All language subtitles for Gonzo - The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (2008)

...First down, Hunter's out at the
20-yard line and a big...

He'd known for a long time

That he was no longer a really good
writer.

He had spurts.

He lost that Gonzo edge.

I wonder what's happening to old
Hunter.

He's kind of losing it.

Creatively, he had written all his
great stuff.

He hadn't been really productive for
five or six years.

I think he just had run out of juice.

In Hunter's last years--

In order to really get the juices
stirred up in him--

In what we call quintessential
Hunter--

It took something like--

It had to almost a feel like a kick in
the groin.

"It was just after dawn in Woody Creek,
Colorado,

When the first plane hit the world
trade center

In New York City on tuesday morning.

And as usual I was writing about
sports,

But not for long.

Football suddenly seemed irrelevant

Compared to the scenes of destruction
and utter devastation

Coming out of New York on TV."

"The towers are gone now, reduced to
bloody rubble,

Along with all hopes for peace in our
time--

In the United States or any other
country."

"Make no mistake about it
We are at war now."

♪ "There must be some way out of here"
♪

♪ Said the joker to the thief... ♪

"It will be a religious war-- a sort of
christian jihad

Fueled by religious hatred

And led by merciless fanatics on both
sides--

Guerrilla warfare on a global scale

With no front lines and no identifiable
enemy."

♪ All along the watchtower ♪

♪ Princes kept the view ♪

♪ While all the women came and went...
♪

"We're gonna punish somebody for this
attack,

But just who or what will be blown to
smithereens is hard to say--

Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or
Iraq."

♪ Two riders were approaching ♪

♪ The wind began to howl. ♪

"This is going to be a very expensive
war,

And victory is not guaranteed for
anyone--

And certainly not for anyone as baffled
as George W Bush.

He will declare a national security
emergency

And clamp down hard on everybody, no
matter where they live or why.

Winston Churchill once said,

'The first casualty of war is always
the truth.'

The lid is on. Loose lips sink ships.

Don't say anything that might give aid
to the enemy."

A giant of the written word has died.

Hunter Thompson was a lot of
things--

A journalist, an author, a patriot,

A professional troublemaker,

A complex walking monument to
misbehavior

Who apparently took his own life with a
gun last night.

"It was always at night, like a
werewolf,

That I would take the thing out

For an honest run down the coast.

I would start in golden gate park,

Thinking only to run a few long curves
to clear my head."

"The momentary freedom of the park was
like the one unlucky drink

That shoves a wavering alcoholic off
the wagon.

But in a matter of minutes, I'd be out
at the beach

With the sound of the engine in my
ears,

The surf booming up on the sea wall

And a fine empty road stretching all
the way down to Santa Cruz.

There was no helmet on those nights,

No speed limit and no cooling it down
around the curves.

Then into second gear, forgetting the
cars

And letting the beast wind out-- 35,
45.

Then into third, not worried about
green or red signals

But only some other werewolf loony.

Now there is no sound except wind.

The needle leans down on 100,

And wind-burned eyeballs strain to see
down the centerline

No room at all for mistakes.

That's when the strange music starts."

♪ In the night ♪

♪ Though we're apart... ♪

"The edge-- there is no honest way to
explain it

Because the only people who really know
where it is

Are the ones who have gone over.

The others-- the living--

Are those who pushed their control as
far as they felt they could handle it,

And then pulled back, or slowed down.

But the edge... is still out there."

What is your name, please?

My name is Hunter Thompson.

My name is Hunter Thompson.

- My name is Hunter Thompson. -

I met Hunter in the '60s

A short time before he wrote the book
on us.

And he went on to become

Probably one of the greatest writers

That America will ever have.

Doesn't mean he isn't a jerk in my
eyes,

But he's a very good writer.

Hunter reminds me so much
of Mark Twain.

He was a reporter-- Twain started out
as a reporter--

With a wild imagination

And he's not trying to fool you.

You know immediately that he is
filtering reality

Through what Hunter called Gonzo.

Will the real Hunter Thompson please
stand up?

Will the real Hunter Thompson stand
up?

That was before I understood what all
that was going to mean.

Oops, are we marking?

Oh, no! god! help us, Jesus!

I know it. it's in my interest--

Maybe in the interest of greatest
good--

For me to smoke a joint and calm down.

He was not afraid to rock the boat,

To challenge the establishment

And express himself in unique and
radical, sometimes shocking, ways.

He described me as a half-crazed
Davy Crockett

Running around the parapets
of Nixon's Alamo.

We were all amused by him.

He was an interesting guy to be
around.

He asked you unexpected questions.

Most people were surprised that I walk
on two legs.

I think people think I'm... very
much--

Maybe a violent version of that comic
strip.

This is the last drawing I did of him
so far.

"My god! I musta missed-- it's hell
down here!!"

Ralph Steadhe's pushing the boundaries
as much as he could.

Life to him was the challenge.

He was gonna be dead at 30, anyway,

So now he was living on borrowed time.

"Dear Hunter, it is over a year

Since you set the scene for your
strangely planned suicide.

The messages that I have received from
you

Up to the Bush/Kerry election of 2004

Were infected by a dismal undertone.

'If Bush wins,' you said, 'the planet
is doomed.'

When you pulled the trigger on your
magnum .44,

My first reaction was to say, 'about
bloody time.

He's been threatening to do that for
years.'

You were never reasonable, and you
knew,

In spite of your wayward spirit,

You were not invincible.

Those who grew to be a threat to your
America

Continue to burgeon.

For you, it was victory or game over.

I just wanted you to hang around and
nail the beauty

Of that image of absolute evil.

But you leave us with a blueprint, old
sport.

Take it up with the gods.

Send word. Ralph."

I think he was important

In a literary way

And also in a political way.

And I think that his story is tragic.

He was loving.

He was generous.

On the other end of the spectrum,

The boy in the man

Was absolutely vicious.

God damn, you dumbass! reach under
there

- And get some goddamned medicine! -
over here?

To the right.

Hunter had two extremes in him

That he lived with constantly--

The generous, beautiful Hunter

And the scary, mean, cruel Hunter.

And he was aware of both.

I don't know if he was in control of
both all the time,

But he was certainly aware of both.

And they became present in his life

When he was very young-- both sides.

You've gotta go back to Louisville,
Kentucky,

To understand him. his father died when
he was young.

So you had a mother raising three boys

On a librarian salary.

He lived-- it wasn't even middle
class,

It was a lower- middle-class
existence.

His friends were the rich kids of
Louisville,

The ones that had all the privilege.

So he was on the other side of the
railroad tracks.

Yet, Hunter was very smart, naturally
intelligent,

And he always felt a bit like the
outsider.

He was a real hellion on vandalism.

The seminal experience was when he and
a group of buddies

Were partying and smoking cigarettes

And drinking beer. they were all
arrested.

The rich kids who knew the judges got
out.

Hunter never got to walk for
graduation.

He was in jail.

"I could see the moon hung high in the
sky

With a mocking grin on his face.

I seized the bars, and shrieked and
wailed

Like a soul who's lost in hell."

Essentially, inside...

Hunter was an agonized human being.

But he also felt

Like he had the potential

Of being a really great writer.

"The great Gatsby" is how Hunter
learned to write.

He would type "The Great Gatsby" over
and over again

Just to learn the music of Fitzgerald.

"The Great Gatsby" was filled with
anger

That the whole deal in American life
was rigged.

Hunter identified with Fitzgerald I'd
say more than any other writer.

The difference is Fitzgerald would look
in on the candy store window,

Look in on the storefronts of the
rich.

Hunter wanted to smash the windows.

Hunter was extremely seductive.

I was very attracted to Hunter.

His energy was just phenomenal.

He wrote every day.

He was getting paid $100 for an article
or something,

But we were very poor.

When I was pregnant with my son,

Hunter shot elk and I ate elk liver,

Milk and salad, period. That's all I
ate.

Here was a guy struggling.

He had his wife Sondi with him.

He was living on a freelancer,

Check to check, barely able to pay
rent.

So when he got the assignment

From Carey McWilliams of "the nation"

To write about this phenomenon-- Hell's
Angels--

It was a big deal.

"I, Hunter Thompson, am a writer.

Recently, I spent over a year living

In close contact with a notorious

California motorcycle gang which is the
basis

Of my new book, 'Hell's Angels.'"

- Signed "Hunter Thompson."

Uh, number two, approximately how many
members do the hell's angels have?

It varies. anywhere from--

I'd say 100 to 200.

Hunter infiltrated the story.

He considered himself a
photojournalist.

In his early applications for jobs,

He was always looking to be a
photographer.

"The sight of a photographer invariably
whips the angels

Into a kissing frenzy. This is a
guaranteed square-jolter,

And the angels are gleefully aware of
the reaction it gets.

'They can't stand it,' says Terry.

'It blows their minds every time--

Especially the tongue bit.'"

It is one of the bravura pieces of
reporting of all time.

He actually, as they say, ran with the
angels for--

He was embedded, you know?

He was embedded in the hell's angels
battalion.

"The menace is loose again.

The hell's angels, the 100-carat
headline,

Running fast and loud on the
early-morning freeway

Like Genghis Khan on an iron horse...

A monstrous steed with a fiery anus,

Flat out through the eye of a beer can
and up your daughter's leg

With no quarter asked and none given."

It was the beginning of Hunter

Developing his style.

It is not Gonzo, it's not surreal.

It is straight journalism, but it's
participatory.

"Weird as it seems, as this gang of
costumed hoodlums

Converged on Monterey that morning

They were on the verge of 'making it
big,'

As the showbiz people say,

And they would owe most of their
success to a curious rape mania

That rides on the shoulder of American
journalism

Like some jeering, masturbating raven.

Nothing grabs an editor's eye like a
good rape.

To them, the appearance of the hell's
angels

Must have seemed like a wonderful
publicity stunt."

Hell's angels accused of rape and
perversion,

Theft, narcotics and violence.

And the attorney general says,

"They will no longer be allowed to
threaten the lives,

The peace and security of honest
citizens.

Hell's angels are the biggest

Of the outlaw motorcycle clubs."

Oh, shit! I just can't do it.

"In a nation of frightened dullards

There's always a sorry shortage of
outlaws,

And those few who make the grade are
always welcome.

The hell's angels pose for television
cameramen

And answered questions on radio call-in
shows.

They were sought out by mystics and
poets,

Cheered on by student rebels

And invited to parties given by
liberals and intellectuals."

Number two, who is the author

That sort of leads the kind of LSD sect
out there

In Los-- San Francisco?

