Good point, Joel. That debated can start and end with the surprise that was Young@Heart, but I’d say both BiggerStronger and American Teen rose way above what I expected as well. On paper, those three seem, in a word, boring.

Well we’re not too far apart, Craig. Documentaries can rarely be considered “bad” or outright wastes of time, and wouldn’t describe Gonzo as either. As a matter of fact, in a lesser documentary year this might have looked better (even though that really shouldn’t matter). The bar has been set high this year, though. Any way you slice it, I’m glad the documentary field isn’t getting watered down yet with really meaningless stuff.

In other news, Man on Wire is apparently on the way here in the next few weeks…

A great review of a documentary, Craig. Though we differ on our appreciation of Thompson, I want to believe it’s not the reason I was more critical of the film.

I fall in line right behind Sam and Joel on this one. They’ve said as much as I did.

Of course, the drugs and drinking didn’t hurt either, but I got the impression that the response to his Hell’s Angel book opened him to a more deliberate, less parochial style of journalism. Steadman opened him artistically to using journalism more directly as social commentary, since I have a feeling both were feeding each other’s work in very collaborative ways.

Yet, in Thompson’s case, I still feel it might have enlightened us to covered at least a portion of the early years, as this is one juncture we have precious little info on, even at the danger of a bogus subtext. I liked the McGovern interviews, but felt that too large a portion of the film was expended on the 1972 election, even if, as you rightly contend, they defined the man.

This was surely a well-crafted film in many ways, but I felt it was incomplete from a motivational standpoint. I respect your beautifully stated views and the majority favorable concensus, but I lament at not liking it more myself.

Too often these things parse a person’s early life to come up with a bogus hook they can hang their later lives on. I think this is too simplistic.

In this case, he seized upon the incident where he went to jail and did time where his rich friends got away with it, but he didn’t dwell on the moment.

I think it was more about, not what made him a genius, but how that genius led to his ultimate demise and I’m not sure anything in his early life would necessarily illuminate that.

What I came away with was a sense of the continual peaks and valleys he went through. For such a venomous writer, I think he was an optimist at heart. Time and again he was a part of a moment in history that seemed to offer all the promise of the future, only to have it fall back into failure. Whether it was the 68 Democratic convention, one year after the Summer of Love, or his failed bid for Sherriff when he actually thought he had a chance, or the McGovern fiasco.

These are the things that ate at him I think. As Joel said,when Bush won a second time, I think it was the final bitter failure and the death of hope for him. If you read his writings up to the election, particularly in 03 and the early part of 04, he’s looking at Bush’s dismal ratings and he really believes, like many of us, that the bums were really going to be thrown out office, but then it turned out to be ‘72 all over again and the crooks won.

I would like to watch “Gonzo” again after I have read some of his work, get more familiar with him, and see what I think of the film after that. I only expect my feelings towards it to get stronger, I already loved it and I doubt knowing more about the genius could do me any harm.

I’m sure living the nightmare twice was likely incredibly frustrating for him. His 9/11 essay that opens the movie is incredibly prophetic.

I’d agree that Gibney fails to dig too deeply into Thompson, but he does concoct an enticing and intoxicating portrait of the man and alternately, the myth.

I didn’t mind the selection of music, it all seemed perfectly reasonable, I just got tired of the constant jump from one slice of Americana music to another. It seemed there wasn’t 10 seconds of the doc that didn’t have some memorable tune from the era running behind it.

Otherwise, good doc.

Perhaps too I’m just feeling gloomy about the state of the world lately.

With that said, this is a great piece, Craig, and Thompson is nothing if not fascinating. Agree or no, I’d gladly sit down to learn more about the drug-fueled beatnik legend. And the readings by Depp do sound like, as you said, a ’secret weapon.’