Hunting for Hunter

Gonzo: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson (Alex Gibney, 2008)

Watched this on DVD last night and really enjoyed it. A little meandering, a little long, but excellent fun overall. Narrated by Johnny Depp (who is just brilliant in everything is he not?!), this documentary does a wonderful job of immersing you in the word of Thompson, the revolutionary 60s, the cynical 70s, and the sparky, druggy, visceral word of Gonzo journalism. Gibley manages to balance an interesting mix of talking heads and buckets of insightful library footage, intercut with loopy hallucinogenic scenes that evoke a real sense of mood.

The soundtrack was fabulous and again, very evocative. The most interesting contributors were the editor of Rolling Stone and the artist and long-term Thompson collaborator, Ralph Steadman. I had previously only know Steadman from Withnail and I promotional material, and he proved a rather fascinating chap. Seeing the editor of Rolling Stone breakdown in tears whilst trying to talk about the contribution Hunter could make (to the dreaded politics of now) had he not taken himself out in 2005, was particularly moving. A disturbing yet delightful closing sequence montages a piece to camera where Hunter describes exactly how he wants his funeral to go off, with the actual event itself (spot on to his wishes of course). Haunting, but uplifting at the same time.

My only experience of Hunter S. Thompson prior to watching this documentary was having read the book/seen the film (not got a t-shirt) of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, both of which I loved. Post-Gonzo, I find Hunter infinitely more fascinating, and rather less likeable, as is often the case with the getting to know the personna behind a fiction (though it's barely fiction in Thompson's case). Seeing Thompson for the first time as a polemic political journalist was a real eye-opener and taught me a lot I didn't know about recent US history (albeit a left-leaning presentation of the facts - so of course I sympathised!)

The film tries a little too hard to psychoanalyse a man whom I think deserves to remain an enigma, but otherwise a very fitting obituary to one of the great voices of the 20th century. So, I want to be a gonzo journalist. Apart from the drugs, and being born 30-40 years too late, of course... oh well.

Image from wordpress.com