Ken Kesey.

Number two, the merry pranksters gave a
party

For the hell's angels-- were you
there?

- --That lasted two days? - yes.

We're going out on an outing-- on a
sunday outing.

Oh, this is lovely. you know, our
little family.

And so we ended up-- Hunter said,

"Oh, you know, something's happening
over--

Let's go just kind of check it out."

The big banners out there saying

"The merry pranksters welcome the
hell's angels."

I thought I was having a lot of fun.

Juan was in the car asleep. everybody
was on acid.

I wasn't. Hunter wasn't. He hadn't
taken acid yet.

And everybody is pretty happy and
dancing

And then watching this five-hour film

Or something Kesey had put together.

And when we left...

Hunter said, "did you know what was
happening in there?"

And I said, "what do you mean?"

And he said, "well, there was a
gangbang going on."

I'm watching it as I was about six feet
away.

See from the door, the lights were on,

There was a kind of a filmy curtain
over the door.

You could see shadows moving around on
the side. if you knew what was happening

You could interpret the movements of
all these shadowy figures

Behind this curtain-- silhouettes is
what they were.

You could see people getting down on
her, other people holding her legs,

And really...

Surrealistically horrifying.

The tape recorder for Hunter was
essential.

He always brought a tape recorder--

Like those famous-- now-- tapes of the
hell's angels party.

Those tapes became a big part of the
book "hell's angels,"

But he also loaned those tapes to Tom
Wolfe.

Wolfe used those tapes

And extracted things from them for "the
electric kool-aid acid test."

I had a hard time with the tape

About the rape scene at the hell's
angels party.

It was dynamite, from a reporting point
of view,

But the thing was, I knew who the key
figures in that were.

One was the ex-wife...

Of Neal Cassady.

And she quite willingly...

Invited the--

The entire corps

Of hell's angels to have a go at her.

It wasn't the Kesey people who were
doing the gangbang.

They were about love and happiness...

And togetherness and community...

And love and light. They were, the
angels weren't.

"It was about this time

That my long-standing rapport with the
angels began to deteriorate.

For nearly a year I had lived in a
world that seemed, at first,

Like something original.

It was obvious from the beginning

That the menace bore little resemblance
to its publicized image.

Later, as they attracted more and more
attention,

The mystique was stretched so thin

That it finally became transparent.

The honeymoon came to a jangled end on
october 16th,

When the hell's angels attacked a get
out of Vietnam demonstration

At the Oakland-Berkeley border."

The bike rider is Clifford Workman,

Treasurer of the hell's angels.

He's here to challenge his biographer,

A tense young literary journalist named
Hunter Thompson.

What did you think of the book?

Well, I'll tell you, Al

- And Hunter, everybody in this room,

That that book is 60% cheap trash.

This is what happened Junkie George
was beating his own lady.

Junkie George?

Junkie George's dog bit him, right?

- I didn't see-- - to me, this is a
personal affair.

If a guy wants to beat his wife and his
dog bites him,

That's between the three of them.

But there was somebody about 30' to my
left

Beating his wife to a pulp on the
rocks.

If he had been beating her that bad,
somebody would have stopped him.

Oh, no. don't-- don't-- you're kidding
me

And you're gonna kid everybody else.
nobody stopped him.

You know he beat his wife up. you just
said it, right?

You walked right up to him and you
said,

"Only a punk beats his wife and dog."

- You finish it-- - and he said,
"Hunter, you want some of this?"

And you said, "no." but you got it
anyways.

And when he hit you, three or four
others hit you too.

We let them beat him up for a minute,

Then we broke it up and told him to get
out of there.

He left and got in his car. well, uh--

He says that he went to the police
station

All bloodied-up and they threw him out,
which is Malarkey.

I mean, but it's part of his style of
writing.

"My face looked like it had been
jammed

Into the spokes of a speeding Harley,

And the only thing keeping me awake

Was the spastic pain of a broken rib.

It had been a bad trip--

Fast and wild in some moments, slow and
dirty in others,

But on balance it looked like a
bummer.

On my way back to San Francisco,

I tried to compose a fitting epitaph.

I wanted something original,

But there was no escaping the echo of
Mistah Kurtz's final words

From the 'heart of darkness':

'The horror! the horror!

Exterminate all the brutes!'"

Although "hell's angels" rocketed him

To name recognition and success,

He didn't see it himself as being the
successful book that he wanted.

It didn't sell enough for him,

Even though it made the best-seller
list.

He didn't make enough money off of it.
he felt ripped off by the publisher.

He got frustrated with that.

He had thought that it would be the
home run,

But what it did do, that book made him
realize

That there was a market in the freak
circus of the '60s.

And it became this thing going on out
in the bay area

And Hunter was deeply part of it.

He used to drive his BSA lightning
motorbike

And go to the Matrix and befriended
Jefferson Airplane.

He had a huge crush on Grace Slick.

♪ Oh! ♪

♪ Is it any wonder why I feel like ♪

♪ My whole life is through? ♪

♪ Yeah! ♪

♪ When I stop feeling how strong my
love is for you... ♪

The San Francisco bay area was a
hotbed

Of live rock 'n' roll stuff,

Drug culture, psychedelics, Kesey,

Politics, campus activism.

It was more on the edge culturally

Than any other place in the country.
there's more freedom there.

"Rolling Stone" began and merged all
those elements.

And we just thought there was a time
for a new kind of politics

And it would emerge out of the rock 'n'
roll consciousness

And that rock 'n' roll ethos and that
idea.

♪ Today I feel like pleasing you ♪

♪ More than before... ♪

The energy was just phenomenal.

It was like losing your identity

And being just kind of sucked...

Into whatever, you know?

Whatever-- whatever this was,

It was some kind of magical something
or other.

♪ ...All I want to do ♪

♪ To be loving you ♪

♪ It'll all be there when my dreams
come true... ♪

Hunter was a romantic. Hunter's
utopia,

Which he had experienced before I met
him,

Was San Francisco in the early '60s.

But there was always two great moral
pressures--

The war and civil rights.

♪ Today you'll make me say... ♪

There's bitterness and nastiness to
politics today,

But I don't sense the same anger and
rage

That we had in the 1960s--

Anti-war demonstrations, riots,

Disorders of racial conflict, the
generational conflict.

And Hunter was right in the middle of
that.

♪ ...Any more than all I am ♪

♪ Would be a lie... ♪

The last period where there was an
optimism

In Hunter about America were the
Kennedys,

With John Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy.

Hunter liked that they had such
hubris.

They could be good politicians but play
hard at midnight.

That meant a lot. those were his guys.

I want the politics of hope,

Because I think that we can do better
in this country.

And I don't think that we can say

That we are joyous or that we are
happy

If 590 Americans are killed in Vietnam
last week

And if we have rioting in our nation's
capital.

I think that we can do better.

♪ ...All for you. ♪

"The day after Robert Kennedy died

I received a notice from the local
railway express office

Saying my Walther P-38 automatic pistol
had arrived.

We shot it one afternoon, agreeing that
it had a very smooth action...

And then I sent it back.

Returning the P-38 solved nothing.

It only postponed the necessity

Of coming to grips with my gun
problem."

♪ Hey, Joe... ♪

♪ Where you goin' with that gun in your
hand? ♪

Hunter saw guns as one of the great
things in life.

He loved shooting them and firing them
whenever he could.

♪ Where you goin' with that gun in your
hand? ♪

When he's at Big Sur, he would go

Wild-boar, wild-pig hunting with a
submachine gun.

I had a bb gun when I was like seven,
probably.

Those are some of my best memories from
that time,

Because it was something we both
enjoyed doing,

But it was also because it was time

We were building our relationship

As a father and son, and not just as
kind of roommates.

The guns-- they weren't just for
amusement.

He liked the noise, the violence and
the destruction of it.

And he had that in his personal life
too.

We had a real violent streak.

The first time he took acid, Hunter
says,

"Sondi, get me the gun." I said, "I
can't get you the gun.

I'm terrified something is gonna happen
to Juan."

And-- and Hunter says,

"You get me that gun

Or I'm throwing this boot through the
window."

He throws the boot through the window.

"Had my brain turned into jelly from
too much acid?

What was I doing with all these guns?

My angst began to fester

As the gun-control argument raged
closer to home.

More and more people began telling each
other

That the gun was the ultimate cure for
what ails us...

The American way."

By 1968, Hunter takes on this idea

That he's gonna be able to write on the
death of the American Dream.

And Hunter thought that covering
politics--

'68 was gonna be the book.

"I went to Chicago as a journalist.

My candidate had been murdered in Los
Angeles

Two months earlier."

♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪

♪ Come on ♪

♪ Didn't I make you feel... ♪

Hunter was in Chicago right in the
midst of the gas

And the beatings and everything else.

And I think that that was a milestone
event

For Hunter that he never got over.

And he never forgave Humphrey who was
the candidate,

And he never forgave Muskie who was the
vice-presidential candidate

For supporting Mayor Daley and his
Chicago police.

♪ Take it, take another little piece of
my heart now, baby... ♪

"I witnessed at least 10 beatings in
Chicago

That were worse than anything I ever
saw the hell's angels do.

I left in a state of hysterical angst,

Convinced by what I had seen

That the American Dream was clubbing
itself to death."

♪ If it makes you feel good... ♪

There were only tears twice that I
remember ever in our 19 years together.

I remember one, when he came back from
the Democratic Convention.

And he was telling me the stories

About the people being beaten

And he-- you know, the tears just--

And that was very-- you know.

It was-- Hunter was a man that didn't
cry.

♪ And baby, deep down in your heart...
♪

And he cared so much. Hunter was a
patriot.

He knew the constitution, he cared
about it,

And then there he was in Chicago and
it's all being destroyed.

♪ Take it, take another little piece. ♪

I think Chicago inspired him to do--

To do more, to get more involved.

♪ Take another little piece of my heart ♪

- ♪ Now, darling, yeah yeah yeah ♪ - ♪
oh, have a... ♪

Right away, riots started-- Chicago,
'68 took place.

Then that was kind of a radicalizing,
galvanizing event.

We were already eschewing mainstream
nostalgia in politics

Saying, "look, the system is too
rigged. politics is...

Fine, but in some other venue."

I got a letter from Hunter out of the
blue,

Complimenting me on "Rolling Stone,"
how much he liked it.

So I wrote him back and said, "what are
you doing these days?

I'd love to have you in the magazine."

Then he mentioned he was running for
sheriff.

So I said, "how about that? sounds
great."

