Breakfast with Hunter (2003)

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.

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.

Not as insightful as I thought it was going to be. It pretty much covered Hunter S. Thompson's life from 1996-1997. There were a few flashbacks but they weren't very long. I think his race for Sheriff of Aspen should have been covered more. I'm not saying I hated it, but at times it dragged while HST gave meaningless mumbles of insight. At times he p***ed me off (when he wouldn't sign autographs at the book signing and his argument with Alex Cox), but at other times made me laugh and cheer for the outlaw. He's probably my favorite American author but he is sure one hell of an asshole. I guess it's a Kentucky thing lol. I was let down by the fact that it didn't give the viewer what the lifestyle and point of HST is. For that, I suggest reading Kingdom of Fear, which I consider the best piece of reading material I've read in a while. And as mentioned above, his argument with Alex Cox and Tod Davies about putting cartoons in the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas movie was sometimes unbearable but other times just flat out funny. I like Alex Cox and all, but I sort of agree with Hunter. It was his material and he didn't want it interpreted as a cartoon! Maybe Terry Gilliam was for the better. All in all an average documentary, but did have a noteworthy soundtrack (all songs have been mentioned by Hunter sometime or another) that included "Spirit in the Sky", "American Pie", "The Weight", "Mr. Tambourine Man", and many other. But where was "Sympathy for the Devil?" Worth checking out if you're a fan of HST's work. I don't if it was worth the $29.95, but still a good addition to my HST collection.

Hunter S. Thompson is a cultural icon, this isn't news. What is, is a real inside view into his life in this film. The documentary is a collage of Hunter and some of his antics as filmed by friend and neighbor Wayne Ewing over the past twenty years. A rare look into life at his "fortified compound" and the tribulations of making "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" into a movie are just some of what makes this film an absolute must for any fan of The Good Doctor. This is real life Gonzo, from The Legend himself, the writer who changed American Journalism and the way we read it.