the storyteller's face. This script makes the reader feel that they are watching as tense and dramatic a car chase as in any thriller/action movie, and at the same time bringing a knowing smile to the process, but this might only be expected from the writer of 'Withnail and I'.
That Robinson is an experienced and accomplished dramatic script writer there is no doubt – 'The Killingfields' testifies to that – nor that he has a witty and erudite vision of the world, as in 'Withnail..'. In 'The Rum Diary' teamed with Thompson's explosive alternative world of drugs and drink, of fury at the destructive force of greed and colonial arrogance, Robinson has created here a simultaneously dramatic, comic and enraged screenplay which is carries both a powerful punch and ironically a redemptive message as Kemp turns away from drunken hack into a real journalist.
For a fascinating insight into the strange world of Hunter S Thompson, [[Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S Thompson by Anita Thompson (Editor)]] is something of a mixed bag, but in many interviews Thompson's fury at the betrayal of the American Dream is evident.
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