I read Hunter Thompson’s work in a course called “Creative Non-Fiction.” Our studies began with The New Journalism writers as it was they who broke the barriers of reportage to tell stories that included the look, feel and ambiance of the room and their subjects. The style is much emulated today but rarely executed with the freshness of Thompson, Capote and Wolfe’s heydays. I’ve been wanting to see Alex Gibney’s Gonzo: The Life & Times of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson in hopes that it might somehow help me connect with Thompson on the level of realism. Who is this man? How did he write like that? The film delivers a healthy realism, but not without a heaping dose of signature Thompson flare.

The first few minutes looked very cartoony with some wierd After Effects experiments, and I was thinking that I was in big trouble if the whole movie was going to be like that. In some sense, it was, but it really started to work as the movie went on. The best part of the film is the extensive archival material recorded by Thompson and his friends–both audio and film, in addition to copious amounts of photographs of the late writer. It’s interesting how people who are so famous within their own lives are so well documented. It really helps when the movie about their life is going to be made.

The other stand-out component of this doc is the soundtrack. It becomes clear, going through the timeline of Thompson’s life, that he was present at some of the most significant turning points in American history. Those times in our history are well associated with specific music and using it, Gibney helps create a shorthand to the mood of the country during specific epochs of Thompson’s life. He was one of many artists who played a continuing role in commenting on our major milestones.

I don’t want to speak specifically to the film, because for me, the joy in watching it was discovering the style and thinking about how the filmmaker was paying homage to his subject by not playing the movie entirely straight. I was thinking I should probably add this film to my list of hybrid documentaries, as there is enough recreation (of sorts) to really blur the lines between documentary and narrative (including Johnny Depp reading the work of Thompson and a few extended clips from Depp’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). If Thompson blurred the lines between realism and fantasy, so Gibney also walks the line with his movie. Nicely.

This is probably one of those films that should have received more attention on the festival circuit. I’ve missed it because it always seemed like they were doing one screening, and I’d have to miss it for one reason or another. There is a valid argument to be made for not overexposing a film, but I wonder if this one will have enough momentum going into it’s July 4 opening (ATX at the Arbor, NYC at the Angelika, more cities>>)? I had a great time with this film, though of course it is ultimately a bittersweet story.

I don’t know about heaven or hell, but I hope that wherever Thompson is, he’s tearing down the road in a whale of a convertible. No resting in peace for him. He was about living life to the fullest, taking no names and offering no apologies.