Saturday, December 27, 2008
ALKIE
Today's movie was the documentary
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Thompson was essential reading in the 60s and 70s. He literally changed the world. At least mine. The sad thing is that he was over the hill before the bushies took over. When we really really needed him again.
He became a celebrity, a literal cartoon character (Uncle Duke in Doonesbury) and more famous than the people he covered. He lost his anonymity and his muse. An outsider who came inside. Even Pat Buchanan, who is in this film, was a friend of his.
What happened? Well, success. But beyond that, he was soaked in alcohol and the progression of the disease is totally visible in this fine film that covers his life and times.
Not one person in the film mentions the possibility that his downfall was from booze and drugs. More evidence of how alcoholism proceeds to swallow the alcoholic and all who are in his life and orbit. The film, of course, speaks for itself in the action as all good docs should.
That said, the film, narrated by Johnny Depp, is an in depth appreciation. It wakens the memories of those times for those of us who were into them or had them come into us. I read everything Thompson at that time. I think I quit when he began to flame out. He became unreadable.
Nevertheless his recordings of that period are indelibly printed on my mind. You could not escape his over the top voice and prose.
Thompson's work was inseparable from the cartoons of Ralph Steadman. There are lots of Steadman cartoons and lots of Steadman who not only lived through it all but survives as a respected artist.
Once is enough with a film like this so it will get a 3 out of Netflix5.
Paul Newman will be back tomorrow.
