More of a film documentary than a life documentary
I was wondering whether to give this documentary two or three stars and gave it the benefit of the doubt. The documentary starts off on shaky ground with an annoying split screen, and a segment of Gary Busey's ego getting in the way. It focuses on the two movies made of Hunter S. Thompson's life, 'Where The Buffalo Roam' from 1980 and 'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas' in 1998. There isn't much information on Thompson during the decade inbetween movies.
The interviews with Thompson that are used are from 1978, 1997, and 1998. Other interviews are with Sean Penn, Gary Busey, Johnny Depp, Bill Murrary, John Cusack, Benicio Del Toro, Harry Dean Stanton, editor William F. Buckley, author Tom Wolfe, politician George McGovern, and politician Gary Hart, along with close friends and ex-wives.
The documentary talks about Thompson's unique "Gonzo" style of writing, his penchant for alcohol, drugs, guns, and company while revealing that he (as early as 1978) felt like he...
When the Going gets Weird .....
It took a long time to comfortably view this documentary, having been acquainted with the good Doctor since my college days in the early 70's. I don't mean acquainted personally - I'm not sure I brought enough to the table to get me invited to Owl Farm - but acquainted in a literary sense. This documentary is a good "short course" on HST by the people who knew and loved him - and those could be two entirely separate groups! From all accounts, Hunter was not an "easy" friend to have but I've never heard anyone regret the privledge. Friends, widows, ex-wives and family members recall their experiences with Hunter which ranged from merely weird to outright dangerous. Apart from his Woody Creek friends, Johnny Depp, John Cusack and Sean Penn are shown recounting "Hunter stories" with the obvious omission being Cusack's side-splitting "Ling Ling" story which was posted on the STARZ website for a time.
For us devotees, seeing "Ground Zero" (a.k.a. Owl Farm) is real treat,...
The ride wasnt so great but had its moments!
Being a Thompson fan and looking foward to a documentary of his life i eagerly awaited this dvd release. After watching it i cant help feel this was done with respect and good intention but fell short of the target. Its main problem is too many actors recollections and not enough Hunter. Now i like Sean Penn J depp J Cusack Bill Murray but the film spends too much time talking about the Hunter films that were made( to be fair its full title includes the subtitle "Hunter Thompson on film"- his life is briefly gone over with excellent narration by the always drunk sounding Nick Nolte and old friends give some insight into his character but is lacking is the miles of footage interviews and othe source material that i have seen on other bootleg dvds and on such commercial dvds as "Breakfast with Hunter". There is no long extended interviews or dialogue with Hunter- its always short scenes between some actors impression of The good doctor. What works are some of the fellow authors...
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