Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Aspen Orson There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

Jeff Lawshe Gonzo is a traditional documentary in which the director remains mute behind the camera, allowing the subjects to develop the story independent of outside commentary. The film's foundation is its subject matter--not the fireworks of post-Michael-Moore documentary film making.If you're into the Hell's Angels, drug culture, gun culture, psychological and sometimes real violence, the 60s, the 70s, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, Tom Wolfe, Neal Cassidy, Rolling Stone, Haight-Ashbury, and, most importantly Hunter S. Thompson (aka Raoul Duke) himself--if you're into that kind of thing--this film will work for you.I am into that kind of thing--but mostly because I'm intellectually fascinated by the prototypes of many of the people I've chosen to surround myself with now. You have to understand that a film like this is sort of about my imaginary ancestors. Or maybe the imaginary ancestors of a family I've loosely adopted as my own.I'm a seven-time participant in Burning Man. The people I know (whether they admit it or not), are still carrying the torch for pranksterism and hippydom. And if I wasn't so square myself, I'd probably be even deeper in the middle of what the counterculture has become. I appreciate tranquility and sanity too much to be more than a voyeuristic observer in this experiment. It's not dead quite yet, believe me.About that intellectual curiosity: I've never really been able to tease apart my ambivalent feelings towards Hunter S. Thompson. I've read Hell's Angels, seen Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, seen Bill Murray in Where the Buffalo roam. I admire Thompson's success and enjoy his writing.But on the other hand, my admiration is tainted by a small part of something negative--maybe disgust or distrust, or maybe just spiteful envy that someone could become so successful primarily by flaunting moral and journalistic convention.The movie helped me see the man more than the character--and I have a much deeper appreciation for his experience of reality: for Hunter's experience, and what it led him to do. I don't know that the film resolved my ambivalence, but it certainly helped me not to be quite so judgmental.What fascinates me the most about this era is not the traditional narrative that pits the authority against the counter-cultural freaks. What continues to fascinate me is the way in which the so-called 'failure' of the era was really just the final, incontrovertible admission that the counterculture was another facet of the mainstream culture, and that there were easy ways in which the latter could bend itself into an acceptable version of the former.In today's context, it's nearly unthinkable to me that a person like Thompson could not only make a living but really be quite successful by adopting outrageousness and rebellion for its own sake.Somehow, even then, when long-haired (or bald-headed in Thompson's case) rock-infused freakiness was still too nascent to have found its way into the stripmall mainstream, there were people who managed to make money off of the system while mouthing off about it at every opportunity.And maybe that's what made the movement so absolutely enticing as a force of social revolt: because it had the money to make revolution not just a moral imperative, but also really really fun.For all of its outsider mentality and oppression complex, the counterculture was still white, still disproportionately privileged, still more capable of wielding its resources to create a reality other than the one presented to its members at birth.It remains to be seen whether that's something we should really feel ashamed of, or whether it's just a good thing to keep in mind as we launch our future projects as DIY culture-builders.The ability to reshape one's cultural reality without drastically impacting one's economic future is, arguably, the greatest privilege we whites have maintained over time. I truly wish everyone could experience that kind of freedom.Hunter S. Thompson personifies the problem of white outsiderness to me. He was the bad boy and people with money liked the spectacle. Didn't seem like he felt any pressure to assimilate.Because ultimately he was producing more (social and material) capital than the suits and minor politicians he ridiculed. Was he really any more pure of the taint of money and privilege than they were, or was he just smarter about it? Should I despise him for his fame and spectacle, or should I feel proud that some one made it while saying no to that stereotypical straw man we call normal? Like a lot of author bios this film brought a third dimension to Thompson--one I hadn't seen before. By listening to his struggles and the accounts of his friends, I learned who Hunter was beyond what he has come to represent in my head.

gws-2 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.

