Seattle Weekly hail a new documentary, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, a fitting tribute to the man:
As expected, Hunter S. Thompson’s 2005 suicide has been trailed by a glut of unauthorized bios and half-baked I-Knew-Hunter memoirs. I’ve read a lot of them, but Alex Gibney’s stylish documentary is the first tribute done right. Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) doesn’t bother trying to build myth or expound upon Thompson’s personal life—which, of course, Thompson more than took care of during his lifetime. Gibney’s doc succeeds because 1) he was given full access to Thompson’s archives and the Owl Farm compound; 2) he doesn’t drown the film with celebrity interviews; 3) he focuses on Thompson’s body of work (not his love of booze and illegal weapons); and 4) he approaches his subject objectively, notlike some raving fanboy. Thompson aficionados will swoon upon hearing the actual conversations Thompson tape-recorded between himself and Oscar Zeta Acosta (aka “Dr. Gonzo”) zipping across the desert in search of the American dream, as well as the tapes of him bickering with illustrator Ralph Steadman about attending the Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire. The film gives equal play to Thompson’s achievements and his failures; it veers off course only to follow his late-life cartoonish public persona. His first wife offers a chilling final word: Our current era of fear and loathing could use a voice like Thompson’s more than ever. Anyone feel like picking up where he left off?
[Image: Magnolia Pictures]
And as reviewed in the Village Voice:
Still, shooting in the snarky vein of his Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room rather than the cold fury of his Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side, director Gibney relies too often on glib simplification. He offers up a vague anecdote about Thompson’s early run-in with the Louisville police as if it were some sort of defining Rosebud, while skimming the last 25 years of Thompson’s life in about 20 minutes of screen time. But if these are misdemeanors, Gibney’s music montages are felonies: smirky pairings of golden oldies and stock-footage upheaval—a Social Unrest Classic Rock Weekend. Does anyone really need a subliminal flash of George McGovern whenever they hear “You Sexy Thing”?
The brightest of Gibney’s archival finds is an ancient episode of To Tell the Truth, on which “the real Hunter Thompson” is asked to stand up. For surreal hilarity, nothing in the movie rivals dowager panelists Peggy Cass and Kitty Carlisle grilling their hunched-over guest about Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. It’s a clever way to convey Thompson’s growing cult of personality, and the ultimate emptiness of the celebrity gathering around him. By refocusing attention on Thompson’s blazing gift, however unevenly it burned, Gonzo reclaims him from the fate he described for the Angels: “The mystique was stretched so thin it finally became transparent.”
See also, How HST beat writer’s block (via Ed Champion)
First posted: Friday, July 4th, 2008.