It's the kind of thing we would run
today,

You know, somebody running for sheriff
in Aspen, trying to take over the town.

Hunter Thompson is a moralist

Posing as an immoralist.

Nixon is an immoralist disguised as a
moralist.

This is James Salter.

There'll be thieves and auto wrecks in
Aspen whoever gets elected,

But Hunter represents something wholly
alien

To the other candidates for sheriff--

Ideas, and the sympathy

Towards the young, generous,
grass-oriented society,

Which is making the only serious
effort

To face the technological nightmare we
have created.

The only thing against him is

He is a visionary who wants to cure the
world.

First of all, he drove everybody
batshit nuts.

Hunter was my friend and neighbor,

The man who never paid his rent, broke
up my marriage

And taught my children to smoke dope.

Now Hunter was outrageous,

But there was such a sort of movement

That this guy may be crazy,

But better that than Whitmire.

The American sheriff's job was carved
out of the rugged west.

It was a desperately- needed position

Of few words, much action, and little
praise or glory.

Today the sheriff has reams of
responsibility.

But still-- as in the past-- the
number-one responsibility

Is to protect his people and enforce
their laws.

Vote for and elect

Carrol Whitmire for our sheriff.

I think a lot of places are beyond this
kind of politics.

We seemed to be running an experiment
that people were watching.

Hunter came to Aspen, he had moved into
our farm.

Hunter liked to talk politics.

I was just at that age of war protest--
1968.

I was becoming political...

And so Hunter and I had a lot in common
to talk about.

Aspen then was a magnet for
intellectuals

Who wanted to drop out.

And Hunter convinced us

That we didn't have much effect on what
happened

In Washington day to day

And what happened in Washington from
day to day didn't have much effect on us.

But what happened in Pitkin County had
a visceral,

Daily, hourly effect on the way we
lived here.

People didn't understand that Aspen was
a battleground.

Aspen was more of a Disneyland.

Hunter was a visionary. He understood
more about land use

And development than any of us did.

Nobody at the time was standing up to
the bulldozers.

"Tentative platform, Thompson for
sheriff,

Aspen, Colorado, 1970:

1-- rip up all city streets with
jackhammers

And sod the streets at once.

2-- change the name 'Aspen' to 'fat
city.'

This would prevent greedheads,
land-rapers

And other human jackals from
capitalizing on the name 'Aspen.'

These swines should be fucked, broken,

And driven across the land.

3-- it will be the general philosophy

Of the sheriff's office that no drug
worth taking

Should be sold for money.

My first act as sheriff

Will be to install on the courthouse
lawn a set of stocks

In order to punish dishonest dope
dealers

In a proper public fashion."

I was only about six at the time,

But legend has it that my father shaved
his head

So he could say, "unlike my long-haired
opponent, sheriff Whitmire."

I just wish I could have been old
enough

To really understand people's reaction

About this crazy, bald, freak
drug-fiend

Who was about to take over the whole
political mechanism.

♪ Holly came from Miami, F.L.A... ♪

Hunter Thompson is the only candidate
who has the imagination

And intelligence to be a
law-enforcement executive.

Elect Hunter Thompson sheriff.

You haven't been listening!

Why doesn't anybody listen to me
anymore?!

This is for your own good!

♪ Hey, honey, take a walk on the wild
side... ♪

At the start, I think it was more to
get a message out

Knowing that defeat was certain.

The serious component of Hunter's
campaign snowballed

And, as the movement gained momentum,

I think Hunter actually believed that
he had a chance.

And a lot of us that were supporting
Hunter shared that belief.

We're trying to get together a list of
endorsements

For Hunter Thompson for sheriff.

We were all freaks--

The people who came together in support
of Hunter--

But I think our biggest issue at the
time was the environment,

And a secondary issue

Was the illegal status of drugs.

What is that you're smoking?

This is what I believe to be
marijuana.

- You mean you can't tell?

An awful lot of us were smoking dope

Because the government said, "thou
shalt not."

We said, "we shall."

Marijuana laws are one of the reasons

That has engendered this lack of
respect

That cops complain about all over the
country.

When you get a whole generation that
grows up

As felons, they know the law is
ridiculous

And they're told us all this gibberish
about it--

"It drives you crazy and makes your
brain soft, and your feet fall off."

Even the police know it's a silly law.

It's time that we either bridge that
chasm

With some kind of realistic law
enforcement or else--

I don't think it's gonna be bridged in
this country. we're going to revolution.

I think that was one of Hunter's

Greatest times, myself.

He had the passion to move people,

Change people's thinking,

Make them act

And bring them out-- not just defy
authority

And take as many drugs as you want,

But to make a real difference trying to
change the system,

Make the system work

And make the system good.

He had that in him.

If he was elected sheriff, I can
foresee

That you would have an influx of what
we call the hippies.

And I think if this happened,

It would actually destroy Aspen.

When you publicly come out with
statements

Of mescaline, marijuana--

My good god!

This isn't the way of American life.

♪ You walk into the room ♪

♪ With your pencil in your hand ♪

♪ You see somebody naked ♪

♪ And you say, "who is that, man?" ♪

They are raping our forests. some of
them are living like animals.

♪ Because something is happening here ♪
Whitmire ♪ But you don't know what it is ♪

♪ Do you, Mr. Jones? ♪

Hunter Thompson...

Has no grip on reality. I think he's
psychotic.

I think if there was ever gonna be any
excesses

Within the sheriff's department,

I'd look for more out of Hunter
Thompson than Carrol Whitmire.

♪ And you go watch the geek... ♪

He was a redneck and very popular

With the people who controlled this
valley then.

They didn't want a smart sheriff.

They wanted people who would do their
bidding.

♪ Be such a freak... ♪

I'm not at all embarrassed at the use
of the word "freak."

I think the way things are going, in
this country today

It's a very honorable designation. I'm
proud of it.

♪ And something is happening here... ♪

We have a situation here, an isolated
town,

With a very unusual kind of
population.

We do have a freak power base. it's
undeniable.

We have about 1,000 votes that
wouldn't--

If I went out there and walked through
the streets naked with a bomb in each hand,

They would still vote for me.

One of Hunter's "freak power" tools

Was to register people who had never
voted before.

- Okay, where's this voting place?

- Hunter, 182; Whitmire, 137.

- Ricks, 10. - yeah! right!

One could do it, one could do it.

The suburbs-- the silent majority.

- Okay, here's the totals. - he's not
available right at this second.

Whitmire, 204;

- Hunter, 173.

Okay, uh...

Unfortunately, it proved what I set out
to prove--

And it was more a political point than
a local election--

- That the American Dream really is.

Very hard to have a baldheaded
lunatic--

I'll do that for the cameras. hey, you
fellows.

All right!

And we made a mistake in thinking...

That the town was ready for an honest
political campaign.

"We frighten the bastards so badly

That on election day they rolled people
in wheelchairs--

Even on stretchers-- into the polling
places to vote against us.

And when I lost, they instantly got
down to making sure

That nobody like me could ever run for
office again."

We ran that story,

Had the infamous poster of a
two-thumbed hand

Holding a peyote button.

He came in and talked to an editor
named John Lombardi.

Afterwards, Lombardi, who was from
Philadelphia

And was not quite used to the west
coast crazy--

He said, "you know, that Hunter
Thompson is weird.

He's really weird.

He came in with a box full of wigs and
hats.

He was taking them off and putting them
on

In the middle of the conversation."

♪ Please allow me to introduce myself ♪

♪ I'm a man of wealth and taste... ♪

Ralph is crazier than Hunter ever was.

Whereas Hunter could always pull back
from the edge,

Ralph was a true believer. and if it
was time

To take the fucking thing down, Ralph
was prepared

To go in like Guy Fawkes and blow up
parliament.

And so we had this purity of vision,

And Hunter saw that.

I know you from somewhere. I wonder
where.

♪ Pleased to meet you... ♪

Have I seen you somewhere before?

Are you listening to me? are you
listening?

Please!

On behalf of Rocky Mountain Airways and
your flight crew,

We'd like to thank you for flying with
us today.

Have a pleasant stay in Aspen

Or wherever your final destination
might be.

Steadi think what he saw in this
connection

Was somebody that somehow saw the thing
in pictures

As he saw it in words. and that seemed
to me

To be part of the whole chemistry, of
our chemistry,

That made Gonzo possible.

Here I go.

I've seen the illustrations Steadman
was doing

Before he worked with Hunter.

He was much more conventional before
Hunter got ahold of him.

Hunter told me he liked Steadman's
stuff,

So he asked him to help him cover the
Kentucky derby

For a magazine called "Scanlan's."

And Ralph told me as soon as he got off
the airplane,

Hunter gave him some psilocybin and his
life changed.

- Come on, buddy. - come on, hey!
Hunter!

♪ When after all it was you and me...♪

So nice to see you.

Ralph-- when he first met Hunter,

He'd never done any drugs.

He drank, but he'd never done anything
hallucinogenic.

And so here comes Hunter, he gives him
mescaline

And he loses it.

You know, Ralph loses it.

Steadi was a choirboy--

You know, decent, innocent abroad.

You know how things are.

And so I guess it was attractive,

That kind of raciness.

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ Get down, baby... ♪

Steadi think the birth of Gonzo
happened

When the evil came out of me in the
drawings.

"Unlike most of the others in the press
box,

We didn't give a hoot in hell what was
happening on the track.

We had come to watch the real beasts
perform.

When the crowd stood to face the flag

And sing 'my old Kentucky home,'

Steadman faced the crowd and sketched
frantically.

Thousands of raving, stumbling drunks

Getting angrier and angrier as they
lose more and more money."

In that story, you get all of the
attitudes

To the derby, and you never get to the
derby.

You're there to-- he said to come to
the derby,

And you get all the drunk southerners,

You get all the weird socialites,

The weird bookies, the hangers-on.

"It was a face I'd seen a thousand
times

At every derby I'd been to.

I saw it in my head as the mask of the
whiskey gentry--

The inevitable result of too much
inbreeding."

First, I'd realized I was doing
something different.

A friend of mine, he wrote me a note
saying

"That derby piece was pure Gonzo."

And I thought, "well, if that's what it
was..."

I thought it was a brutal failure.

I'd botched my assignment, you know?

It was one of my worst failures

And I got this onslaught of mail--
mail, calls--

Saying I made a great breakthrough in
journalism.

Well, Christ, if I made it--

As a breakthrough, we've gotta call it
something.