meeza Can you just imagine if there was another Hunter S. Thompson twin with the equivalent eccentricities as Gonzo himself? That would be pretty scary, because one Gonzo is all we needed. Love him, hate him, or unsure sometimes on how to judge him (as yours truly) there will never be another Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Renowned documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney gets the write stuff on depicting Thompson's roller-coaster life in the doc "Gonzo: The Life & Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson". I was perplexed on how much Hunter footage Gibney was able to hunt down, and on the diverse group of popular people who were willing to be interviewed for the doc. For those of you who lived under caves in the 60's or 70's or who were not embryos yet, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson was a no-holds barred journalist whose inclusive, illustrative, and candid writing style became a revolutionary literary art form entitled Gonzo. Thompson's human brand was of liquor, hallucinogens, guns, cigarette holders, sunglasses, zany hats, and fast gab. While his writing brand consisted of political conservative bashing, American dream searching surreal trips, and ruckus to the stable establishment. His infamous literary themes were the Hell's Angels adventures, the 1972 Presidential Election, and the Fear & Loathing series. Hunter was an adjunct reporter for Rolling Stones magazine and his most successful books were "The Rum Diaries" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". The documentary discloses all of the aforementioned with revealing footage of his distinct life & work. Not to mention (I think I did mention) edifying interviews with those who loved, tolerated, or despised him including: Nixon speechwriter Pat Buchanan, rocker Jimmy Buffet, former Presidential candidates Gary Hart & George McGovern, Hells Angels' leader Sonny Barger, Hunter's first wife Sandi Wright, second wife Anita Thompson, son Juan, and a roundabout of others. Thompson was his own contradictive existence as he sporadically despised some of the same behaviors he would interject himself in. And Gibney successfully articulates that theme in some of the film's disclosures. Hunter sadly committed suicide in 2005 by a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. It was in his disposition that is the way he wanted to leave Planet Earth, but somehow is still shocked many it would actually happen, present company included. The only aspect of Hunter's existence that still baffled me, and was not presented in the doc, is how this guy was able to avoid hangovers. Maybe he had some Hemingwayism in him, but Hunter was an everyday Wild Turkey man, and maybe that long term abuse was an adrenaline rush; but there is still something called Hangovers that causes all humanoids to eradicate their cerebral function. It did not seem to affect Thompson's diverse knowledge & memory. Maybe Hunter was one of a kind. I doubt it. Maybe if Gibney had researched this Hunter phenomenon, we would now why he was not Gonzo many times due to his massive drinking. Nevertheless, "Gonzo: The Life & Times of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" is a cinematic documentary journey that is worthy enough to buy the ticket and take the ride. Therefore, no need to fear and loathe seeing this Gonzo bio doc. **** Good

T Y This movie tracks the enthralling, bizarre, in-your-face work of Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson from dizzying rock-star heights to the ravages of excess, decline and self-parody; the usual unforgiving life-story arc. Think Jack Kerouac ...only with violence and politics. George Burns was known to say "Fame is a hideous bitch goddess." and both are present here. The goddess can be found in his rising star, and fame on his own terms. It becomes a hideous bitch as Thompson ages and finds no place of honor waiting for him (just as he expected).I have no interest in drug use (the film shows much), but it's simply amazing to see someone live out the all too rare "maverick" story arc that we're supposed to have so much of in America. In reality this happens about twice a century, because nothing frightens the average American quite like individuality or freedom. Thompson follows his conscience, his own style, his talent and eccentricities, and compromising none of them, actually parlays them into fame. Mere talent doesn't lead to fame anymore, without handlers. Think about those two concepts; Hunter S. Thompson and "handlers." Ha hah... As horrible as the '70s were, anyone who only has the eighties and the nineties in their psyche, is missing the codex that explains those decades, and doesn't even know it; doesn't even know the blandness we're swimming in. In a freak of timing, a mouthy malcontent was exactly what that decade needed, and lucked into the right forum (Rolling Stone).This is a thought-provoking movie that I'll be thinking about more this week. It also offers a glimpse of Ralph Steadman's astonishing work and working style.