Category Archives: Hunter S. Thompson

Movie Review: The Rum Diary

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Before Hunter S. Thompson wreaked havoc at every hotel in Las Vegas in between mescaline trips, he downed shots of rum and turned over hotel mini bars in San Juan.

The novel of “The Rum Diary,” written by Thompson in the late 1950s but not published until 1998, remains one of the defining works of the father of Gonzo Journalism. The film adaptation of “Fear and Loathing,” while a failure upon initial release, is a cult classic. The film adaptation of “The Rum Diary,” written and directed by Bruce Robinson, may have trouble reaching this legendary status. “The Rum Diary” is a nice tribute to the brilliant rebel author, but it fails to capture the obsessive, detailed beauty of his writing.

Johnny Depp once again plays the role of Thompson, this time under the pseudonym of Paul Kemp. Kemp, an alcoholic American expatriate from New York, flees to Puerto Rico where he finds a job as a writer for a failing newspaper.

“The Rum Diary” is, in a sense, the story of how Thompson became a great journalist. At the beginning, he can’t find his voice as a writer. By the end, he realizes he must use his voice to fight against the injustices he finds. The movie only gets halfway into fully developing this point. If you want to see a truly great portrayal of the impact of Thompson’s writing, watch “Gonzo” instead.

Another part of the movie involves Kemp’s encounter with Sanderson (Aaron Echkhart), a rich American businessman living in Puerto Rico with his beautiful lover Chenault (Amber Heard), the continual source of Kemp’s affection. Sanderson’s plan to develop a resort on beachfront property feels less like a fully developed representation of Thompson’s first battle against the “bastards” of capitalism, and more like the plot of an 80s comedy.

Since stumbling upon the original manuscript of “The Rum Diary,” Depp has always been fascinated with Thompson, and turning this book into a movie has always been a passion project for him. In his performance, Depp captures the essence of Thompson through his mumbled voice, which is always moving faster than anyone can speak, and despite almost always being drunk or under the influence of a strange drug introduced to him, his always cognizant demeanor.

Meanwhile, Giovanni Ribisi steals every scene he’s in as as the disgruntled and out-of-his-mind Moburg. His lightning-fast intensity and hilarious characterization should earn him better roles in the future. As Lotternman, Richard Jenkins’s fiery way of speaking deserved more screen time. Sanderson’s intended cartoonish persona and two-dimensional nature makes it difficult for Eckhart to do much with the character. While Heard has the entrancing look of Chenault, her performance comes off as more dull than enticing.

While “The Rum Diary” is about Thompson’s quest to find his voice, the film lacks that voice completely and ends up being a squeaky-clean, Hollywood version of “The Rum Diary.” While the film is entertaining, it lacks both Thompson’s insight and indignation. The greatest absence from the film is of the novel’s haunting final lines, which embody Thompson’s early quest to be F. Scott Fitzgerald in his writing style. These words could have been said in a final voiceover, or perhaps represented by one image. Instead, it resorts to a tidy epilogue, as opposed to exploring the more indefinite freedom of the original story.

And in this lays the movie’s biggest problem: capturing the mood and feeling. Thompson’s style of journalism is driven by individual feelings rather than objectivity. In “Fear and Loathing,” the bright lights and ringing slot machines of Vegas are just a cover for the emptiness of the American Dream. In “The Rum Diary,” tropical paradise is nothing but a false romanticism to conceal the pervasive lies of those in power. The film makes Puerto Rico look exciting and pretty, but it never connects the dots.

When “Fear and Loathing” replicated the book’s famed “wave speech” on screen, it did exactly what Thompson intended: it stripped away the layers of beast and made himself look totally human, just for a moment, while simultaneously justifying a countercultural generation. There is a scene in this film similar in message, and only slightly as successful in adaptation. I don’t mean to continually compare these two stories, as they were written at two very different times in Thompson’s life, but when you strip away the layers of “The Rum Diary” that Depp and Robinson attempt to recreate, there is nothing but a hollow center.

Movie Review: Gonzo

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“Football season’s over. No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won’t hurt.”

-Hunter S. Thompson’s Suicide Note
Has there ever been a voice as confused yet clear; bizarre yet brilliant; as relevant as the voice of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson? No, there hasn’t been. I may seem biased because Hunter S. Thompson is one of my idols, but you don’t even have to know the name of Hunter S. Thompson to know that “Gonzo” is one of the best documentaries made in a long while. However, if you do know his name, it would definitely help.
The name Gonzo was the name of the form of journalism Thompson invented. It was a form of journalism in which the writer literally threw himself into the middle of the action they were covering and the events happening around the event they were supposed to be covering often became more important than the actual event.
“Gonzo” traces back to the humble beginnings of Thompson’s radicalism, finding it at the 1968 Democratic Convention, where Thompson’s main focus became the rioters outside rather than the speech of Hubert Humphrey inside.
The movie is not so much a chronicle of Thompson’s entire life. It briefly touches on Thompson’s childhood in Louisville, but only uses it reveal his persona as a true outsider. The rest of “Gonzo” chronicles the rise, fall, and legacy of Thompson. It shows how this one man changed how we view writing, journalism, and the American Dream forever.
“Gonzo” achieves this through interviews with people who knew Thompson all too well, and those who knew him so little, yet could never get enough of him. Director Alex Gibney uses archival footage amazingly, revealing footage of Thompson the world might not have seen otherwise. There’s footage of Thompson doing drugs, being interviewed, and even swimming with dolphins. It is footage that goes beyond the usual insanity that shrouds Thompson’s image and shows that he was above all, just a normal guy. He might’ve been normal, but he was still nothing short of ordinary.
The film is not all archival footage, it often contains readings of Thompson’s brilliant writing. Those writings are read out by Johnny Depp, who so flawlessly portrayed Thompson in the film adaptation of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” The film often contains some reenactments of past events, which are almost as well handled as anything Errol Morris did in “The Thin Blue Line.”
The film, at times, doesn’t feel like a documentary. It often lets Thompson speak for himself. We get to listen to Thompson chronicle every major event of the last 40 years from Watergate to 9/11. Through these events (and Thompson’s opinions on them), the film forms a kind of chronology, and Thompson’s words guide the course of film. There honestly could not have been a better way to bring such meaning to his writing.
If Thompson were still alive today, he would be proud of “Gonzo.” He would be proud that it is not just a film about him but for him. It portrays Nixon as a villain and displays a soundtrack full of Bob Dylan. If Thompson made a film about himself, this is surely what it would be like.
“Gonzo” is about a man who had a passion for sex, guns, and drugs, yet wasn’t a bad man. It’s about a man who was an outsider, yet shaped the political discourse of the last half of the 20th century. The best documentaries look past the flaws of the people they portray, and show what they did to truly impact the world. As the film ends with Thompson’s ashes being shot out of a cannon, he was not just being shot into the sky, but into eternity; into the realms of immortality.