So I liked the word "Gonzo," and it
seemed to me what I was doing--

Kind of nice and crazy, like zen.
Gonzo.

♪ Hope you guess my name... ♪

- I'm Edward. - Steadhe has a bird
called Edward.

He's such a marvelous character.

I think Hunter tormented it, but it was
kind of a two-way affection.

Hunter would use it, I think, to bounce
off,

To bring into the story

How he was feeling about it, who was
the bird.

I suppose that at some point i, in a
way, became the bird.

Speak up, Edward. speak up! speak up!
talk to me!

He banged the cage-- bang bang bang
bang!

"Edward. it's me, Edward.

I'm coming to get you, Edward."

He'd open the cage, and he'd say,
"Edward, there is no bird god

That's gonna help you now, Edward."

And this bird's going...

Steadi feel like Edward sometimes...

Now, we're going to talk, Edward.

Stead...holding me like a bird,

And I'm trying to bite my way out of
it.

I never felt fear

When he was at the wheel.

There's no holes over here.

- Ooh! - this is a big box.

No wonder why I don't buy American
cars. god damn it.

Move over, I'm gonna kill somebody!
you're too small!

- I want to kill somebody a lot bigger
than you!

- What's the speed limit? - 70. Oh my
god, it's 75.

Holy shit. No wonder he's going--

We were somewhere around Barstow,

On the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold.

Suddenly, there was a terrible roar all
around us

And the sky was full of what looked
like huge bats,

All swooping and screeching and diving
around the car.

And a voice was screaming, "Holy Jesus,
what are these goddamn animals?!"

Did you say something? huh?

Never mind.

- It's your turn to drive. - ♪
everybody's dancing... ♪

"No point in mentioning these bats," I
thought.

"The poor bastard will see them soon
enough."

"Fear and loathing in Las Vegas"-- it
starts off like a rocket.

"We were somewhere on the edge of
Barstow

When the drugs began to take hold."

Well, that just grabs you-- damn--
right there,

The description of the trunk what was
in the trunk--

All the drugs, the salt shakers

Full of mescaline, cocaine-- on and on
and on.

It was mad genius stuff.

We had two bags of grass,

75 pellets of mescaline,

Five sheets of high-powered blotter
acid,

- A salt shaker half-full of
cocaine...

...A pint of raw ether, and two dozen
amyls.

Not that we needed all that for the
trip,

But once you get locked into a serious
drug collection,

The tendency is to push it as far as
you can.

♪ Don't matter where you come from ♪

A house subcommittee report

Says illegal drugs killed 160 American
GIs last year,

40 of them in Vietnam. drugs--

- ♪ One toke over the line, sweet
Jesus... ♪ - one toke, man!

♪ One toke over the line ♪

♪ Sittin' downtown in a railway station♪

♪ One toke over the line... ♪

Through all this time, he's traveling
with Oscar Acosta.

They went there and had this drug
rampage.

- I found some good grass for $12 a
lid. - good.

- I just ordered two lids. I'll get it
tomorrow. - god bless you.

Hunter's Raoul Duke-- the author of the
book--

We published whatever was published in
"Rolling Stone."

It was published as "by Raoul Duke."

Oscar transmogrifies from Oscar Zeta
Acosta,

Crusading chicano attorney, into Dr.
Gonzo.

♪ I felt the joy and I learned about
the pain ♪

♪ Then my mama said... ♪

Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo

Were Hunter Thompson and oscar Acosta.

He just used that as a cover.

You have these sort of antiheroes.

It's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid."

It's just the next version in a way.

They're outlaws. These guys were
fighting

And they really were in real life.

Oscar Acosta was using the law

And the brown power movement

And Hunter was fighting with the pen
and using journalism.

So they really were warriors of their
generation.

♪ ...In a railway station, one toke
over the line ♪

♪ One toke, one toke over the line. ♪

When Hunter went to Las Vegas,

He was on an assignment for "sports
illustrated"

To write about this motorcycle race.

They only wanted a very brief, almost
like a little box about the race.

He delivered this screed that went on
for about 60 pages

Detailing the desert and everything
that happened.

And it had in it a little bit of that

Wild, druggy...

Feel that the final "fear and loathing
in Las Vegas" had.

Ignore this terrible drug. Pretend it's
not happening.

Uh... hi there!

My name...

Uh...

- Raoul Duke. - your suite isn't ready
yet, but...

Someone was looking for you.

No! we haven't done anything yet.
move!

I can handle this.

At that point there was still

Kind of that Timothy Leary approach to
psychedelics

Going around, where it's this very
pious thing.

You sat on a persian rug and listened
to indian music.

There had been very little in the way

Of actually dealing with the fact that
when you're stoned on psychedelics,

You're often just way out of control

And you don't know how you're gonna
handle things.

And Hunter made that his real topic.

"What Leary took down with him

Was the central illusion of a whole
lifestyle

That he helped create--

A generation of permanent cripples,

Failed seekers, who never understood

The essential old-mystic fallacy of the
acid culture:

The desperate assumption that somebody
or at least some force

Is tending the light at the end of the
tunnel."

I don't know about you, but I'm
starting to feel that drink.

- Peanuts, man. - oh, god! oh, god.

Two cuba libres with beer and mescal on
the side.

Terrible things were happening all
around us.

It's impossible to walk in this muck--
no footing at all.

At last there was a vocabulary for
talking about psychedelics,

And it was also an early clue to the
new direction--

More and more craziness from Hunter. of
course, he was high anyway.

I never saw the guy without either a
can of bud

Or a bottle of Wild Turkey in his
hand.

He drank a bottle of bourbon a day,

And that was on top of all the pills he
was taking,

So he was just constantly pushing the
limit of consciousness.

I was right in the middle of a fucking
reptile zoo

And somebody was giving booze to these
goddamn things.

It won't be long now before they tear
us to shreds!

Please!

Tell me about the fucking golf shoes!

Huh?

The rejection by "Sports Illustrated"
infuriated him.

And it was only at that point that he
started realizing,

Like, "eureka! Chicago may not be

Where the death of the American Dream
is.

It's Las Vegas."

♪ Ooh yes! ♪

♪ Ooh yes! ♪

♪ These long strange nights ♪

♪ These long strange nights... ♪

Hunter had rented a Cadillac and wanted
me to pay for it.

I said, "no," you know? "I'm not paying
for the rent of a Cadillac."

And he was like, "well, I can't cover
the goddamn American Dream

In a Wolkswagen. what the fuck is wrong
with you?"

And um...

You know, of course that's quite true.

♪ Drive your stake ♪

♪ Through a darkened heart ♪

♪ In a red Mercedes Benz... ♪

"Breakdown on Paradise Blvd."

"At this point in the chronology,

Dr. Duke appears to have broken down
completely.

The original manuscript is so
splintered

That we were forced to seek out the
original tape recording

And transcribe it verbatim."

Testing-- one, two.

Closing. okay, it is now 11:30 a.m.

"The transcription begins somewhere

On the northeast outskirts of Las
Vegas--

Zooming along Paradise Road in the
white whale."

- Hello. - may I help you?

- Yeah. you have tacos here? - mm-hmm.

But they're five for a dollar?

I'll take five of them.

Do you want anything to drink?

Beer. No, I have beer in the car--

Tons of it-- the whole back seat's
loaded with it.

We're looking for the American Dream.

We were told that it was somewhere in
this area, but--

- The American Dream? - yeah, the
American Dream.

- I'll tell you something-- go to
paradise. - Is that it?

We're here looking for it because they
sent us out here,

All the way from San Francisco, to look
for it.

That's why they gave us that white
Cadillac.

They figured that we could catch up
with it in that.

Hey, Luke, do you know where the
American Dream is?

She's asking him.

- What is it? - that's what we don't
know.

We were sent out here from San Francisco
to look for the American Dream.

Now are you guys serious?! because--

No, look at the car. I mean, do I look
like--

Could that be the old psychiatrists'
club? it was a discotheque place.

All we were told was, "go till you find
the American Dream.

Take this white Cadillac

And go find the American Dream.

It's somewhere in the Las Vegas area."

Are you taking pictures of it or--

- No no no, pictures, just-- - somebody
just sent you on a goose chase.

It's sort of a wild goose chase more or
less, yeah.

It has to be the old psychiatrists'.

But the only people who hang out there

Is a bunch of pushers, peddlers,

- Uppers-and-downers and all that
stuff. - maybe that's it.

- Dopers. - could be it.

I think this place, the way you're
describing it--

I think-- you know, maybe that's it.

Hunter said, you know, Vegas is the
city

That was the death of what he thought

Was the American Dream. in that famous
scene,

He sees that opportunity and possibility
that was represented by the '60s.

"The wave rolls back

And," he said, "once for a beautiful
moment there,

- We thought we had it." - ♪ it feels
the way we die... ♪

San Francisco in the middle of the '60s

Was a very special time and place to be
a part of,

But no explanation,

No mix of words or music or memories

Can touch that sense of knowing that
you were there

And alive in that corner of time in the
world,

Whatever it meant.

♪ And you may not know why... ♪

There was madness in any direction, at
any hour.

You could strike sparks anywhere.

There was a fantastic universal sense

That whatever we were doing was right,

That we were winning.

And that, I think, was the handle...

I have seen... the promised land.

...That sense of inevitable victory

Over the forces of old and evil.

Not in any mean or military sense;

We didn't need that.

Our energy would simply prevail.

We had all the momentum.

We were riding the crest of a high and
beautiful wave.

I may not get there with you,

But I want you to know tonight

That we as a people will get to the
promised land!

So now, less than five years later,

You can go up on a steep hill

In Las Vegas and look west

And with the right kind of eyes

You can almost see the high-water
mark,

That place where the wave finally
broke...

- And rolled back. -

Martin Luther King was shot and was
killed tonight.

It's amazing to think that in 1971

He already saw that final nail in the
coffin of the '60s,

Which is really bittersweet.

And I think for Hunter it was
bittersweet,

So I think speech sort of encapsulates
that.

I haven't read anything else on that
generation,

That subject that moves me as much.

I felt it was so important.

To me, it was the driving thing

That made me wanna do the movie.

Well, I don't like the idea of it--

That isn't one of the best fucking
things I've ever written--

To turn it into some kind of a stupid
cartoon show--

It's one of the best things that
anybody's ever written.

I just happen to have a very high
affection

For that one piece and so do other
people.

Before Terry Gilliam was hired to
direct the film,

There was another director, but things
didn't work out

When he wanted to put this animated
sequence

In the wave speech of this little
Hunter on a wave of bones.

