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Absolutely brilliant

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Hunter S. Thompson was a supremely funny man but, alas, was a deeply unhappy one. Thompson's political positions could have hardly been more different from my own. Nevertheless, I admired his work because he was such an original and so entertaining. I did so mainly because I knew better than to ever take him seriously. Unfortunately, Thompson never learned to not take himself too seriously and that failing led to his self destructiveness and, ultimately to his suicide. Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is a mostly loving look at Thompson through the eyes of many of his friends and the politicians he wrote about. It shows a man with a profoundly dichotomous nature: creativeness and wit on its positive side but dark, self destructive depression on the other. It created the richly entertaining Gonzo journalist who those of us who admired his work so enjoyed but also planted the seeds for his depression and death.Near the end of the film, Thompson's first wife, Sondi, takes issue with those who characterize Thompson's suicide as "heroic." I think she has a point. Thompson had largely fallen from the public eye some years before he killed himself in 2005 at the age of 67. In a note delivered to his wife four days before his death, which was described by both his family and the police as a suicide note, Thompson wrote, under the title "Football Season is Over":"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won't hurt."That about sums it up.

Hunter S. Thompson was an often astute commentator of American life, and an always astute commentator of his own mental disintegration, a process driven by his own enthusiastic use of mind-altering drugs; a gun freak who opposed American involvement in Vietnam; and a critic of capitalism who became, pretty much, the living embodiment of his own brand. He also, years after his best work was done, died by shooting himself. This documentary provides insight into his strange journey, which does have a tragic dimension: the values of the life he lived, the adulation he received for living it and the damage it did to him appear in the end inseparable. By the end, he was still celebrated (by new generations of kids who love to get high) but no longer relevant, his final act a desperate (and arguably failed) plea for attention. This documentary tells us much of the story, mostly interestingly, though there are times when it fails to disentangle the process it describes, the overwhelming of man by self-created myth. Still, while it's the prerogative of every generation to feel jaded, I find it hard to imagine another figure like Hunter emerging today, if only because a large part of his quality was that no-one expected him. But the film reminds you of another part as well: he could certainly write.

"Gonzo – The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" (2007): This is a two hour documentary on writer Hunter Thompson, told through old film footage, and the memories of people who knew, and love-hated him. Was he talented, was his writing all that unique, was he undeservedly made into an icon? Look, those were heady times for all, and breaking rules was not only the joy but the expectation. I knew plenty of creative people who spit at anything that wasn't within their sphere that week. The air was full of pretension, self-righteousness, and huge self-indulgence. Thompson was simply a Poster Boy for the many. SOMEONE had to do it. SOMEONE had to mingle with the Upper Crud of that time, and the Upper Crud got a buzz from taking a Walk on the Wild Side with someone who didn't give a damn, held power, and could entertain them with a devil-may-care attitude they could only fantasize owning and enjoying. Fact is, the Poster Boys, besides being creative at times, were obnoxious, selfish, showy, mean spirited, dangerous, irritating, and NOT someone you'd want as a neighbor or near your kids at any time. They were novelty acts, and no doubt felt the pressure to perform like a merry monkey on acid. All that said, this film is a GOOD documentary of someone you will NOT like, and you will question the judgment of those who did.

Except for some criticism of Thompson by his first wife and a jovial Pat Buchanan, I think the film went too easy on Hunter, e.g, pretty much laughed off the dirty trick he played on Muskie. I also disagree with the observation by some people in the movie (and at least one commenter here)about how tragic he took his own life because we need him now more than ever. The blogosphere had already made Thompson pretty irrelevant. There are thousands of pundits (drug-using and otherwise)covering the political scene in a gonzo way to counter the pack journalism Tim Crouse inveighed against in The Boys on the Bus, which may explain Thompson's waning popularity in the years leading up to his death. Another interesting thing about the film was the contrast between the real Thompson, as shown in copious footage and Johnny Depp's portrayal of him, as shown in clips from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The juxtaposition revealed Depp to be wide of the mark in capturing Thompson's essence, which was far more "sober" than what would gather from Depp's cartoonish characterization of him. Such over-the-top performances appear to be Depp's stock in trade, a convenient cover, IMHO, for his limited acting ability. I'd like to see him pull off a performance closer to reality, but I'm not holding my breath. (Even the gratuitous use of Depp to read passages from Hunters' books revealed him to be the most affected person in this movie.) Anyway, I came away from this film with both more and less respect for Thompson, so maybe there was more balance there than I'm giving credit for. And as a time-travel piece back to the days of the culture wars, it's very effective.