Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2008 > March > 10 > Entry
‘Gonzo’
A tortured romantic filled with anger who could never quite reconcile his dream of a better world, or the demon’s of his soul, with the reality of the times eventually sucumbs to a Gonzo world and image he created for himself. That is what one takes away from two-time Academy Award winnner Alex Gibney’s new documentary ‘Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson,’ which screened on day two of SXSW film.
The amusing and somewhat sad portrait of the man of letters who flourished during a period in the 60s and 70s, achieving more notorieity than any modern American writer, starts out a little hokey, an odd touch coming from Gibney. Johnny Depp provides the voice over, reading passages from Thompson’s 1966 novel ‘Hell’s Angels,’ while a shmaltzy reenactment of the lines being read show Thompson cruising along the California highway in the middle of the night. Eventually the metaphor does feel apt, as there always seemd to be something Thompson was running from or to. Usually himself.
Raised in lower-middle class Kentucky, Thompson is portrayed as a man who never felt like he belonged, who felt cheated by the system and treated more harshly than the more well-heeled with whom he caroused. This outsider feeling and a sense of longing for vengeance, justice and fair treatment seems to be what propelled Thompson’s literary career and social life.
The movie spends much time looking at specific juncture in the writer’s life: his bursting onto the scene with ‘Hell’s Angels,’ his long relationship with Rolling Stone, his ‘Fear and Loathing’ masterworks (Las Vegas and the campaign trail), his run for sheriff in 1972, his relation with artist Ralph Steadman, and the fallout from the fame and celebrity he achieved and its effect on him and his family.
For the casual fan, ‘Gonzo’ is probably most informative in the depth of its look into Thompson’s relationship with George McGovern and his deep mistrust of government and cyncism towards authority. The themes of that campaign and Thompson’s co-mingling passion for and anithpathy towards government and the idea of what America could be indeed still ressonate well today. In the end, Thompson’s anger and romanticism led to his demise and self-destruction.
As the title of his 1970 article about the Kentucky Derby,’The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,’ so succintly stated, Thompson was distrustful of what the money, power and soulessness of America created in its culture. He wanted to storm the Bastille and bring everyone down with him, meting justice with his pen. Unfortunately for those who loved Thompson and for the American consciousness, the passion with which he lived and the pain inflicted on him by the beauty and the ache of the world was too much for the Gonzo writer to sustain. He was gone far too soon. And although his talent had become a shadow of its former self by the time he literally finished his self-destruction, he left a damn fine legacy in his chaotic wake. His voice, and subjective narrative journalism style that spoke out against the injustices and corruption of the world and his uncanny ability to paint vivid, psychedelic, gargantuan pictures with words separates him from any would-be challengers to his throne.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: SXSW
Comments
Click here to report comment abuse.