Synopsis
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (2008) is Alex Gibney's documentary, free to watch online on iFILM. It traces the decade in which a journalist invented gonzo reporting — a style where the writer sits hip-deep in his own story and sobriety counts as a flaw.
From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, Thompson rode with the Hells Angels, ran for sheriff of Aspen on a near-legalization ticket, drove to Las Vegas for a magazine assignment and came back with the book that buried the '60s. Gibney builds the film out of home movies, audiotapes and unpublished pages, with Johnny Depp — who played Thompson's alter ego for Terry Gilliam — reading the words off-screen. Tom Wolfe, illustrator Ralph Steadman and George McGovern weigh in.
What emerges isn't a tribute but an autopsy of how one man with a revolver and a typewriter went to war with the American Dream and lost alongside the rest of the country. Best for anyone drawn to '60s and '70s counterculture and to biography without the gloss. Stream Gonzo (2008) online on iFILM.
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