NEW YORK: When Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney began filming the story of drug-addled US journalist Hunter S. Thompson at the late author’s funeral, he says it was one of his “greatest failures” in making the documentary.
“Nobody wanted to talk, so we just sat there with a camera crew ordering room service, it was pathetic,” said Gibney, recalling the estimated $2 million funeral in 2005 funded by actor Johnny Depp and attended by other celebrity friends such as actor Bill Murray.
“They felt this is Hunter, he is very personal to us,” he said. “And they did not know me and thought, who is this guy?” But with the eventual help of Depp and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter to gain access to Thompson’s records, Gibney finished “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S. Thompson” that was released in the United States on Friday.
Thompson, famed for developing a first-person narrative “Gonzo” style of journalism that borrowed fictional techniques, as well as for frequently using hallucinogenic drugs, pills and alcohol, shot himself at the age of 67 at his Colorado home.
Early reviews have praised the film, which focuses more on Thompson’s writings and impact on modern journalism.
POLITICAL IMPACT: The documentary examines Thompson’s works, including his early piece for The Nation magazine about the Hells Angels motorcycle club and his books “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72” – first serialised in Rolling Stone magazine.
Gibney uses interviews with colleagues and subjects including defeated presidential candidate George McGovern, who Thompson wrote about while covering the 1972 presidential race, as well as British illustrator and longtime collaborator Ralph Steadman.
“He (Thompson) found invasive ways to get at the truth, in ways that were more unpredictable,” said Gibney, 54, who won last year’s Academy Award for best documentary for his film “Taxi to the Dark Side”.
Gibney said he was not an obsessive Thompson fan. But in the 1970s he read “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, which he felt precisely portrayed his own counterculture experiences.
“What I didn’t see then was these larger grander themes about the character of America and the death of the American dream and all of that,” Gibney said.
Gibney’s documentary includes footage from previous Thompson films including
Bill Murray’s “Where the Buffalo Roam” and the 1998 film version of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” which starred Depp, who narrates Gibney’s film in a voice similar to Thompson’s.—Reuters
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