You can see that I might be a little
bit edgy

When you talk about putting it in a
cartoon form

With me on some kind of tidal wave

Across some imaginary Mickey Mouse
desert.

You've been put in a cartoon form
already.

The problem is that you've published a
novel with cartoons.

- I hired Ralph to do some drawings. -
and they're great.

- No no no no. - you're really getting
me angry.

I know Hunter well enough

That even if he was mad, I'm not
terrified

And I know how to get through it,

But I was just sort of shocked

That it had gone so awry.

Just don't fucking go and make it a
cartoon!

All right, we're having a little
problem here

With your goddamn stupid fucking
cartoons in this thing.

If you think you're in charge of this
movie,

We're gonna have a real problem right
now.

If you want war-- here we go, baby--

There's gonna be a nasty fucking war.

Yeah, but I don't like you turning on
me at the end.

I must say I don't like that at all.

What should I have said?

"No, I've known Laila for many
years...

...And she would never say that."

Fuck. - he had a kind of over-the-top

Dramatic way of being.

Yeah, I'll talk to Hunter now. yeah,
okay.

Hunter, how are ya?

Hunter always had to have a running
crisis.

Going on of some type of other--

To animate him, to get him going.

What disease? I mean, do you-- is it a
potentially serious thing?

Brain-- brain damage.

I see.

Hunter did everything for effect.

He was not ever happy, I don't
believe,

When things were stable and tranquil.

Hunter was a force of nature.

Hunter would sit

Very still and very straight

With his arms up like this, waiting.

And all of a sudden, he would get a
jolt and he would type.

He also had deadlines,

And Hunter never met a deadline.

He was completely behind deadline.

He hadn't written a word and Jann was
calling and screaming.

Hunter was, at that time, carrying
around the mojo wire...

Just insert the document--

...Which was a suitcase-sized portable
transmission machine.

In just six minutes or less,

An exact copy of the document

Can be received anywhere in the
country.

He said, "I've gotta do the story." I
said, "you haven't written the story."

"It doesn't matter. just-- when I tell
you to,

Just take the plug and unplug it--

In and out-- on the machine."

He called up "Rolling Stone" offices,

"Well, it doesn't seem to be working."

The entire place is shut down

Because everything has been done except
these four pages

- You've been holding for Hunter. - I
was usually the guy,

At 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning,

Who had to be there to get the feed
from Hunter.

He took the fax machine, held the phone
like this and destroyed it.

And then he went into this rave

About some editor on the other end,

Then hung the phone up and went to the
bar.

Jann was generally so happy with the
kind of stuff

That Hunter was turning in that it
didn't matter.

It was just merely a damn inconvenience
for us.

Young the editor's note says

"After long, heavy and occasionally
brutal negotiations,

Dr. Thompson is back on the payroll.

His gibberish will appear regularly

In an unpredictable length on a wide
variety of subject matter.

We have total confidence in him, for
good or ill."

After "Vegas," it was clear

What an enormous talent Hunter was,

And, with the energy and the reporting
level,

He was going to be better than anybody
else at "Rolling Stone."

Would you have any other place to
publish your stuff

If it wasn't for "Rolling Stone"?

So it was always looking for what would
be next.

What would be the next assignment?

What's the biggest thing we could think
of?

I came up with the idea that he should
move to Washington,

Become the full-time correspondent

For the McGovern campaign.

Two of the classical works of American
politics

Came out of that campaign and out of
that assignment for "Rolling Stone."

One is "fear and loathing
On the campaign trail" by Hunter;

And "boys on the bus" by Tim Crouse,

Who was one of our little junior
stars.

But he wanted to be up there and cover
the campaign,

So I said, "sure. go right ahead. you
can help Hunter while you're at it."

Part of the reason I was there

Was to take care of him.

And what I felt from him

From the very beginning was a sense of
protection.

And we became a very good team that
way.

Young if you were really interested in
what was happening

On the McGovern campaign, the
election,

You would've also-- although it was not
as widely known--

Turned to "Rolling Stone" to find out
really what was going on.

Hunter's coverage and record of it--

His coverage was just brilliant.

When he showed up at the campaign, no
one knew who he was.

But I'm still in college, so I read
"Rolling Stone,"

So I knew who he was. nobody else
knew.

That was his great advantage--

Nobody was paying attention to him...

Until he started publishing,

Then all hell broke loose.

"So this is more of a jangled campaign
diary

Than a record or reasoned analysis

Of the '72 presidential campaign

From december '71 to january '73

In airport bars, all-night coffee
shops

And dreary hotel rooms all over the
country.

There is hardly a paragraph in this
saga

That wasn't produced in a last-minute
teeth-grinding frenzy.

Every deadline was a crisis

When I was cranking it out of the
typewriter

One page at a time and feeding it

- Into the plastic maw of that goddamn
mojo wire...

...To some hash-addled freak of an
editor

At the 'Rolling Stone' news desk in San
Francisco."

There. Chew on that gibberish for a
while, you heartless scum.

You pushed me too far.

I couldn't read that book, "fear and
loathing,"

Without being in a place where I could
laugh out loud

From time to time.

It was a hilarious book.

I have been quoted many times and I'll
say it again--

It was the most accurate and least
factual account of that campaign.

I'll say one other thing:

That book was written for "Rolling
Stone"

As the campaign progressed.

It wasn't something written from the
hindsight

Of the campaign. those chapters rolled
off

Of his typewriter as the campaign moved
along.

It was a journalistic risk.

He had covered political campaigns
before

He was just sick of the conventions,

Sitting around and reporting the
speeches.

And the speeches were all written for
reporters to write about.

"As far as I was concerned,

There was no such thing as 'off the
record.'

Unlike most other correspondents

I could afford to burn all my bridges
behind me,

'Cause I was only there for a year.

And the last thing I cared about

Was establishing long-term connections
on Capitol Hill."

He wanted to stir things up.

There was no one quite like Hunter.

He was on the edge and beyond the
edge,

And it was very funny.

I remember he wrote that Hubert
Humphrey,

The great father of the civil rights
movement--

He said, "they ought to stuff Hubert in
a goddamn bottle

And send him out with the Japanese
current."

"There is no way to grasp what a
shallow, contemptible

And hopelessly dishonest old hack
Hubert Humphrey really is

Until you've followed him around for a
while on the campaign trail.

Hubert Humphrey is a treacherous,

Gutless old ward-heeler."

He had a view of the ridiculousness of
it all...

Thank you. Shalom shalom.

...And Hunter did some of his best work
on the liberals.

He was particularly hostile to Hubert,

But he certainly loathed Richard
Nixon.

"Our barbie doll president with his
barbie doll wife

And his boxful of barbie doll children

Is also America's answer to the
monstrous Mr. Hyde.

He speaks to the werewolf in us

On nights when the moon comes too
close."

Nixon represents everything that's
wrong with this country...

Down the line.

Well, he first came into our
consciousness

In the beginning of 1968. he was
writing for "Pageant" magazine.

He came up to cover us. I was with
Nixon in the new Hampshire primary

And Hunter would importune me to get
some time with the candidate.

So we got Hunter-- as I recall it--

We put him in the car with Nixon

In the backseat of the limo

When Nixon was going to Manchester
airport.

Wasn't it in 1968 you tried to
interview Nixon?

No, I did it. I had a wonderful talk
with him.

What did you talk about?

Football. I was the only person in the
press corps

Who could talk about football.

Is this a need that occurs to him
during--

Oh, yeah. He's a complete football
freak.

And I said, "no, of course. I'm a
freak. I know all about it."

He said, "but you-- you're the one who
wants

To talk about Vietnam and that kind of
thing."

I said, "no, I'll talk about football.
Don't worry."

He said, "Okay, if you promise, then
you can ride

In the car with him back to the
airport."

It's about an hour and a half ride,

Just me a Nixon in the backseat.

Was he an amiable fellow?

Oh, absolutely. yeah. It was kind of
pleasant. It was weird.

Four more years, four more years...

Tonight I again proudly accept that
nomination

- For President of the United States.

Richard Nixon represents everything
that I...

Not only have contempt for but dislike
and think should be stomped out.

"He was a cheap crook and a merciless
war criminal

Who bombed more people to death in Laos
and Cambodia

Than the U.S. army lost in all of world
war II.

When students at Kent State University

In Ohio protested the bombing,

He connived to have them attacked and
slain

- By troops from the national guard."

"Some people will say that words like
'scum' and 'rotten'

Are wrong for objective journalism,

Which is true. But they miss the
point.

It was the built-in blind spots

Of the objective rules and dogma

That allowed Nixon to slither

Into the White House in the first
place.

He seemed so all-American."

♪ And the skies are not cloudy all day.♪

"You had to get subjective to see Nixon
clearly.

He was so crooked that he needed
servants

To help him screw on his pants every
morning."

I am filling with hate and rage right
now just thinking about it.

I had never tried to psychoanalyze
Hunter

In mood swings and so on,

But I think in his bad moments or worse
moments

He thought it was all fear and
loathing.

"Fear and loathing in Las Vegas"

Is ostensibly about a man in search

Of the American Dream.

And "fear and loathing
On the campaign trail"

Is about a man in search of an honest
politician.

And the only one in sight who even
vaguely qualified

- Was George McGovern. - when you
support George McGovern--

At the position I am in the polls,

That's an act of courage.

"George McGovern-- the only candidate

In either party worth voting for

Is hung in a frustrated limbo

Created mainly by the gross cynicism

Of the Washington press corps.

'He'd be a fine president,' they say,

'But of course he can't possibly win.'

- Why not?" - I just wanted to say
hello.

I'm senator McGovern, folks. nice to
see you.

Yes, you too.

You fellas know I'm running for
president?

I hope you'll help me out.

Mcgovern's program was

Immediate withdrawal from Vietnam...

Even if we stayed there

And bombed for the next five years

And Americans continue to die, five
years from now

We're going to be right where we are
now.

So let's recognize that we made a
mistake.

Let's bring this war to an end.

...Amnesty for draft dodgers and
deserters,

Equal rights for women

And-- and a cut in the defense budget.

Well, good luck.

The transcendent issue of '72 was
Vietnam,

And I desperately wanted to win that
election

To put an end to that senseless war.

I'm sick and tired of old men sitting
around

In air-conditioned rooms here in
Washington

Dreaming up wars for young men to die
in.

It is a tide that would sweep away

The barbarism of war

And end the folly of Vietnam once and
for all.

