Gonzo – Film Review of Alex Gibney's Documentary
The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd) channels the late Hunter S. Thompson as the narrator of the great documentary by Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side); which opens with an extraordinary piece Thompson wrote in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001; a piece that brought back for a moment a spark of the genius that had been missing in Thompson’s work since the 1970’s.
Why can’t writers be rock stars?
A cavalcade of celebrities: writers, actors, politicians; and non-celebrities: family and friends, help Depp tell the story of how this Kentucky hick (as Thompson was known to refer to himself) raised himself out of obscurity; as a young kid with ambition to a beat sports writer to a muck-racking political journalist, to ultimately becoming the most famous writer in America; or as Hunter Thompson once queried, Why can’t writers be rock stars?
It is said early on that Mr. Thompson would sit for hours at his typewriter and copy word for word his favorite novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, over and over again, until he was able to thoroughly understand the way in which a genuine craftsman constructed a great piece of writing.
Hell’s Angels
It worked; because, after having published a few pieces in magazines and newspapers across the country, Thompson received the assignment that would change his life forever; The Nation magazine approached the eager young scribe to do a story about a notorious upstart biker gang called The Hell’s Angels.
As is his modus operandi, soon to be known to his legions of fans, Hunter Thompson threw himself into the assignment head first; infiltrating (or embedding, as Tom Wolfe called it) the gang’s inner sanctum.
The piece Thompson wrote proved to be so scandalous and shocking it caused a sensation across the nation; which would lead to an offer to expand the work into book form.
Mr. Thompson did indeed expand his research and the scope of the story into to a full-length book, and thereby produced his first bestseller. The year was 1966, and Hunter S. Thompson had made his mark.
Hunter S. Thompson in Fat City
Thompson was a rock star; free to indulge in all the drugs and drink his heart desired; which seemed to lead to the harder stuff: guns and politics.
Hunter Thompson’s first wife speaks in Gonzo about the early halcyon days, when the rambunctious writer moved to Colorado, began collecting guns, and ran for Sheriff of his newly adopted hometown of Aspen; a town he longed to re-name Fat City.
Thompson/Steadman
Then came that fateful day when Dr. Hunter S. Thompson would meet the man that would transform his literary work into something wholly different and unique, artist and illustrator Ralph Steadman. The stormy marriage of art and words brought forth by Steadman/Thompson is considered by many as culturally significant as Lennon/McCartney.
The bombastic duo’s first assignment was to cover the 1970 Kentucky Derby, during which Thompson would turn the stodgy Brit Steadman onto LSD, and the rest is history. Their first collaboration produced the brilliant and twisted, The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved, thereby introducing the world to Gonzo journalism.
Fear and Loathing
It was in the fever pitch of his most creative period, and Hunter S. Thompson at his most indulgent and hedonistic best that would produce his most famous and lasting work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Alex Gibney pulls together some awesome footage for his documentary; not the least of which is some incredible homemade movies of Hunter with his friend Oscar Acosta (the real Dr. Gonzo) in Vegas; interviewing a young girl at a taco stand; the footage is absolutely hilarious, as Hunter asks the poor girl if she knows where they can find The American Dream, because they had heard it was around there somewhere.
Mr. Gibney follows this up with some more riveting footage of Hunter Thompson on the campaign trail with George McGovern in 1972, on assignment for Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone magazine; who remarkably decided to make Hunter Thompson Rolling Stone’s Washington political correspondent.
Alex Gibney does a fantastic job of compiling some of the more moving moments on the campaign trail, moments that would inspire Thompson to create what is, contrary to popular belief, Hunter Thompson’s true masterpiece, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail `72.
The Beginning of the End
Alex Gibney’s Gonzo posits a theory based on a belief by friends and family alike that The Rumble in the Jungle was to be the beginning of the end for the great writer; a fall from grace that would stretch out over 30 years.
The much ballyhooed boxing match in Zaire between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, seemed to be a dream assignment for Thompson, a passionate sports fan and worshipper of fellow Kentuckian Ali; but, by the time Thompson arrived to cover the fight with Steadman in tow, the early odds were calling for Thompson’s hero to go down in defeat; so, Hunter holed-up in his hotel room and buried himself in a mountain of cocaine, and missed one of the greatest events in sports history, as Ali won the fight in dramatic fashion.
After The Rumble in the Jungle, and through the late 70’s, and into the 80’s and 90’s Hunter S. Thompson became a commodity, a caricature of himself, which for a writer wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing (writer as rock star), if not for the fact that Thompson’s writing also suffered from years of neglect and lack of inspiration.
But, as Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson beautifully chronicles, the writer’s genius will never be forgotten as long as his rabid fans and followers have anything to say about it.
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
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