In this atypical PBS-aired documentary, filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez employs artifice, f-words, and fourth-wall-breaking to rediscover a Latino activist/literary figure who is largely unknown today. Oscar Zeta Acosta was a flamboyantly reckless attorney who appears in a sidekick role in Hunter S. Thompson's 1972 alt-journalism classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas disguised as "Dr. Gonzo," a "300-pound Samoan." The racial retouching irked the real Acosta, a Mexican-American lawyer who attempted to embrace the spotlight in the tumultuous early 1970s as a Chicano revolutionary, although he was never really accepted by the political street-guerillas he sought to champion. Having a contentious relationship with Thompson, Acosta wrote two books himself before literally vanishing into obscurity—hence interview-portrayals here by actors (Jesse Celedon as Acosta, Jeff Harms as Thompson), with similar impersonations of friends, ex-wives, and cronies, living and dead. The result is not only a clever Citizen Kane-type composite portrait of a complex, fallible figure in identity politics, but also a more successful transliteration of gonzo journalism than Terry Gilliam’s 1998 film adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Extras include audio podcasts in which Acosta's sister makes the literary-conspiracy claim that Acosta deserves co-authorship credit for Thompson's bestseller, and that Thompson snidely confessed as much. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)
The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo
(2018) 57 min. DVD: $24.99: individuals; $250: institutions. City Projects. PPR. Volume 33, Issue 5
The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo
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