Breakfast with Hunter

I'm a total junky for the guys writing, but I also really enjoy watching his antics and if possible see a bit of his real personality. There aren't too many legends around these days, and most have gone completely soft. Hunter to me is not as much of a put-on as some seem to suspect. He is obvious very intelligent and he takes writing seriously, exactly as it should be. People make a terrible mistake in assuming that he is some sort of comedy act, or even a outright liar. In all of his writing he dares people to have some imagination, and to not look at the world through a normal set of sense organs. His version of the truth works better for me than CNN ever will, and I have great pity for anyone who believes otherwise.

He has written of a distrust of movie-people, in particular the Hollywood bunch so it is pleasant to get a good couple of hours of him on film. I tend to agree that Hunter deserves a well executed movie, but there are some pretty obvious reasons why that may not be practical. No one wants a camera in their face all the time, HST least of all. It isn't accidental that an Aspen resident ended up compiling/recording this movie, because I get the impression that the only thing which would make him comfortable enough with the idea is chillin' with the locals.

The 1980 BBC documentary was alright. It covered a slightly different era, and some of their research was a little weak. Until breakfast came out however, it was certainly about as candid as I was able to find in one place.

It really was a collage of footage with very little keeping it focused. It didn't appear to be as a result of a deliberate editing technique but more just having to work within the available footage and whatever Hunter was going to allow to be used. There is little bad to say about it from a freaks point of view.

I have enormous respect for him.

I'm still waiting for some more books, do you hear that Hunter!? Forget ESPN.com, write another novel. I hear Afganhi hash is pretty cheap these days.

Wayne Ewing's cinema verité portrait of the Doctor of Gonzo Journalism is a keyhole to the everyday life of Hunter S. Thompson. Through years of edited film without any narration or interview from Ewing, this everyday life given to the viewer comes as a bit of a surprise. It is uncommon yet somehow natural. The Thompson I might have predicted is shown throwing a Chivas Regal bottle, spraying people with a fire extinguisher, manhandling blow-up sex dolls, shooting high-powered revolvers, etc. What I didn't expect is the warm interaction between Thompson and his friends. He embraces what might be considered the basket of a flip-flopped American Dream – Hollywood – in his friendships with John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro and Terry Gilliam (not, however, Alex Cox). This juxtaposition reveals a prevalent theme in Breakfast, and perhaps in Hunter himself.

Thompson suggested in the film a rationale for his rambunctious lifestyle when he said he was 'making literature out of what would otherwise be considered craziness.' This is the crux of the film, and the motivation for Hunter. Though he may be essentially crazy, some of the craziness he exudes is forced. For Thompson, it works. With drugs, alcohol, violence, etc. he causes excitement from what would otherwise just be boring. He creates a palette for which to convey his message. He did this in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas through his (Raoul Duke) and his attorney's excessive abuse of drugs to help show the degradation of the American Dream.

But can this explain the wild-side Thompson portrayed in Ewing's film? Is their some focused ambition behind spraying Jan Wenner with a fire extinguisher? – or soaking Depp, Del Toro and himself in alcohol by sending an opened bottle of scotch freely whirling into the air? Maybe, maybe not. He takes control of any situation with such a crazy gesture, but if it's for some greater good, I don't know. Perhaps Thompson is so high on his own adrenaline that his antics are now focused on sole personal amusement. I like to think this is the case when he laughs off throwing a blow-up sex doll in front of a moving car, or when he mischievously notices an unaccompanied fire extinguisher in a hallway.

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One personal note: something I felt missing from Ewing's portrait was Thompson's intended funeral. A massively-constructed Gonzo fist rifling a bullet containing his remains to explode above the Owl Farm mountains and then cover them like a blanket of rouge on a wrinkled America in such a way that would dwarf the resurrection of Jesus Christ seems to me to say something personal about Hunter S. Thompson.

I am posting the following as a challenge to the "most useful" comment, which states that this film should be reserved for Doc's "die-hard fans".

Firstly, I find the idea of excluding this rare bit of succulent meat in a world of dry bones and paper napkins is blasphemy in the truest sense against all Hunter S. Thompson stood for. True, a die-hard fan will rejoice in letting the juices run down their chin, but truer, damned be the man who proclaims to be holier than thou! If this film seems scattered, frantic, and mindlessly compiled, let it be because the man who it rejoices wanted it so. It is a perfect embodiment of what we can only imagine his hectic mind must have been like inside. Bits and Pieces of a so far gone world and life and place he could not find, and understood those with half a brain could not ourselves.

I don't believe that Thompson had any illusions of grandeur and perhaps thought a fool any man who had them in his favor. He knew what he meant to the people he meant it to, and wanted nothing more than to be respected and understood to be the great writer he was by any outsider. This man is a damn good writer. period. Do not be shamed away if you are unexposed. It's here for everyone.

This film embraces the character the man was. It allows others to embrace it, and maybe open the door to their awareness of a renegade, gonzo journalist. It takes you from his home life, to ridiculous nightlife, enraged attacks by the Doc on misunderstanding and oblivious Hollywood types, and hilarious pranks on those he knows the best.

The door opened here, is smoky, loud, brass and uncouth. It leads to a world we don't like to look at but exists. It's your world, seen through the eyes of an old burned out man, who saw and did and lived things you can only imagine.

Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride. You'll be glad you did.

The documentary is a thinly veiled attempt to "break into" the life of the famed Gonzo fiend and shed light on his inner madness. Many funny scenes throughout the film, especially when Hunter is berating glib English director Alex Cox. The film itself comes across slightly amateur-esque in its editing and presentation, but is certainly a must-see for Hunter fans.

of the topics and the time span covered. It includes old bbc footage from the sheriff election from the early seventies to 1996. Hunter's mumbling is very clear for mumbles and it does not have that dark documentary look weh they shoot at night (most of the film) great DVD ad ons as well. Don johnson (another lucky neighbor of Owl Farm) reads along with pj o'roarke and some other sot and it is interesting to hear hunter's words with others voices. The insanity it tempered with a visible devotion to his work and it is too bad this was not filmed post 9-11 since i believe some of his best work has come about since. In the end it is the difinitve (to date) piece on the Good Doktor.