Such a frustrating disappointment

Really Surprised!

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Blistering performances.

Gonzo is a traditional documentary in which the director remains mute behind the camera, allowing the subjects to develop the story independent of outside commentary. The film's foundation is its subject matter--not the fireworks of post-Michael-Moore documentary film making.If you're into the Hell's Angels, drug culture, gun culture, psychological and sometimes real violence, the 60s, the 70s, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, Tom Wolfe, Neal Cassidy, Rolling Stone, Haight-Ashbury, and, most importantly Hunter S. Thompson (aka Raoul Duke) himself--if you're into that kind of thing--this film will work for you.I am into that kind of thing--but mostly because I'm intellectually fascinated by the prototypes of many of the people I've chosen to surround myself with now. You have to understand that a film like this is sort of about my imaginary ancestors. Or maybe the imaginary ancestors of a family I've loosely adopted as my own.I'm a seven-time participant in Burning Man. The people I know (whether they admit it or not), are still carrying the torch for pranksterism and hippydom. And if I wasn't so square myself, I'd probably be even deeper in the middle of what the counterculture has become. I appreciate tranquility and sanity too much to be more than a voyeuristic observer in this experiment. It's not dead quite yet, believe me.About that intellectual curiosity: I've never really been able to tease apart my ambivalent feelings towards Hunter S. Thompson. I've read Hell's Angels, seen Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, seen Bill Murray in Where the Buffalo roam. I admire Thompson's success and enjoy his writing.But on the other hand, my admiration is tainted by a small part of something negative--maybe disgust or distrust, or maybe just spiteful envy that someone could become so successful primarily by flaunting moral and journalistic convention.The movie helped me see the man more than the character--and I have a much deeper appreciation for his experience of reality: for Hunter's experience, and what it led him to do. I don't know that the film resolved my ambivalence, but it certainly helped me not to be quite so judgmental.What fascinates me the most about this era is not the traditional narrative that pits the authority against the counter-cultural freaks. What continues to fascinate me is the way in which the so-called 'failure' of the era was really just the final, incontrovertible admission that the counterculture was another facet of the mainstream culture, and that there were easy ways in which the latter could bend itself into an acceptable version of the former.In today's context, it's nearly unthinkable to me that a person like Thompson could not only make a living but really be quite successful by adopting outrageousness and rebellion for its own sake.Somehow, even then, when long-haired (or bald-headed in Thompson's case) rock-infused freakiness was still too nascent to have found its way into the stripmall mainstream, there were people who managed to make money off of the system while mouthing off about it at every opportunity.And maybe that's what made the movement so absolutely enticing as a force of social revolt: because it had the money to make revolution not just a moral imperative, but also really really fun.For all of its outsider mentality and oppression complex, the counterculture was still white, still disproportionately privileged, still more capable of wielding its resources to create a reality other than the one presented to its members at birth.It remains to be seen whether that's something we should really feel ashamed of, or whether it's just a good thing to keep in mind as we launch our future projects as DIY culture-builders.The ability to reshape one's cultural reality without drastically impacting one's economic future is, arguably, the greatest privilege we whites have maintained over time. I truly wish everyone could experience that kind of freedom.Hunter S. Thompson personifies the problem of white outsiderness to me. He was the bad boy and people with money liked the spectacle. Didn't seem like he felt any pressure to assimilate.Because ultimately he was producing more (social and material) capital than the suits and minor politicians he ridiculed. Was he really any more pure of the taint of money and privilege than they were, or was he just smarter about it? Should I despise him for his fame and spectacle, or should I feel proud that some one made it while saying no to that stereotypical straw man we call normal? Like a lot of author bios this film brought a third dimension to Thompson--one I hadn't seen before. By listening to his struggles and the accounts of his friends, I learned who Hunter was beyond what he has come to represent in my head.

