Shorter is Better?
This trailer for the currently-playing Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (HDNet/Magnolia) is so well-cut, smartly condensed and plugged into the Thompson essence that -- I need to say this carefully -- it's almost a better thing than the 120-minute doc it's selling. Almost, I say.
As I wrote last month, Alex Gibney's doc tells the full lopsided tale about a brilliant journalist who produced great stuff for maybe 11 or 12 years (mid '60s to mid '70s) and then wallowed around in drug-fueled lassitude for almost the next 30. Gonzo is a good film -- thorough, inventive, humorous -- but it drives you mad with a sadistic '60s soundtrack made up of songs that classic-rock stations have been torturing their listeners with for the last 30 or 35 years.
The trailer hits every basic point delivered in the film but without the music. Which makes it, in a way, better. At the very least, it gave me an idea of what Gibney's film might've been without having to be swamped with the sounds of Janis Joplin, Jesse Colin Young, et. al.
Sidenote: Time's Richard Schickel has written that Gonzo "seems to me a very sad story about an essentially minor figure. Thompson's was not a life to celebrate (and Gibney, to his credit, does not do so). But there is an implicit approval in this film that makes me uneasy. But then, irrationality always make me uneasy. All artists -- and nominally, Thompson was an artist -- need a touch of the lunatic about them. But only a touch. In the end they are obliged to produce. And they are obliged not to succumb to, or to excessively encourage, their own myths."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 6, 2008 at 8:23 AM
comment #1
Edward
says ...
I'm looking forward to seeing this. I've been a fan of Thompson's ever since I read his Hells Angeles book back in '66. He wrote some pretty good sports columns for espn.com not long before he killed himself.
Posted by Edward
at July 6, 2008 11:18 AM
comment #2
Nick Plowman
says ...
Saw "Gonzo" last month as well, and posted a glowing review of it, and I had never actually seen the trailer before.
I still cannot believe you found the music that annoying, it’s comically obsessive. I thought the soundtrack, while overstuffed, fit quite nicely. That's just me though.
Posted by Nick Plowman
at July 6, 2008 12:09 PM
comment #3
Craig Kennedy
says ...
Saw it this weekend and once again Wells siezes on minutia and misses the big picture. Do I ever need to hear these songs again? No, but they weren't enough to overpower Thompson's own words which filled the documentary and are really what it was all about.
Johnny Depp reads the beautiful and sad passage about the wave breaking and the high water mark and all you notice is the f'ing Youngbloods song?
Also, how can you make it sound like burning brightly for 11 or 12 years in a lifetime is some kind of a disappointment? How many people burn that brightly for even 11 or 12 minutes?
Posted by Craig Kennedy
at July 6, 2008 12:37 PM
comment #4
K. Bowen
says ...
Not to discount his talents too much, but are there many more over-celebrated figures than Hunter S. Thompson?
Posted by K. Bowen
at July 6, 2008 3:21 PM
comment #5
Craig Kennedy
says ...
In this era of vacant celebrity worship, I'd say yes, there are lots and few of them could be less deserving.
Posted by Craig Kennedy
at July 6, 2008 6:56 PM
comment #6
janee
says ...
Si vous etes interesses par le dossier, ou desirez en savoir plus, contactez-moi par mail, et je vous mettrai en contact.
Best regards,Jane, CEO of high availability storage
Posted by janee
at May 17, 2011 5:13 AM