Did Dubya kill
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson?
-Hunter would say so.


"Mista Kurtz, he dead."

Who has time for movies anymore? I certainly don't but I try. My Netflix subscription is back and no doubt the hubby will cancel me before long. That's because I have all these aspirations when it comes to movies. Those are generally built on what I am told to view by the entertainment industry and after I imbibe a few of those I am so disappointed that I end up ordering movies and leaving them on the coffee table to serve as drink coasters.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson isn't going to make it into your local theater, I guarantee you that.

But it should. Gonzo is a documentary about the life of the last journalist America ever produced. The movie which is a blend of real life clips and dramatizations starring Johnny Depp (in clips from the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas directed by Terry Gilliam) as Dr. Thompson (was he really a Dr.?) is a tour de force of the Love Generation as it foreshadows the death of the American Dream.

It is Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in Apocolypse Now. It is T.S. Eliot when he writes in Requiem:

For thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but with a whimper.

It starts out pretty slow and for those who are unfamiliar with Dr. Thompson's career...they will abandon the flick right away. For some of us however, we are willing to put up with the horrible first few lengths out of the gate. And they are, horrible, absolutely.

Once this movie gets going however, you will not be disappointed.

It is one of the most tender, hilarious and mind expanding ETHICAL experiences I've ever had in front of a screen. By the time Dr. Thompson's double-thumbed gravestone is lifted after his much contemplated suicide early in the Bush administration....complete with fireworks and an all star cast at the wake....you'll want to meet the man in Paradise but you suspect it would be in Hell. You have to let the man go and hope for the best.