Jon Peters Reviews: “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson”

I wonder how Dr. Hunter S. Thompson would’ve been under another four years of George W. Bush. He was clearly depressed after the 2000 election, perhaps rightfully so. He’s seen enough reptilian bastards slim their way into high and powerful positions, only to fart on the American Dream. Thompson went chronicling the American Dream in Las Vegas, where he felt it might be. He only found such a dream to be dead and dead long before the Frankenstein monster known as Dick Chaney got his first robotic heart transplanted.

Alex Gibney’s wonderful new documentary splashes a beautiful essay on a man that clearly could see through events and say what no one else could, but should. You all know him to be the subject of ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ starring Johnny Depp, but here you’ll find a man deeply passionate about politics, good politics, and life.

He was a walking Jackson Pollack painting; he had an over-the-top personality, mixed with drugs and a sharp, satirical tongue all splattered across the American culture. He was undeniably gonzo; he was method journalism and he got right into the heart of a story. He covered the Hell’s Angels, Nixon, Jimmy Cater, and the drug culture, all the while running for Sheriff, but still who was Hunter S. Thompson?

For a documentary at two hours in running time, Gibney captures everyone associated with Thompson. People like his wife and colleagues, to Pat Buchannan and Jimmy Carter. We see a ton of news footage and home movies, excerpts from his work narrated over the footage, but there’s was something ticking in him that struggled to get out and in the film. Hus eventual suicide hangs over the film and even starts with it, but everyone wasn’t shocked by his death. The film works excellently as a primer course for all things Hunter, but you might have some questions and they might not be answered.

Gibney has crafted two fine documentaries, ‘Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room’ and ‘Taxi to the Dark Side’, and here has evoke Hunter’s spirit in method, err, gonzo filmmaking. He lives his life here in the celluloid, crafting another film documentary. The film, even though documents Hunter, subtly documents the last thirty years from his wacky perceptive. Given its length, one might get the impression it gets stale after a bit, but never does. The editing is perfectly paced. You can add Hunter’s personality to the mix, which could help even the most amateurish of directors.

‘Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’ showcases the great writer Hunter was and almost every possible time. We get caught up in his celebrity and the drugs, the film almost does too, but it took Gibney, a documentarian who can tackle tough political stories, to make a film that not only documents that crazy time of the ’60s and 70s but puts up a mirror to our current political climate to show who the bull-shitters are. Hunter would be proud-if he could’ve survived Bush.

karen1214

More Posts