Review of Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (2008) by Jake G — 25 Jun 2008

A massive crowd turned out to see the free screening tonight in san francisco, more people than available seats in fact. the people running the screening did what they could to accommodate people who wanted to wait for a spot and managed to seat quite a few once the seats reserved for no-show reviewers were forfeited.

The film is a documentary and has an R rating. my friend wondered how a documentary could earn an R rating and having seen the film I still can't really say why. during the section of the film about the year that thompson spent writing about the Hells Angels there is an account of a gang-bang at a wild party. the film uses recreations of event and depicts what thompson wrote, that he could hear what was going on and see silhouettes of the the woman (apparently the ex-mrs. ken keasey) and the bikers taking turns on her. if that warrants an R then this country is more messed-up than i'd believed.

I liked the film. I would recommend it to people who have interest in hunter thompson. at two hours it felt more suited to cable tv than theatrical presentation. at a certain point the film seemed more about edmund muskey or george mcgovern than hunter thompson.

What else? waiting in line there was these obnoxious punk people. the punk guy got into the line but his punk girlfriend didn't. she was busy spare-changing the entire line and missed getting a ticket for herself. about 15 minutes into the film a group walked out. in the dark I thought the woman sounded like someone's grandmother griping "i don't like this movie at all". on the bus ride home my friend told me that it was those punk people who had walked out.