Gonzo is an excellent reminder that Thompson was more than just a wild man. He was, at least for a time, a first-rate writer who covered his times and helped shape them.
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10/30/08
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Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (2008)
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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:19
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: While not the comprehensive profile of the man that his die-hard fans might have hoped for, Gonzo remains an insightful introduction to the life of rebellious writer Hunter S. Thompson and his influences.
Theatrical Release:Jul 2, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $1,031,095
Synopsis: Few journalists have attained the notoriety of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. His legendary status is due as much to his scintillating writing as his outrageous antics. He became a living legend whose... [More]
Starring: Gary Hart, George McGovern, Jann Wenner, Jimmy Buffett
Director: Alex Gibney
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Reviews for Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Top CriticToo much time in this overly long film is spent on minutiae.
10/18/08
Top CriticThough Thompson's long slide into irrelevance in the 80s and 90s is duly noted, most of the movie covers his glory days during the Vietnam era, when he was arguably the most exciting and important literary talent in America.
08/08/08
Top Critic[Director] Gibney assembles a wealth of Thompson memorabilia and first-person interviews for this often insightful and sometimes overly indulgent chronicle.
07/18/08
Top CriticAn amused and affectionate look at the writer who formed a crucial link between the New Journalism of the 1960s and today's blogosphere.
07/18/08
Top CriticAt its worst, the film takes a long detour into Thompson's admiration for an utterly banal 1974 Carter speech (The Powerful were sticking it to The People again) as a way to make us feel virtuous, political and leftish.
07/16/08
Top CriticNeatly balancing full-hearted celebration with evenhanded examination.
07/11/08
Top CriticGonzo shows the man, warts and all.
07/11/08
Top CriticGonzo is a fascinating history lesson and a bit of a cautionary tale about how fame can turn into the scourge of talent.
07/04/08
Top CriticIt is all you could wish for in a doc about the man. But it leaves you wondering, how was it that so many people liked this man who does not seem to have liked himself? And what about the hangovers?
07/04/08
Top CriticGibney also wants to honor what it was that made Thompson a celebrity in the first place: his brilliant, blotto writing, and his ability to smell out the liars and the hypocrites and expose them for the feral beasts that they were.
07/04/08
Top CriticThe documentary doubles as a jukebox of banality.
07/03/08
Top CriticIt's a fond warts-and-all portrait of a writer who stands alongside Jack Kerouac and Walt Whitman as an American original.
07/03/08
Top CriticAccessible, entertaining and hugely kinetic, packed with memorable songs from Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and many more icons of Thompson's era.
07/03/08
Top CriticGonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is a mesmerizing look at the mythic quality and anarchic spirit of the irreverent and rabble-rousing journalist.
07/03/08
Top CriticGonzo, the documentary by Alex Gibney, taps the full fascination of its subject: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.
07/03/08
Top CriticGonzo is a must-see for everyone.
07/02/08
Top CriticThe good doctor is family around these parts, so cheers to Alex Gibney for not screwing up this mesmerizing documentary about the people, places and substances that altered the mind and battered heart of the Kentucky-born inventor of gonzo journalism.
06/25/08
Top CriticA tender, even-tempered elegy to a writer who at his peak could ingest staggering (literally) amounts of drugs and alcohol and transform, like Popeye after a can of spinach, into a superhuman version of himself.
06/23/08
Top CriticHunter S. Thompson gets definitive docu treatment in Gonzo.
02/12/08
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