Gonzo

In terms of cinema, it hasn't been a great year for me. Although I was want to argue and play devil's advocate with friends, last year was truly a magical time for great films. A good deal of my viewings from early this year was actually catch up for that which I missed due to time constraints or my abyssmal location when it comes to indie films (the good stuff comes late or not at all to North Carolina). Granted I am prone to gripe, be over critical and have been generally tagged by friends and foes alike as a curmudgeon. So although I've seen a few films I enjoyed (Reprise, The Dark Knight even they could not escape my criticism. Thankfully I am not going to do that with this review.

Gonzo is a documentary of the life of Hunter S. Thompson. An iconic cultural figure who has influenced a lot of people and has written several very acclaimed literary works. He was a refreshing voice in America who told you how he saw it. Now I've never actually read any of his work. I can't be entirely sure I would enjoy it. In fact most of what I know of the man relates to the Terry Gilliam film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas based on Thompson's book. But my ignorance actually made the film enjoyable. I learned things, got insight and in some way was comforted (or perhaps horrified) that the problems of the past are still around.

The film is narrated largely by Johnny Depp and is filled with interviews of those who were his friends, as well as political figures such as Pat Buchanan, Jimmy Carter and George McGovern. All this is interspersed with selected passages from Thompson's work that show his fluidity and grace with words as well as his outrage. Obviously I'm a fan of history and have studied it enough to know the notion of unbiased history is a joke as old as written historical narrative. So to experience the history of the 1960s (the Vietnam War, loss of the American Dream, Civil Rights) and the 1970s (still the war, political disillusionment) through the lens of an admitted "freak" and malcontent who would even lampoon his heroes if he felt betrayed, is quite refreshing.

His personal takes on sub culture, politics and America is refreshing. I don't always agree with his conclusions but I have respect for them. I admittedly am more sympathetic to his outrage than perhaps conservative America would be but I still naively believe that Hegelian dialectic and its focus on synthesis is in desperate need in all aspects of life and calls for extreme radical views on both sides to be tempered by moderate moderators.

So I applaud the director in giving us a fresh, largely positive look at a radical figure of our past. It is blatantly provocative about our current political and cultural crises but not overly so and is mainly contemplative. The sad confession that Thompson's first wife utters at film's end that the problems of today need an on top of his game Thompson to help us through is as tragic as it is true.