Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson movie review (2008)

This documentary by Alex Gibney ("Taxi to the Dark Side," "No End in Sight") is remarkable, first of all, for reminding us how many pots Hunter dipped a spoon in. He rode with the Hells' Angels for a year. Ran for sheriff of Pitkin County and lost, but only by 204-173. Covered the 1972 and 1976 presidential primaries in a way that made him a co-candidate (in the sense of co-dependent). Had a baffling dual personality, so that such as McGovern, Jimmy Buffet, Tom Wolfe and his wives and son remember him fondly, but could also be "absolutely vicious."

He taught himself to write by typing Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" again and again, we're told. How many times? we ask ourselves skeptically. Was that part of the fantastical legend? Nobody in the film was around while he was doing it. He became famous for writing about "the Edge" in his Hells' Angels' book--that edge of speed going around a curve which you could approach, but never cross without wiping out and killing yourself. He did a lot of edge-riding on his motorcycle, and never wiped out. He said again and again that the way he chose to die was by his own hand, with a firearm, while he was still at the top. He died that way, using one of his 22 firearms, but "he was nowhere near the top," says Sondi Wright, his first wife.

He started to lose it after Africa, says Jann Wenner, who ran his stuff in Rolling Stone. He went to Zaire at great expense to cover the Rumble in the Jungle for the magazine, got hopelessly stoned, missed the fight (while reportedly in the hotel pool), and never filed a story. "After Africa," says Sondi, "he just couldn't write. He couldn’t piece it together." He did some more writing, of course, such as a heartfelt piece after 9/11. But he had essentially disappeared into his legend, as the outlaw of Woody Creek, blasting away with his weapons, making outraged phone calls, getting impossibly high. Certainly he made an impression on his time like few other journalists ever do; the comparison would be with H. L. Mencken.

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