Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S. Thompson

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S. Thompson tells the life and death of the infamous pop-culture icon and ‘Gonzo’ journalist Hunter S. Thompson. The documentary is at times very traditional in the way in which this life is told yet it at times often seems to veer away from the subject and within a few reels it seems to avoid very important elements of his psyche and subsequent death.

The film begins with noting his youth as the underdog; the middle-to-lower-class kid who hung around with the spoilt rich kids and never had a penny to his name. Although this section is interesting and clearly has salient information – we learn how he became interested in writing and the subject matters that he wrote about, it seems to be a little too obvious and at times rather bland. The admirable elements of this section though are the way in which the narration is not so much telling you what his life was like, which would have made the film so utterly unpalatable it would have been worth walking out over, but rather opting for excerpts from his books and writings. Although this too could be argued as being obvious and mainstream, I would rather hear narration about a writer through his writings rather than a hack script which tells us about what a terrible life he had and how we should all admire him because he went against the grain. The overall affect of the narration is that it doesn’t patronise us and leaves to make our own minds up about whether he is a certified genius or a rambling buffoon.

The middle section of the film is very hit and miss – the sections which discuss how he once tried to run for sheriff of Aspen are intriguing and ultimately display how someone who does go against the grain can bring voters out and can cause people to stop and think for themselves– something that seems all the more relevant within American society throughout the last six months. The lagging part of the film comes next, whereby it moves into a wandering section about how he befriended ex-presidents George McGovern and Jimmy Carter. Although it did hold my attention and it was interesting as these are the parts of his life that clearly shaped the way he wrote about politics and his ethos as a whole, it did seem to stray into a mumbling section whereby Hunter Thompson wasn’t mentioned but the inner workings of the two presidents’ campaigns were shown.

The real disappointment for the film came at the end, whereby his depressive psyche and subsequent death were traded for the above mentioned section. It seemed to tip-toe into why he had died, but just as it was starting to wade in, it quickly ran away. This fear was quite irritating, as it could have been such a darker and much more developed part of the film; shedding new light on the previous sections and showing how the American Dream that he had long come to admire and respect had come crumbling down beneath him. I would have had such respect for the film to have simply had the guts to have said that he despised the Bush Administration and everything about it and it can be said that this is the reason why he may have killed himself.

The impressive thing about the film is the amount of photographs, videos, tapes and other media that is present about him. He was obviously a man who taped and documented everything that he could and although he may never admit it, he enjoyed being in the spotlight as much as any other cultural figure.

Despite the fact that it somehow trades off the daring material for downright soft-option, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S. Thompson does show an interesting portrayal of its subject matter. However the problem becomes that although there is an entire ocean of Hunter S. Thompson material out there, he is such an enigma that any portrayal of him becomes valid and everyone will go and see it. That is the real disappointment.