"McGovern is the only major candidate

Who lines out the painful truth,

And his reward has been just about the
same

As that of any other politician who
insists on telling the truth:

He is mocked, vilified,

Ignored and abandoned as a hopeless
loser."

The president is attacking...

Hunter never trusted anybody who was
elected.

That was the irony,

Because to be estimable in his
judgment

You had to be a loser, in effect.

A noble loser.

What was bold about Hunter with
McGovern

Is he wasn't being objective.

He was saying "this is the guy I want
to see as president.

I'm gonna try to help make him
president."

Leaving out George Wallace, who was
shot,

The two strongest democratic
contenders

Were Muskie and Humphrey.

Therefore, Hunter saw them

As a threat to be unmasked,

Because by then I think he was pretty
strongly committed to me.

Hunter's pieces were a very particular
hybrid

Of very clear-minded,

Accurate straight reportage

And then sometimes flat-out fantasy.

It was all run together,

And some people found it hard

To tell the fantasy from the other
stuff.

It occurred to me about halfway during
the campaign

That people actually believed

A lot of the things I was writing
about--

Muskie eating this strange Brazilian
drug.

Hunter had it in for Muskie

Like you couldn't believe.

Hunter just could not lay off of
Muskie.

What did you do to Ed Muskie?

Nothing. Ed Muskie did it to himself.

I just helped him along.

"Not much has been written about the
Ibogaine effect

As a serious factor in the presidential
campaign,

But toward the end of the Wisconsin
primary race,

About a week before the vote,

Word leaked out that some of Muskie's
top advisors

Had called in a Brazilian doctor

Who was said to be treating the
candidate

With 'some kind of strange drug.'"

What was the drug that you said he was
on?

- Ibogaine. - Ibogaine.

First we saw his work, then we had to
look it up

And then we started wondering

Whether somebody could sue us about
this.

Then we realized how silly that would
be,

So we went ahead with it.

"Rolling Stone" reports

Democratic presidential candidate
Edmund Muskie

Is in fact addicted. it ended up on the
wires as a straight story.

It caused a major sensation.

It was just this magical lyrical moment
of Hunter's.

"It had been common knowledge for many
weeks

That Humphrey was using an exotic brand
of speed known as 'wallot.'

And it had long been whispered

That Muskie was into something very
heavy,

But it was hard to take the talk
seriously until I heard about the
appearance

Of a mysterious brazilian doctor. that
was the key."

By attacking me, he's proved himself to
be a gutless coward.

"I immediately recognized the Ibogaine
effect

From Muskie's tearful breakdown

On the flatbed truck in new
Hampshire..."

He said, "well, look at the way

The guy gives his speeches.

It exactly fits the symptoms

Of somebody who's stoned on Ibogaine."

And the charge was so bizarre, so
off-the-wall,

It really brought a lot of attention to
Hunter's reporting.

Do you mind if I state my view?

"...To the delusions and altered
thinking

That characterized his campaign in
Wisconsin,

And finally the condition of 'total
rage'

That gripped him in Florida."

But I am speaking to these people who
are willing to listen to me!

The rumor began to spread everywhere

Among all the people who were covering
the campaign

That Muskie was in fact on this bizarre
drug.

- You finally said you made it all up.
- I had to.

I couldn't believe people took this
stuff seriously.

People really believed that Muskie was
eating Ibogaine.

I never said he was. I said there was a
rumor in Milwaukee that he was...

Which was true. I started the rumor in
Milwaukee.

- Yeah, if you're really careful--

I'm a very accurate journalist.

"Muskie's always taken pride

In his ability to deal with hecklers.

He's frequently challenged them,

Calling them up to the stage in front
of big crowds

And the forcing the poor bastards to
debate with him in a blaze of TV lights.

But there was none of that in Florida.

When the boohoo began grabbing at his
legs

And screaming for more gin,

Big Ed went all to pieces,

Which gave rise to speculation among
reporters

Familiar with his campaign style in '68
and '70

That Muskie was not himself."

...Shredded, torn, battered and beaten

Beyond all recognition.

"In retrospect, however,

It is easy to see why Muskie fell
apart

On that caboose platform in the Miami
train station.

It is entirely conceivable,

Given the known effects of Ibogaine,

That Muskie's brain was almost
paralyzed

By hallucinations at the time,

That he looked out at the crowd

And saw gila monsters instead of
people.

That his mind snapped completely

When he felt something large and
apparently vicious

Clawing at his legs."

That's crazy stuff.

Nobody was writing like that.

I mean, in the serious world of
political journalism

They thought that way of Hunter,

That he was getting away with stuff

That they couldn't in what they were
doing.

And they all lived vicariously through
him.

The social scene of the press--

In those days it was almost all males

And they almost all drank pretty
seriously.

And Hunter, he was kind of impervious
man

When it came to drugs and to liquor.

You saw that stuff go in

And there was no discernable effect

In his behavior.

And that left an impression

On the people he was with.

Hunter couldn't resist, ever,

Trying to shock the squares.

Hunter would turn to me and say,

"Maybe at the next stop we can shoot
up,"

Or "hey, if they have a men's room,

It would be good to eat some acid."

And Hunter, in this sense,

Almost had the attributes of an action
hero.

I got a call from Hunter.

He invited Eleanor and me to meet him
for dinner.

When we got there, the waitress
materialized

And he said, "Bring me three
margaritas

And six beers,"

And the girl laughed.

She said, "are you expecting some other
people, sir?"

He said, "No. Find out what these two
folks want,

But bring me three margaritas

And six beers."

I don't think Hunter ever thought
McGovern was gonna win.

I think he was along for the ride.

This thing picks up speed fast, doesn't
it?

Oh yeah, so is your campaign.

And all of a sudden,

This thing begins to be serious.

Of the six democratic candidates,

Which one are you supporting in the
primary?

- McGovern? - Why?

Because I think that he's the only man
that can unite the country.

- George McGovern. - Why?

Because I think he's the people's man.

Uh, what's his name?

- Wallace? - No no no. no.

- Lindsay? - no.

- Humphrey? - no.

- Muskie? - no.

- McGovern? - yes, you've got it right
there.

I think you're coming on good to labor
people.

- Yeah. - I think Hunter realized

That the man he was following might
actually have a chance.

Muskie, Jackson, Lindsay trail badly.

What the hell have you been doing?

We won by a landslide.

The press coverage is unbelievable.

He's gonna be on the cover of
"Newsweek,"

Probably the cover of "Time,"

And they're calling him the
frontrunner

For the democratic nomination.

Now we've got to worry.

Senator George McGovern,

Having received the majority vote

Of this convention of certified
delegates,

Is hereby declared

The 1972 democratic nominee

For President of the United States.

"McGovern appeared to have a sure lock

On the white house when the sun came
up

On Miami beach on the morning of
Thursday, July 13th.

Since then he has crippled himself

With a series of almost unbelievable
blunders."

The polls going into that weekend

Showed McGovern with a chance to win.

Now it's very difficult to defeat an
incumbent,

Particularly at war time,

So you had to have everything go
right.

You could not have one thing go wrong.

And of course we had a huge major thing
go wrong within hours.

There was this disaster

With the choice for the vice
president--

Thomas Eagleton, senator from
Missouri.

He meets the main requirements

Senator McGovern set down when he began
his consideration,

Which is a man in whom he would have

Absolute and complete confidence

And in whom he believes the American
people would have complete confidence

To become president of the United
States should an occasion arise.

I think it was Mankiewicz who asked
him

If he had any skeletons in his closet
and he said no.

Tom said he couldn't think of anything

And then the clock started to tick.

The weekend after the convention in
Miami

We had gotten an anonymous call at
headquarters

Saying that senator Eagleton had
had...

Shock therapy, which we had not known.

♪ Well, I think I'm going out of my
head ♪

♪ Yes, I think I'm going out of my head
♪

♪ Over you... ♪

On three occasions in my life,

I have voluntarily gone into hospitals

As a result of nervous exhaustion and
fatigue.

I'd been in St. Louis. I'd heard about
the Eagleton stuff,

Even before-- when they nominated him.

It would surprise me when they
nominated him.

When that hit, that was the coup de
grace.

I was in Nixon's office

And there was what I would say was
considerable merriment.

Nixon said, "well, Pat told us, didn't
he, chuck?"

"Tom Eagleton was exactly the kind of
vp candidate

That Muskie or Humphrey would have
chosen--

A peace offering to the old politics
gang,

Because McGovern thought he needed

Those bastards to beat Nixon."

Is it your intention then to remain on
the ticket?

- Categorically, yes. - "it's hard to
see

How George could have done any worse,

Even with Charles Manson for a running
mate."

All of a sudden, Hunter jumps on that
critical bandwagon.

His whole critique of McGovern in the
fall campaign was

"Sellout, compromiser."

But you can't be serious about American
politics

And be infantile about it.

And there was an infantile--

I say this with all respect to my late
friend--

An infantile aspect to Hunter.

He wanted it all to be fun,

All to be amusing, all to be good and
evil,

And "We're the good guys, they're the
bad guys

And we're gonna crush 'em,"

And overdramatizing

What is really some of the toughest
things

Human beings have to do,

And that is to try to govern a
democracy.

The public debate of senator
Eagleton's

Past medical history

Continues to divert attention

From the great national issues

That need to be discussed.

Therefore we have jointly agreed

That the best course is for senator
Eagleton

- To step aside.

When McGovern finally had to give in,

It made McGovern look like a liar,

It made him look like a waffler.

It was a blow from which the campaign

Never really covered.

Wish I wore my drip-dry suit.

The national press wasn't very
responsible at that time.

I don't condemn the press.

They were doing what they thought was
right,

But they spent far more ink

Dwelling on my mishandling

Of the vice-presidential selection

Than was ever devoted to the Watergate
break-in

On the part of the Nixon people during
the campaign.

It was hard to get them interested in
that.

"At the stroke of midnight in
Washington

A drooling red-eyed beast with the legs
of a man

And the head of a giant hyena

Crawls out of its bedroom window

In the south wing of the White House

And leaps 50' down to the lawn,

Pauses briefly to strangle the chow
watchdog,

Then races off into the darkness

Towards the Watergate, snarling with
lust,

Loping through the alleys behind
Pennsylvania Avenue

And trying desperately to remember

Which one of those 400 identical
balconies

Is the one outside Martha Mitchell's
apartment."

"Due to circumstances beyond my
control,

I would rather not write anything

About the 1972 presidential campaign at
this time.

On tuesday, November 7th,

I will get out of bed long enough

To go down to the polling place

And vote for George McGovern.

