Well, I guess this is what I get for not frequenting The Great Thompson Hunt more often...I missed the boat on the upcoming documentary, Gonzo, about Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.The New York Times reviewed it yesterday and I will have to get up to the Cedar Lee to check it out sometime after it opens here in the rust belt next week.
Just going on the review, it seems that the documentary might fall prey to the trajectory that the Good Doctor's career did...his public image later carried him much more than his earlier literary genius did. In his last 15 years or so, Thompson's writing, in my opinion really fell off and he had to rely on the (partially-fabricated) persona of a drugging, hard-drinking mountain man, rather than the astute observer of American life who many of us fell in love with.
It's a real shame, too. Fear and Loathing On the Campaign Trail '72 is one of my favorite books of all time. If you can cut through some of his fantastic side stories, it's really the most compelling campaign narrative I've ever read. To pull a McGovern staffer's quote from the review article, it was "the least factual, most accurate account" of the election.
All this said, I'll be sure to check it out. My only hope is that they don't waste time with hanger-on John Cusack, who seems to get his mug in every Thomson post-mortem I come across.
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