STUDIO: Magnolia Pictures
RELEASE DATE: July 4, 2008 (limited)
STARRING: Johnny Depp, Jimmy Carter, George McGovern, Hunter S. Thompson, PierreAdeli, Angela Berliner
WRITTEN BY: Alex Gibney, Hunter S. Thompson
DIRECTED BY: Alex Gibney
GENRE: Documentary
RATING: R

Although this sounds as cliché as any fanboy writing a blog post about how the words “In a Galaxy Far Far Away” transformed his life, it’s incredibly hard to be objective about a two-hour documentary that retraces the life of the very person who led you toward a career as a writer. Watching Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, for me, is a painful experience. Not in the fact that Thompson’s life, on one level, played out like an Indie reboot of a Shakespearian tragedy that culminated with his suicide in 2005 yet can also be looked at as a triumph for a life well lived. Hunter S. Thompson departed life the same way he lived it – on his own terms. What’s so raw and agonizing about Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is that it reminds me of just how pansy-assed we’ve become as a society since the 1960s counter-culture revolution. How people of the late-1960s weren’t afraid to challenge authority and collectively stand up to fight against what was broken, especially when they were being screwed over. How nowadays people are standing idly, preoccupied by the meaningless, complacent to let their lives go to shit at the hands of the powers that be. The newly released documentary punctuates the fact that Hunter. S. Thompson wasn’t afraid to frighten the people that needed to be frightened… and that’s a good thing.

Directed by Alex Gibney, creator of the powerful 2005 doc Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Gonzo attempts to decipher the inner complexities of a man who’s persona and personality were as much non-fiction as they were fiction. How can you define a tortured soul who was bound by his own extremes yet masked his fears through drugs and alcohol while using his talents to create his own mysterious asylum? There’s only one answer – you can’t. Thompson had the key to his own asylum and he took it with him on the way out. Gonzo begins at Hunter S. Thompson’s Woody Creek compound with a prologue that sets up a quick arc of what’s to follow while Johnny Deep narrates from Thompson’s writings. Since Depp adeptly embodied Thompson in the film translation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and was a friend of the Gonzo journalist, his in-character narration gives the doc a seamless air of credibility. However, how it begins is where it ends and for many who have revered the man for most of their lives, it won’t be pretty.

Starting with the end of Thompson’s life and an NBC news announcement of his death, the doc jumps back and forth through time, giving brief glimpses of Thompson’s early life in Kentucky, his appearance on the old “To Tell the Truth” show, and raw footage of the man himself at various stages of his career. It soon settles into Thompson’s time spent with the Hell’s Angels biker gang for an article in The Nation, which begins a deeper exploration supported by reflective thoughts from friends, family and various associates, including Thompson’s two wives, his son, former President Jimmy Carter, journalist Tom Wolfe, writer Tom Crouse, political personality (and Thompson foe) Pat Buchanan, former political heavyweight George McGovern, artist Ralph Steadman, former Hell’s Angels president Sonny Barger and more. Although it’s widely known that his year long stint with the Angels catapulted him to stardom as a writer, Alex Gibney peels back the layers to look at Thompson’s Hell’s Angels experience from several different angles, tracing its arc from curiosity and admiration to shock and abject horror. When a Hell’s Angel confronts Thompson on national TV, you see a side of the writer few have ever seen - one of terror and uncertainty evident in his eyes. Still, despite his fear, Thompson had the balls to stand up for himself and defend his actions. Although Gibney’s doc meanders at times, the feature’s raw moments provide the necessary drama and conflict that sustains engagement in Thompson’s life.

From Thompson’s days in San Francisco among the Height-Ashbury hippie revolution where he found his market to his close affiliation with the George McGovern presidential bid where he eventually became disillusioned with politics (and his hero) after McGovern sabotaged his own bid, Gonzo plods along through Thompson’s life, navigating the high points while slowly divulging the many events that led to his disenfranchisement with politics, people, and the American Dream. In an example of how Gibney allows the raw footage of tell the tale, Thomson’s reaction to his failed bid to become Sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, reveals a man at the very moment he realizes the American Dream doesn’t exist. These moments also serve as set-ups for ultimate tragedy, which, as the doc progresses, you know all too well is coming. It’s hard to watch a larger than life hero be reduced to a mere mortal. But, for those who don’t have the balls to watch it, it explains a lot about how people today don’t want to deal with reality. Thompson’s later years were as much a reality as the days of his shit-disturbing prime.

When stacking Gonzo next to Alex Gibney’s previous project, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, it’s a completely different experience. Hunter S. Thompson was certainly controversial and scandalous but he was never a controversy or a scandal. That’s the undeniable difference. Gonzo is an introspective homage to the life of a man that peels back the layers to reveal the stark realities and motivations of a literary giant who was at odds with society and himself. Although Gibney’s doc is filled with revealing recollections from a wide variety of people close to Thompson, I found myself wanting to hear more from his son Juan and his two wives more than anyone else. Although Gonzo attempts to crack the code of Thompson, I began to realize the only way to truly understand the man on a deeper level was to cut out the peripheral players in order for his family to give us a side of Hunter S. Thompson no one else could. In some respect, I wish Gibney had gone that route. Still, despite its cluttered elements and meandering track, it’s Thompson himself who gives Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson a beating heart. If you’ve ever read one of Thompson’s books and identify with his messages, do yourself a favor and close out the final chapter of his life with Alex Gibney’s doc. If you’re looking for another Enron, you won’t be able to relate.