Hunter S. Thompson wasn’t your standard reporter. After having seen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I really wanted to know more about him. It was hard to believe that he actually experienced all that while he was in Las Vegas. He must have been an interesting personality.
When I found this documentary about him, I just had to see it.
The documentary is partly narrated by Johny Depp, who developed a personal relationship with Thompson after doing research for his movie role. There are a lot of people interviewed to create a thorough picture of Thompson as husband, father and colleague.
This results in a very fascinating documentary with a lot of crazy and curious story about Thompson. During the Mohamed Ali fight in Zaire he actually didn’t attend the fight because he decided to stay in the pool at the hotel while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. He sat in the car with Richard Nixon who was on his way to the airport, Thompson still relatively unknown, reporting the presidential elections. He also ran for sheriff and in his campaign he promised to legalize weed.
Thompson lived his life as he wanted, but also ended it the way he wanted as he decided to shoot himself. Even after his death he described exactly what kind of ceremony he wanted, which was his ashes being shot out of a cannon. This documentary shows that this was actually done.
After watching this documentary it becomes very clear that Hunter S. Thompson was an eccentric person. It gives a lot of information about his life and work and I recommend it if you want to know more about him. Personally I’m really interested in reading one of his books and will probably read the Rum Diaries (as this book will also has been turned into a movie)
Score: 9
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