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<< Previous   of   Next >> Magnolia Pictures photo  (click to enlarge) Hunter S. Thompson is shown in a promotional photo from the film, "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson."   ADVERTISEMENT   "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" (3 stars) Tribute: Documentary portrait of the drug-fueled creator of gonzo journalism, with much attention paid to Thompson's greatest projects, such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." His friends and family pay lavish tribute, without ignoring the man's many faults, and Johnny Depp reads the prose. Rated: R rating is for language, nudity, subject matter Now showing: Harvard Exit   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, July 4, 2008 'Gonzo': The crazy life of Hunter S. Thompson "Gonzo" tells the gonzo journalist's story with affection, but doesn't ignore his many faults. By Robert Horton Herald Movie Critic Hunter S. Thompson has already had more fictional incarnations than most journalists could ever imagine, but a new documentary gives the nonfiction version. "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" is an entertaining trip through the wild man's existence. Played by Johnny Depp in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and Bill Murray in "Where the Buffalo Roam," Thompson himself had a weirdly hypnotic quality that comes through in the copious footage here. Hunter S. Thompson invented "gonzo" journalism, a berserk form of expression that resulted in some inspired writing of his own and much lousy imitation from others. A gun lover, he killed himself at his compound outside Aspen, Colo., in 2005, his writing powers having waned in previous years. The movie obviously has the cooperation of family and friends, and although it acknowledges Thompson's less attractive qualities, it's mostly a celebration of his impertinent life. A great deal of coverage is given to his greatest journalistic projects: a 1965 book on the Hell's Angels, his epochal "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," and his coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign for Rolling Stone. The campaign, which allowed Thompson to cheerlead for South Dakota Sen. George McGovern, inspired some of his most corrosive work. His madcap insinuations about Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie (including the cheerfully false assertion that Muskie was ingesting an African hallucinogenic) and his vitriolic descriptions of Richard Nixon made the project a memorably aggressive piece of writing. Thompson's own political career, a run for sheriff of Aspen, is also recounted. His belief that he might actually win points up his essentially romantic nature, despite the guise of a cynic. He was a sentimentalist at heart, and his mourning the lost causes of the 1960s was something that probably limited his later writing. His rampant drug and alcohol use probably killed a few brain cells, too. But however unpleasant he could be, he was clearly loved by many; among the more recognizable faces here are Depp, Jimmy Buffett, and politicos such as Pat Buchanan and Jimmy Carter. Director Alex Gibney, who won an Oscar for "Taxi to the Dark Side," could undoubtedly have exposed more warts. But he's included enough of Thompson's jet-fueled prose to let you decide whether you want to ingest more of these dizzying writings.

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