Can you just imagine if there was another Hunter S. Thompson twin with the equivalent eccentricities as Gonzo himself? That would be pretty scary, because one Gonzo is all we needed. Love him, hate him, or unsure sometimes on how to judge him (as yours truly) there will never be another Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Renowned documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney gets the write stuff on depicting Thompson's roller-coaster life in the doc "Gonzo: The Life & Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson". I was perplexed on how much Hunter footage Gibney was able to hunt down, and on the diverse group of popular people who were willing to be interviewed for the doc. For those of you who lived under caves in the 60's or 70's or who were not embryos yet, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson was a no-holds barred journalist whose inclusive, illustrative, and candid writing style became a revolutionary literary art form entitled Gonzo. Thompson's human brand was of liquor, hallucinogens, guns, cigarette holders, sunglasses, zany hats, and fast gab. While his writing brand consisted of political conservative bashing, American dream searching surreal trips, and ruckus to the stable establishment. His infamous literary themes were the Hell's Angels adventures, the 1972 Presidential Election, and the Fear & Loathing series. Hunter was an adjunct reporter for Rolling Stones magazine and his most successful books were "The Rum Diaries" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". The documentary discloses all of the aforementioned with revealing footage of his distinct life & work. Not to mention (I think I did mention) edifying interviews with those who loved, tolerated, or despised him including: Nixon speechwriter Pat Buchanan, rocker Jimmy Buffet, former Presidential candidates Gary Hart & George McGovern, Hells Angels' leader Sonny Barger, Hunter's first wife Sandi Wright, second wife Anita Thompson, son Juan, and a roundabout of others. Thompson was his own contradictive existence as he sporadically despised some of the same behaviors he would interject himself in. And Gibney successfully articulates that theme in some of the film's disclosures. Hunter sadly committed suicide in 2005 by a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. It was in his disposition that is the way he wanted to leave Planet Earth, but somehow is still shocked many it would actually happen, present company included. The only aspect of Hunter's existence that still baffled me, and was not presented in the doc, is how this guy was able to avoid hangovers. Maybe he had some Hemingwayism in him, but Hunter was an everyday Wild Turkey man, and maybe that long term abuse was an adrenaline rush; but there is still something called Hangovers that causes all humanoids to eradicate their cerebral function. It did not seem to affect Thompson's diverse knowledge & memory. Maybe Hunter was one of a kind. I doubt it. Maybe if Gibney had researched this Hunter phenomenon, we would now why he was not Gonzo many times due to his massive drinking. Nevertheless, "Gonzo: The Life & Times of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" is a cinematic documentary journey that is worthy enough to buy the ticket and take the ride. Therefore, no need to fear and loathe seeing this Gonzo bio doc. **** Good

Let's face it, either you loved or hated the life & words of the late Dr.Hunter S.Thompson,you have to admit...he was a piece of work. This documentary attempts to delve into the life (and head)of Thompson (not always with success,but don't let that throw you). The film (narrated by Johnny Depp,who played Thompson in 'Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas',some years back,making him a natural for the job)delves back to his association with the Hells Angels in the mid 1960's (which ended badly),to his being embraced by the whole Hippie counter culture of the later half of that era (along with massive intakes of various drugs),to writing several novels in the early to mid 1970's,to his subsequent downward spiral (in the creative sense),to his eventual death in 2005,by suicide (and his unorthodox memorial service). Hunter Thompson managed to make a name for himself. What I admired was the fact that it goes out of it's way to prove that the sixties was not always the hippie utopia that the baby boomer's make it out to be. What I could have done without was some of the more forgettable music from the 1960's & 1970's (does anybody really want to hear Jimmy Buffet's 'Margaritaville'for the twenty thousandth time?---I sure as hell don't). Apart from that, 'Gonzo:The Life & Work Of Dr.Hunter S. Thompson' will be a "must see" for those who tend to embrace the counter culture, rather than pop culture/trash culture.

This is an absorbing doc not only of the good doc but the whole counterculture that he championed in many ways. For all his excessive lifestyle that became almost a parody of the drug culture, he remained a true intellectual and anti-corruption/hypocrisy crusader. He embraced the vision of a new world not ruled by greed and war-mongering, and as early as 1971 proclaimed his great sadness that the movement and the moment of flower power had passed and with it the chance for sane politics. This moment was captured well in "Where the Buffalo Roam" starring Bill Murray as HST, which is given kind of short shrift in this documentary in favor of scenes from "Fear and Loathing Las Vegas" with Johnny Depp as HST. Considering that Depp produced and narrates the film as well as financed the grandiose send-off that Thompson envisioned for himself, it's not strange that Murray's portrayal would be downplayed, as excellent as it was (and Peter Boyle's as the Samoan lawyer.) All in all, it is a well-balanced account of Thompson's life and work, with many pertinent interviewees like his two wives and son, Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone, Sonny Barger of the Hell's Angels, Jimmy Buffett, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Pat Buchanan, Tom Wolfe, and various Aspenites. His passion and wit were undeniable, and his addiction to guns, booze and dope were in many ways forgivable. But his absence in today's disastrous political scene, his voice against war and corruption is sorely missed, and lamented by several of the interviewees. The parallels between Nixon and Bush are easily drawn, and "Gonzo" does this without hammering the point home except to exhort the audience to take up the fight that the Good Doctor waged in a seemingly crazy, but noble and honorable way for most of his life.