Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S. Thompson is just what it says it is, a documentary exploring the life and work of the inventor of drug-fuelled reporting style known as “gonzo journalism”. Thompson is probably best known for his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas which was also made into a film with the same name by director Terry Gilliam and starring Jonny Depp. Depp narrates this documentary.
We saw this movie on Friday night and were treated to a brief introduction by one of the film’s producers, Eva Orner. Eva works with director Alex Gibney and they had another documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side also showing at the festival this year.
Gonzo is ultimately a very enjoyable film for fans of Thompson’s work and for people looking to learn more about his life and work. The film does an excellent job of explaining his background, upbringing and formative moments, all leading towards the Thompson that is best remembered today. At the same time, the film’s heavy reliance on archive footage (from Thompson’s own storage warehouse), while providing an incredibly intimate platform, does mean that the film is somewhat limited to particular stages in Thompson’s life and career.
This isn’t automatically as bad a thing as it may sound. It allows the film to concentrate on Thompson’s most prolific and impacting years and provides the foundations for understanding how his success began to undermine him. There are a couple of key events that this is done through. The first being Thompson’s attempt to run for the office of Sheriff in Aspen, Colorado. This is an important event in explaining Thompson’s interest in politics and establishing the fact that he always had an agenda for the America he so dearly loved.
Following Thompson’s own campaign for sheriff, the film deliberately highlights the almost eerie parallels between the political climate when Thompson covered the ‘72 presidential election and the presidential election that is currently underway in the US. This is a particularly detailed section of the film and for some viewers, the film may bog down a bit through this period, but for those who maintain even a passing interest in Thompson, or even politics, there are some truly amazing stories in this time. Thompson’s coverage of the election became what many regard his greatest work, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail. This book was actually written as a series of articles for Rolling Stone, to provide an insider’s look at the campaign trail. Thompson’s reports are astounding in their honest, deceptiveness, inventiveness and unique perspective on what was happening in this election. At one point in the film we see one of the candidates in an interview describe Thompson’s coverage as the “most honest and least factual” of that campaign.
There’s a particularly entertaining story about Thompson’s very deliberate attempts to sabotage the campaign of one candidate with “rumours” of illicit drug use administered by Brazilian doctors in secret. Of course, every attempt to deny these “rumours” gave Thompson the opportunity to calmly report that the force and vigour with which the candidate gave his denials were symptoms of the drugs he was “rumoured” to be using. It terrifies me to think what Thompson would have achieved if he’d started a blog.
As Thompson’s work slowed down following that period of his life, the film jumps forward to his later years and the leap is a little jarring for the viewer. It’s an understandable decision on the part of the filmmakers, but I still feel that there must have been a better way to handle the transition, even with a brief montage and voiceover. Anyway, in all this was an exceptionally entertaining movie that does an excellent job of exploring Thompson’s unique brand of activism and his hopes for the future. Undoubtedly the film will inspire people of all backgrounds to get angry and try to change the world. So if you think you can handle the drugs, the sex, the guns and the subversion, you should give this movie a try.
