Film review: A documentary about Hunter S. Thompson goes to the source of 'gonzo'
"In a nation of frightened dullards, there's always a short supply of outlaws, and those few who make the grade are always welcome."
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Movie Critic John Beifuss reviews four new films, "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson," "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," Pineapple Express" and "Brick Lane." Watch »
Hunter S. Thompson, the inventor of surreal, personalized "gonzo" journalism, is the subject of a new documentary by Alex Gibney. Magnolia Pictures
Rated R for drug and sexual content, language and some nudity
Length: 118 minutes
Released: July 4, 2008 LimitedCast: Hunter S. Thompson, Anita Thompson, Bob Braudis, Charles Perry, Douglas Brinkley
Director: Alex GibneyProducer: Alex Gibney, Graydon Carter, Jason Kliot, Joana Vincente, Eva Orner, Allison Ellwood
Writer: Alex Gibney
Genre: Documentary
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
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Those words come from the 1966 book "Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs," written by Hunter S. Thompson. Read aloud by Johnny Depp in a new documentary about Thompson's celebrated and sometimes sordid life, they offer an explanation for the continued allure of the writer who became a celebrity as much for his legendary drug consumption, self-described "gun problem," eccentric appearance (short shorts, shaved head) and anti-authoritarian lifestyle as for the power of the autobiographical, surreal "gonzo" journalism he invented.
"Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" was directed by Alex Gibney, who must have found the historical nature of the project a relief after the contemporary investigative journalism of such previous documentaries as "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" and the Oscar-winning "Taxi to the Dark Side," about U.S. "war on terror" torture practices. The distressing realities of Iraq and the Bush era are never far behind, however; Gibney's glib montages connect Iraq with Vietnam and Bush with Thompson's archenemy, Nixon. Bush-blamers will find yet another reason to curse their nemesis: The film suggests the election of George W. was a turning point on the road that led to the 67-year-old writer's gunshot suicide at his rural Colorado "fortified compound" on Feb. 20, 2005. When the second Bush became president, Thompson "didn't get angry, he just got depressed," says the author's second wife, Anita Bejmuk. As Thompson wrote in the 1960s (in more words read aloud by Depp), he was "convinced ... that the American dream was clubbing itself to death."
Even those who are skeptical of the cult of Thompson should find much to enjoy in "Gonzo." In the manner of such key Thompson works as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72," the movie links personal biography with cultural history, providing fascinating recaps of the Nixon era and the 1972 race in which underdog "Prairie Populist" George McGovern (whom Thompson loved) overtook Edmund Muskie (whom Thompson loathed) for the Democratic nomination. Wrote Thompson of Nixon: "He speaks to the werewolf in us on nights when the moon comes too close."
The movie also functions as a cautionary fable about the distracting and debilitating effects of celebrity on the artist. The film describes the young Thompson as a lower-middle-class boy from Louisville who typed the entire text of "The Great Gatsby" over and over "just to learn the music of Fitzgerald" (according to biographer Douglas Brinkley). But as the increasingly famous Thompson lost the anonymity that allowed him to be not just a boy on the bus but a fly on the wall, his journalism -- and his prose -- suffered.
Gibney jazzes the material a little too much for my tastes, with unnecessary re-creations and no-brainer song choices (Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man" to highlight the confusion of the 1960s, "Spirit in the Sky" after Thompson's death). But the film benefits from liberal use of Thompson's own audiotapes and home movies, which he apparently recorded obsessively throughout his life. The roster of talking heads also is impressive, and includes such colleagues, co-conspirators, observers and admirers as McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Buffett, Rolling Stone co-founder Jann S. Wenner, "Boys on the Bus" author Tim Crouse, artist Ralph Steadman, former Hell's Angels president Sonny Barger (who has to plug his tracheotomy tube to speak) and even former Nixon advisor Pat Buchanan.
"Gonzo" is playing exclusively at Malco's Studio on the Square.
-- John Beifuss, 529-2394
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