Gonzo

Director Alex Gibney (whose Taxi to the Dark Side won the Oscar for Best Documentary) presents an interesting but flawed look at wild-man journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Gonzo begins with Thompson's immediate post-9/11 writings warning of a holy war marked by religious intolerance on both sides. Prescient? Perhaps. But this brief passage is neither typical of Thompson's work nor particularly revealing of his personality, although it is one of three ideologically-charged sequences that specifically remind viewers to despise George W. Bush. On the plus side, Gibney compiles fascinating footage of the late “gonzo” journalist, including his droll appearance on a TV game show and campaign commercials from his doomed, quixotic run for sheriff of Aspen, CO. And he cleverly interweaves interviews with such disparate Thompson acquaintances as Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, right-wing pundit Pat Buchanan, former President Jimmy Carter, former Senator George McGovern, and author Tom Wolfe. But the film's long detour into “the death of the dream”—the end of the ‘60s—rehashes overly familiar material and drags the focus away from Thompson. Many germane stories about Thompson remain untold, and Gibney's view of the journalist as crusading truth-teller (rather than stylish and humorous fabulist) just isn't supported by the facts. An uneven, but often engaging bit of gonzo-style biographical filmmaking, this is a strong optional purchase. (E. Hulse)