Afterwards, I will drive back to the
house,

Lock the front door, get back in bed

And watch television as long as
necessary.

It will probably be a while before the
angst lifts.

But whenever it happens,

I will get out of bed again

And start writing the mean,
cold-blooded bummer

That I was not quite ready for today."

He was the right man in the right
place

And he was equipped to capture

A certain moment in history

As nobody else was equipped to do.

In his best pages,

I think he captured certain truths

About human perversity

That will never lose their sting.

And I don't think that anybody can be
too surprised

That we find ourselves in the nightmare
we're in today

Because it's essentially the same

As the nightmare he described back
then.

And I think it will always be
salubrious

And cleansing to have someone express

The mockery and the rage

And finally the despair

That are the only reaction

Of a real human to that nightmare.

Massachusetts has gone

For the democratic candidate--

The only state going for McGovern.

We project that president Nixon

Will come out of this the winner.

With about 60% of the popular vote.

I've never known a national election

When I would be able to go to bed
earlier than tonight.

♪ Put a candle in the window... ♪

"This may be the year when we finally
come

Face to face with ourselves,

Finally just lay back and say

That we are really just a nation

Of 220 million used-car salesmen

With all the money we need to buy guns

And no qualms at all about killing
anybody else in the world

Who tries to make us uncomfortable."

Never again will we send

The precious young blood of this
country

To die trying to prop up

A corrupt military dictatorship
abroad.

"The tragedy of all this is that George
McGovern,

For all his mistakes

And all his imprecise talk about new
politics

And honesty in government,

Is one of the few men who would run for
president

Of the United States in this century

Who really understands what a fantastic
monument

This country might have been

If we could've kept it out of the
hands

Of greedy little hustlers like Richard
Nixon."

♪ Guess I've got that old traveling
bone ♪

♪ Gonna feel really alone... ♪

...Whether or not their president is a
crook.

Well, I'm not a crook.

♪ But I won't-- I won't be losing my
way, no no... ♪

"McGovern made some stupid mistakes,

But, in context, they seem almost
frivolous

Compared to the things Richard Nixon
does

Every day of his life on purpose

As a matter of policy

And a perfect expression of everything
he stands for.

Jesus, where will it end? how low do
you have to stoop

In this country to be president?"

♪ Put a candle in the window ♪

♪ Though I'm going, going ♪

♪ I'll be coming home soon ♪

♪ Long as I can see the light... ♪

Whew.

As much as he was reviled and revulsed

By Nixon, he identified with him.

He understood that darkness of the
American spirit.

You know, Hunter was deeply invested in
America.

Whether you call it the American Dream
or American politics,

All the things he wrote about

Were always looking at the dark side as
well as the hope.

But during his lifetime it kept looking
like,

Once again, the evil, the darkness
would triumph.

In 1972, he began to feel
disillusioned.

And with Jimmy Carter, he was trying

To give politics one last chance.

"I have heard hundreds of speeches

By all kinds of candidates and
politicians,

But I have never heard a sustained
piece

Of political oratory that impressed me
more

Than the speech Jimmy Carter made on
law day

At the university of Georgia

One Saturday afternoon in may, 1974.

It was a king hell bastard of a
speech.

By the time it was over, it had rung
every bell in the room."

Senator Kennedy and distinguished
fellow Georgians,

Friends of the law school of Georgia
and--

I was the only reporter there

And I was with Kennedy.

I had no interest in Carter

And no intention of either listening to
him

Or reporting anything he said.

Not paying any attention to me,

He was going outside every now and
then

To replenish his glass of what was
apparently ice tea

But was really Wild Turkey whiskey.

I started speaking from my heart

About the defects

In the American judicial system.

"But what sent me back out to the
trunk

To get my tape recorder instead of
another drink

Was the spectacle of a southern
politician

Telling a crowd of judges and lawyers

That 'the source of my understanding

About what's right and wrong in this
society

Is from a friend of mine--

A great poet named Bob Dylan.'"

♪ I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm
no more... ♪

She said...

"At this point, Carter was attacked

By what was later identified as a 48 lb
slope."

I was speaking to a bunch of lawyers

And the reaction among them was one

Of stunned silence.

"...He was greeted with horror.

Still, once that change was made--

A very simple, difficult change--

No one in his right mind would want to
go back

To circumstances prior to that
juncture

In the development of our nation's
society."

It changed my life.

Of course, Hunter is the person that
found Jimmy Carter.

Hunter would go around the country and
play it for people.

His cover story on "Rolling Stone"

That Hunter wrote endorsing Carter

Helped Jimmy Carter win that election.

He was the most popular writer in the
United States.

My next guest is one of the most
controversial writers in America

And the inventor of Gonzo journalism.

We're delighted that he could be with
us tonight.

Welcome, please, Dr. Hunter Thompson.

He had just delivered "hell's angels"

"Vegas," "Campaign trail,"

And all those great "Rolling Stone"
pieces.

People didn't know where this guy was
gonna stop at that point.

You didn't know whether he would have
30 years of this kind of productivity.

He was-- he was so hot.

He'd give a speech at a college

And 20 women wanted to party with him
all night.

Classic rock 'n' roll attitude.

And Hunter saw rock stars,

And he thought, "why shouldn't a writer
be a rock star?"

He became that rock 'n' roll-- trash
the hotel room,

Throw the typewriter out the window,

Let the women in, too much drugs--

Meanwhile, there was this other side of
him.

He was the squire of Woody Creek,

Who had a wife and a kid.

♪ Devil or angel ♪

♪ I can't make up my mind ♪

♪ Which one you are ♪

♪ I'd like to wake up and find ♪

♪ Devil or angel ♪

♪ Dear, wherever you are ♪

♪ I miss you, I miss you... ♪

Here was all this fame,

All these famous people,

All these hanger-on girls

And people coming into my kitchen

With heels like this.

We lived out in Woody Creek--

And in tight jeans and stilettos

And everything gorgeous.

And I said, "who are these people?

And what are they doing in my world?"

You don't think how it should be
different.

You just accept that my dad gets up at
5:00 in the afternoon

For the 5:00 news.

He eats breakfast, I eat dinner.

It's a shame he wasn't around more,

But that's who he was.

I met Hunter in John Belushi's dressing
room

At "Saturday night live."

He was the ultimate bad boy,

But we became fantastic friends.

And one night he was talking to
someone

And I guess by the way he was talking
to them--

When he hung up I said, "oh, who was
that?"

And he said, "well, that's Sondi."

I said, "well, who's Sondi?" he said,
"my wife,"

And I said, "your wife?"

Meanwhile, his marriage was getting
very rocky,

He was starting to drink and do too
many drugs

And fell into fame.

What had given him his strength--

His anonymity-- was gone.

By writing and becoming the political
reporter he was,

He had lost that anonymity that had
been his cloak.

So now he was the story.

I used to be able to stand in the back

And observe stories and absorb them.

Now the minute I appear at a story,

Then I become part of it.

First time I went to a press conference
with Jimmy Carter

I had to sign more autographs than
Carter signed.

And the secret service had no idea who
I was.

They thought I was an astronaut.

At that point, you know, it was hard.

How do you find stuff for Hunter to
do?

You're always looking for a story that
somehow

Can top the campaign story or Vegas,

Something big enough for his talent.

Going to Zaire seemed like a natural
assignment for Hunter,

A big spectacle, heavyweight fight;

Ali, whom he knew or had written about
before.

He went. steadman came down from
London.

I'm gonna retire the heavyweight
champion of the world!

September the 25th, the world will be
stunned!

His hero, number one, was Muhammad
Ali.

He used to always say that he was
related

To Cassius Muhammad Ali in the
bloodline.

I've never fully believed it--

It could be true-- but he loved to say

That he was blood-related to Muhammad
Ali.

Hah! sucker, you ain't nothing.

You're too ugly to represent us colored
folks.

And remember again, Muhammad Ali is

This touchstone for Hunter,

That the Kentucky boys are making it
big.

You out, sucker.

He went to Zaire to cover the rumble in
the jungle.

It was the foregone conclusion

That George Foreman was going to knock
out Muhammad Ali.

There seemed to be no way

That all could survive that fight.

He stops, and he looks up at the drug
dealer and he says...

You know, and it got worse and worse
and worse and worse.

This was when Hunter gave our tickets
away.

I can't remember what I did.

I just think I tried to watch it on
television or something

So I would get some idea of it,

But Hunter had gone down to the pool

With a bucket of ice

And a bottle of whiskey,

Drinking and smokes-- his Dunhills.

And Hunter decided to...

Take a dip in the pool,

Float in the pool at the hotel

Throughout the entire fight.

30 seconds left in round eight.

As it turned out, it was one of the...

Classic fights of all time.

Another sneaky right hand.

This time he worked over his shoulder.

Unbelievable!

Four, five, six, seven--

This was called the biggest fucked-up
journalistic story

In the history of journalism--

That we really didn't get a story.

Zaire was Hunter's first big failure as
an assignment.

There was a big expense bill-- which I
paid for--

And didn't do the piece,

And that was disappointing to us all.

I think Hunter felt a strong sense of
failure.

That was kind of the beginning of a
period of decline there.

He, as a writer, a journalist and a
person,

Ran up against some wall there or a
period there,

Whether it was coming from exhaustion

Or something going on with his
marriage-- somewhere he just lost it.

Hunter came back from Africa,

He didn't wake up for a day and a
half.

And all of a sudden he just couldn't
write.

He couldn't piece it together.

His life really changed after that

And he knew that he wasn't the writer
that he wanted to be.

♪ Man... ♪

♪ You know I done enjoyed things ♪

♪ That kings and queens will never
have... ♪

He stopped writing full-time in the
mid-'70s,

Then he'd just do the articles.

Part of what happened was I think

There were so many people hanging
around woody creek,

And he was very welcoming and enjoyed
it all,

But it really made it difficult to
work.

"...Safe for my young son."

"But the front doors are a different
matter."

I was a bit of a straight man entering
his carnival life.

He used to call himself a drug-addled
compound junkie.

♪ And good times, mmm ♪

♪ I have had my fun... ♪

I'd go around to take care of Hunter.

If he can toss the Heineken bottle and
catch it,

He hasn't had too much to drink.

And he began to retreat to owl farm
more and more.

Then eventually he didn't really go out
at all.

I guess people came to him.

He was writing occasional columns

For the "examiner" and he did that
"lono" book.

They were all right.

But he wrote three pieces,

Just-- they were just brilliant.

Elko, pulitzer, "polo"-- those are
beautiful,

But his work never got quite back to
those levels.

