Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film

I just viewed this film OnDemand. A weird and perilous 73 minute jaunt through several highlights of HST's life. While not as detailed as other treatments of the subject matter, this film makes up for its lack of depth by a sweeping breadth of scope, and is more pleasing to the middle-of-the-road HST enthusiast, with less drug use, less profanity, less crotchety-ness, more Hollywood types commenting, more clips from Where the Buffalo Roam and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and overall, a more human treatment of the man behind the myth that HST has become.

In this treatment, we see more of the Owl Creek Ranch, more of HST's first and second wives commenting, and more of Hunter at home than in previous films. Hunter appears to be more relaxed at home than anywhere else he has been interviewed. I particularly liked the airing of a couple of messages that HST left on answering machines... these give the viewer a feel for the real person and not so much the persona.

The film also gives reasonable closure for HST's exit from humanity... taking the Hemingway option in view of his increasing physical disability and age-related deterioration. HST was always in charge of his own freedom, and this chosen end was one more celebration of his freedom to do exactly what he wanted, when he wanted it. Thanks for a good film. I'll watch it again when I need my next Gonzo-fix.

I found the movie disappointing on an informational basis, but it is better at conveying the social context in which Hunter S. Thompson lived. Upon reflection the movie's faults shine even brighter. During the movie you do "take a ride" but the movie is too much like a love letter than a biography or even a deep look. The movie's fault is that it really doesn't take you anywhere, it just kind of informs you of what his "friends" thought of him. Not for the uninitiated Hunter S. Thompson lovers.

Achieves a moment of affection for the mystic Hunter S. Thompson, but only a moment. 7/10

One of the few times I've ever teared up after hearing of a well-known public figure passing in my lifetime, aside from Kubrick, was Hunter S. Thompson; equally I had a real gasp when I saw how he died. After seeing the documentary, I can see the point of view of his own reasons for it (he always said that he wouldn't know what to do if he couldn't commit suicide anytime he wanted, however much that's true I don't know), but it's still saddening. So seeing a documentary on the man and his legacy, as a fan, was a must for me. But also as a fan, having read a good handful of his books and seeing the films, there wasn't too much presented that really shown any new light about the man (I could already tell from his writing that there was the other side to his 'Gonzo' persona, of being a Southern-style gentleman and very brilliant thinker). It's a wonderful, if all-too-short, compilation of interviews and clips of interviews with the man himself, along with scenes from Where the Buffalo Roam and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. Among the few things that did interest me was hearing about his early life, how he started drinking when he was 10/11 years old, got into major juvenile crimes as a teen, and started to write by basically copying word for word the books of Fitzgerald and Hemingway. I also thought it was interesting to see from the testimonies of actors and friends talk about how he sometimes had to balance out his own self-created anarchic public persona without it seeming too overboard, a caricature.

Here was a man who basically needed chaos and disorder in his life, who pushed excesses of not just drugs and alcohol and crazy s*** with guns, but also food and manic antics in hotels and on the road (always on the move, his widowed wife says). So seeing some of that talked about is interesting and sometimes even funny; I loved seeing the leftovers of phone calls he had with people, and the voice messages left for compadres like Ralph Steadman, and seeing how Thompson dictated in his will to go out, via cannon-shooting-ashes, is really touching in how it links to his persona. But throughout the grungy Nick Nolte narration of the simplistic, adoration type lines, and the typical notes on all of the actors and famous authors and childhood friends and ex-lawyers, it all kind of pecks at me at not being the kind of real tribute a guy like this should get. One of the moments where the doc does have a spark of 'what the hell' is when we first see Gary Busey, who almost directs the director of the film to how he should enter into being questioned about his one part in Fear & Loathing. Still, there's too much for fans I would want to say to look for to not say to see it, and for those who don't know much about the man's work (though maybe know his persona, as 'gonzo journalism' and the name Thompson are close to household words if you're into literature or the subversive) it's really worth stopping your remote on it if it pops up on TV. Where else will one find footage of Harry Dean Stanton, in emotional tribute, performing 'Danny Boy'?

Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride (2006)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Tom Thurman directs this documentary of Hunter S. Thompson who everyone will have a different opinion on. I watched this hoping to learn a little about the man and I did learn something but it was very little. It seems the director was more interested in hearing various stories about the man instead of trying to find out why he was the way he was. Ed Bradley, Gary Busey, John Cusack, Benicio Del Toro, Johnny Depp, Leonard Maltin, Bill Murray, Harry Dean Stanton and Sean Penn are all interviewed and Nick Nolte narrates.

How you can make something this sad, this boring, this tedious and meaningless out of the life of one of the greatest writers and journalists of the 20th century is just beyond me.

It's just a string of interviews with past friends that come across as whiny "now he is dad" kind of eulogy stuff.

The facts are kind of interesting, but if I want to read facts, I can look them up on wikipedia.

This is not entertaining.

This is not interesting.

This is not Gonzo.

THIS IS NOT WHAT HUNTER WOULD HAVE WANTED!