Gonzo: The Life and Work of Mr. Hunter S. Thompson
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Mr. Hunter S. Thompson is a revealing look at the journalistic juggernaut only touched on in the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where Johnny Depp played a Thompson-esque character. Depp appears frequently in this documentary either in snippets from that movie or reciting choice selections of Thompson’s brilliant prose. Among other famous talking heads are Jimmy Carter and George McGovern as it is revealed that they rose to positions of dominance thanks to the journalistic musings of this caustic scribe – something unimaginable with today’s complacent, imbedded media. A real treat is humorous words from Pat Buchanan, a former Nixon henchman that Thompson delighted in skewering. Hunter was a self destructive, gun totting wordsmith who as a freelancer for the Rolling Stone magazine was in the thick of things through some of the most turbulent times in the USA from desegregation to Haight - Ashbury and from biker gangs to the Watergate gang. When Thompson committed suicide in 2005 may thought he’d lost his edge but his chilling post 9-11 predictions about George Bush suggest that the Gonzo wasn’t gone-zo just yet.