Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson

Directed By Alex Gibney

Review By Roberto Azula

A slick, well-oiled, but not particularly illuminating documentary, Alex Gibney’s Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson is a good introduction to the writer. But if you have already read Thompson’s important works, there is nothing surprising or new here. Thompson was hardly a man of mystery, as he brazenly displayed his wild life in such seminal works as Fear and Loathing series of books and his run for the sheriff’s office of Aspen. But you probably already knew that. Gonzo is a competently made, enjoyable documentary, made in the A&E Biography style, and gives you the sensation of listening to a Greatest Hits compilation of your favorite artist.

Neither a slavish tribute nor a damning indictment, Gonzo is a simply a straightforward account (as straightforward as Hell’s Angles gangbangs, acid trips to Vegas, and drunken target practice can be) of Thompson’s life and times, accompanied by the most cliché of 60s tunes. Surely Gibney could have done better than “American Pie”, “Piece of My Heart”, and “All Along the Watchtower”. Playing those rusty, overused tunes practically rings of parody, which was hardly Gibney’s intent. The best parts of the documentary were the discussions with artist Ralph Steadman, who relates how Thompson changed him from an innocent babe in the woods to a raving drug abuser, thereby transforming his art style. Gibney also did well with his restrained, efficient use of footage from Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas and Where The Buffalo Roam. His reenactment of Thompson buying tacos in Vegas, however, is clumsy and confusing, and should have been left on the cutting room floor.

I do agree with Gonzo’s final assessment. Now more than ever, we need writers like Thompson to write the gorgeous hyperboles to befit such war criminals as Bush and Cheney (as Thompson so marvelously did for Nixon and his cronies). It’s too bad Thompson’s dissolute lifestyle finally drained him, depriving us of a badly need scribe. Had he stuck around, perhaps Gonzo would have been a better, more urgent film.