THE POPCORN REEL FILM REVIEW/"Gonzo: The Life
And Work Of Hunter S. Thompson"
Hunter S. Thompson, in an archival photo from
the 1970's. Alex Gibney's new documentary "Gonzo: The Life And Work Of
Hunter S. Thompson", opens in select U.S. cities tomorrow. (Photo
courtesy: Magnolia Pictures)
Gonzo Goodbye: A Tribute To A Patriotic,
Agitated, Volatile Spirit
By
Omar P.L. Moore/July
3, 2008
Alex Gibney's latest documentary "Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Hunter S.
Thompson", which opens in select U.S. cities tomorrow, aptly celebrates the
complexity and volatility of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, passionate political
journalist, sportswriter and activist icon, who ended his life in February 2005.
Mr. Thompson lived by the gun -- his love for guns was legendary and he was
rarely seen without one -- and he died by the gun as well. The former
Rolling Stone magazine writer, who also wrote for ESPN on various sports
matters, is recalled by Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner and a diverse
array of friends, political colleagues and adversaries (former president Jimmy
Carter, former presidential candidates Gary Hart and Pat Buchanan among others),
as well as Mr. Thompson's two wives, in Mr. Gibney's film.
"Gonzo" covers the nuances of Mr. Thompson before, during and in between the
coke and hallucinogen-addled lines and the lines of activism and patriotism,
particularly in the 1960's and '70's, as addressed through the American icon's
"gonzo" journalism, which to Mr. Thompson meant the process of inserting oneself
into the story that he was covering. One of Mr. Thompson's cinema verite
moments (at least as close as he could get without participating) was an
infamous and sickening "gang-bang" incident in the mid-1960's in California, of
which one of his good friends (Ralph Steadman) recalls a group of Hell's Angels
(that Mr. Thompson rode with) having sex with a woman who formerly was the wife
of 1950's and '60's Beatnik poet and author Neal Cassady, a woman who had
apparently invited the Angels to "have at her". Mr. Thompson's audio tape
recordings and impressions of the event, coupled with what seems like actual
video or a re-enactment of the event, are revealing.
"Gonzo", which for many others means something completely different from Mr.
Thompson's definition, is narrated by Johnny Depp in a detached fashion,
actually making a majority of the film effective and engaging. For long
stretches Mr. Depp sounds like The Doors' Jim Morrison (who died 37 years ago
today) did when
he talked through "Ghost Song". Mr. Depp, who played Mr. Thompson in Terry
Gilliam's film "Fear And Loving In Las Vegas" in 1993, is shown in Mr. Gibney's
film via clips from "Fear And Loathing" as he also is while narrating and
reading from Mr. Thompson's diaries and notebooks. On more than one
occasion "Gonzo" is as restless as its main subject, though that's not a
criticism as much as it is a tribute in and of itself to the very
countercultural, anti-establishment nature of Hunter S. Thompson. As one
person recalls, "Hunter wanted to smash the window" of the rich and elite and
the corporate. "Gonzo" is most interesting when chronicling Mr. Thompson's
work, including his effect on the minefield of American politics in the 1960's
and '70's, with the troubled Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968,
as well as the controversies around Democrat George McGovern's vice presidential
pick Thomas Eagleton in 1972.
One of the highlights of the film is Mr. Thompson's demonization and vigorous
distaste for Ed Muskie, a Democratic primary rival challenger to Mr. McGovern,
and Republican Richard Nixon, who would go on to win a second term as president
before resigning in 1974 amidst the specter of likely impeachment in the wake of
the infamous Watergate Hotel break-in scandal. The re-election of Mr.
Nixon had a lasting affect on Mr. Thompson, who began to have a profound
disillusionment with American politics. Mr. Gibney's film implicitly if
not intentionally suggests that in later years Mr. Thompson was becoming the
very thing he hated, as repeated motifs of Mr. Thompson or an actor swimming and
running around in a Nixon mask, show.
"Gonzo", which premiered at this year's Sundance and San Francisco International
Film Festivals, is full of nostalgia but is a decidedly forward-looking
documentary that emphatically draws a continuum between Richard M. Nixon and
George W. Bush as U.S. presidents. The film is less successful however,
when examining Hunter S. Thompson's personal life, switching between his
despair, isolation and hardened drink and drug habits, womanizing and violent
outbursts. Any prolific artist's failings and flaws aren't new, and
although looking at what lies beneath a celebrated figure's facade often helps
an audience see what makes the person tick, in Mr. Gibney's film it is a
surprisingly rote exercise, even as the Oscar-winning director's documentary on
the whole is anything but.
"Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Hunter S. Thompson" opens tomorrow in select
U.S. cities. The film is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of
America for drug and sexual content, language and some nudity. The film is
produced by Mr. Gibney and Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter.
"Gonzo" is two hours in length and opens in additional U.S. cities in August.
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