It was all just repetitive,

Not funny goofball stuff.

Hunter wanted a persona,

But he became a hostage to that
persona

As he got older and older

And he was being ridiculed as a
comic-book character.

When Garry Trudeau first made duke

A character in Doonesbury

It was absolutely, literally,

The Raoul Duke character that Hunter
invented.

It was Hunter's literary property.

So I think he should've-- he could have
and--

In retrospect-- should have stopped
that.

But then he said, "what can I do?

I decided to own it. they want to see
uncle Duke?

I'll give 'em uncle Duke times five."

- Wow. - you see what I mean?

He hated "Doonesbury." he hated being a
caricature.

He also loved being a star,

But also it interfered with him being a
reporter,

Which is what he wanted to be.

If you want to be a famous American
writer,

You don't really think of...

Being in the comic strips,

- You know, being

Oh, are we doing things like that?

Yes, in front of the camera

And it will be on film, won't it? mmm.

Hunter did become, in a way, a prisoner
of his own fame.

I was getting more distraught with his
fame.

It was total chaos in the house.

Just thoughts of booze, drugs,

Staying up for days and parties.

And little did I know he was having
affairs all over the place.

It was unhealthy for me, it was
unhealthy for my son.

Eventually Sondi uncovered a tape

Of a woman that he was with.

I'm gonna burn up with unfulfilled
desire

If I have to stay here one more minute
alone.

No, I don't want the delivery boy. I
want you.

So I remember sitting on the phone,

I looked up at him and I said,

"You know I can't do this anymore.

I'm gonna have to have a divorce."

Well...

He just blew up and then I got scared

And I ended up calling the sheriff.

And a sheriff's deputy comes out to the
house.

The guys says...

"Um, does he have any guns?"

And I said, "'does he have any guns?'

He has 22 guns

And every one is loaded."

- Hey!

It was not an easy divorce for Hunter.

He refused to leave owl farm.

Sandy said, "the only thing he owns is
this land.

I have to have half of what Hunter
owns,

'Cause I'm divorcing him.

And I don't want half the land

Because I have to live next to the son
of a bitch."

So I got to buy my land back.

Well, I'd given it to Hunter.

So then I ended up making payments to
Sondi for the next 15 years.

Buzz off! I'm going to Florida.

He couldn't write.

He was completely shattered

And Jimmy Buffet came to his rescue

And allowed him to come down

And stay at his house in Key West free
of charge.

♪ Wasting away again in
Margaritaville... ♪

That's where we are.

♪ Searching for my lost sugar and
salt... ♪

You have never seen people drive so
fucking slowly.

It's incredible. You dirty sons of
bitches.

Move over. go get in the fast lane, you
cocksuckers.

The first thing I see is

"Gonzo journalist comes to Key West,"

Front page, fucking "Miami Herald."

Hunter's stretched out in my
apartment.

And then all of a sudden, I got a call
from my accountant.

He said, "what's this

$9,000 telephone bill?" and I went...

"Oh my god, Hunter's down there and I
left the phone on."

And like always...

Then he got a boat and I thought, "oh,
Jesus."

You know, I expected to read the
obituary during those days.

♪ If I had a boat, I'd go out on the
ocean ♪

♪ And if I had a pony ♪

♪ I'd ride him on my boat ♪

♪ And we could all together ♪

♪ Go out on the ocean ♪

♪ I said me upon my pony on my boat ♪

♪ I said me upon my pony ♪

♪ On my boat. ♪

Say hello to the dolphins. Well,
hello.

Okay.

Well, the first time I met Hunter,

It was just kind of a-- big writer that
I was curious about.

When we got married, he promised me 10
years.

I just figured he was such a powerful
force

That he would know.

If he said 10 years, that meant 10
years.

He had talked about suicide a lot since
I've known him,

And now I know, talking to his former
wife

And other girlfriends, that he had
talked about it all the time.

"Trouble can come at you

From any direction these days,

Like being chased through a crowded
parking lot

By a pack of vicious stray dogs.

The world's situation has become so
nervous and wrong

That disasters that would've been
inconceivable

Two years ago are almost commonplace
today."

I did start to worry about him

Right after the Bush election.

That I think was the trigger.

He didn't get angry, he just got
depressed.

You know, I could handle when he was
angry,

Feisty or sulky--

Anything but depressed or something I
wasn't used to.

♪ Goodbye, Norma Jean... ♪

There are certain moments that I'm
really glad I had the camera.

There's a moment I walk out onto the
balcony--

He had been listening to "candle in the
wind" over and over and over.

There was a look of a grin,

Like a roguish eye in his eye

When he was about to have some fun.

Whoo-hoo-hoo.

Seeing him look at the keys--

Especially to music-- when he was
having fun,

You could see it in his face and also
on the page.

♪ I would have liked to have known you
♪

♪ Oh, but I was just a kid ♪

♪ Your candle burned out long before...
♪

- ♪ Your legend ever did. ♪
- I feel wet.

Uh-oh. good.

When he did die, his words took on a
new sparkle,

Maybe because they are finite now.

We have a finite amount.

And just the fact that we have the
words is a lucky thing.

I mean, imagine in a twisted universe

When he died if somehow he took

His words with him, his work.

Oh, come on, Hunter.

- That was not cool at all. - I was
tossing it to you.

- No, you weren't. - what are you
talking about?

- I didn't hit him in the head like
that. - that's enough.

To feel compelled to be Gonzo all the
time

Must have been a burden on his poor
mind.

He was so identified with the life he's
described,

It was hard for him not to be in
costume,

Not to be the actor that was required.

Hunter must have felt trapped-- trapped
in Gonzo.

So, I'm really in the way as a person.

The myth has taken over

And I find myself, you know, an
appendage.

I'm...

I'm no longer necessary. I'm in the
way.

It'd be much better if I died,

Then people could take the myth and
make films.

Like, when I go out to--

When I got invited to speak at, say,
universities,

I'm not sure if you're inviting Duke or
Thompson.

So I'm not sure who to be--

So I'm not sure who to be.

I suppose that my plans are to figure
out some new identity.

You know, I have to kill off one life
and start another one--

Kill off one life and start another
one.

♪ Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song
for me ♪

- ♪ I'm not sleepy... ♪ -

♪ And there is no place I'm going to...
♪

It was no secret that

That's the way he would die.

He'd made that clear many years
before,

That when the time came, he was
gonna--

He was gonna take himself out

And it would be with a gun.

So that-- that was no surprise.

But it's one thing to know that at some
point,

You know, he was gonna kill himself

And it's another when it actually
happens.

It was important to him

That we were there.

It was a sunny afternoon in the winter

And it was just a very peaceful time.

His family was there and he decided

"All right, this is a good time to go
out."

It sounds kind of sappy,

But it was a warm family moment.

♪ I'm ready to go anywhere ♪

♪ I'm ready for to fade... ♪

Steadwhen he did it, Juan was in the
next room

And he said, "when it happened

I thought I heard a book drop."

It went like that.

Juan went outside with a gun

And shot three times into the air.

Steadit was a kind of salute to him

As much as anything-- or shock.

Hunter was very much about preserving a
legacy,

And this was perfect.

This was romantic.

And in a lot of people's minds,

It was a very strong act. it was a
noble act.

"Go out when you're on top." he wasn't
on top.

He was nowhere near on top.

But some people thought that,

And some people thought it was a very
courageous act.

I think just the opposite.

I think this is a time

When a together Hunter Thompson

Could make a difference in this
country.

♪ I wouldn't pay it any mind ♪

♪ It's just a shadow you're seeing ♪

♪ That he's chasing... ♪

It's a tragic mistake. I wish he was
still here.

I wish there was still a Hunter around
to talk to.

It's an amazing thing. you think on one
side

It's fun to reminisce, but its sad that
he's gone.

We could have used a few more years of
Hunter.

He could wield a pretty effective
sword

Against what's going on right now.

♪ I'll come followin' you... ♪

You know, just all of it.

Just all of it.

Hunter, no! you bastard!

Fuckhead!

- Oh shit. - you're okay.

I can't talk about it.

He flamed out too quickly,

Because of the way he lived his life

And chose to live his life.

So in my view it was-- it was
self-indulgent.

Maybe that's what he wanted to do,

But he had so much more he could give
his readers

And his people... and himself.

That's fitting. that's fitting.

- That's fitting for Hunter. - a
motorcycle...

...Roars off.

Okay.

It seems we're here today to discuss

Some kind idea for a monument.

If I show you this-- this is the basic
idea,

But actually, Hunter hasn't approved it
yet.

It's just a thought, yeah.

He lives in Aspen

- In Colorado. - that is different.

Is this something that you would want
to do

- In the near future? - he's written--

- I'm not sure. - I mean you're talking
about something

That maybe you want to do after you
die.

Oh, yeah, it's in the will. it's all
described.

It's gonna be a little hard to do,
particularly with me gone.

This rim of mountains is a giant valley
20 miles across.

- Is this property that you own now? -
yeah.

The property goes back over the
cliffs,

So I can do whatever-- if I wanted to
build a...

McDonald's, I could do it back there.

It's gonna be a pile of rocks about
100' tall.

♪ When I die and they lay me to rest...
♪

A giant cone-- conical.

Going around and tapering down to the
top.

About every two years, the doctor tells
me I'm gonna die.

For all I know, somehow I might live
for 10 more years.

Well, that's something-- none of us
know how long we're gonna live.

On top of the big arm,

A double-- a fist with double thumbs--
the symbol.

I've told you 1,000 times for 10
years--

You've got to put two thumbs on the
fist.

Steadit's better than no thumb, which
is what you had.

♪ So you know that when you die ♪

♪ He's gonna recommend you ♪

♪ To the spirit in the sky ♪

♪ Gonna recommend you to the spirit in
the sky ♪

♪ That's where you're gonna go when you
die ♪

♪ When you die and they lay you to
rest... ♪

After the cremation, they put the ashes
in a canister

And shoot it out of the top of the fist
over the valley.

Say 500' up, it explodes

And the ashes drift out all over
there.

That I do know about. we place ashes in
different areas.

I'm a firm believer in "ashes to ashes,
and dust to dust."

And that's it. that's my funeral.

One, two, three, four!

♪ I went home with the waitress ♪

♪ The way I always do ♪

♪ How was I to know ♪

♪ She was with the Russians too? ♪

♪ I was gambling in havana ♪

♪ I took a little risk ♪

♪ Send lawyers, guns and money ♪

♪ Dad, get me out of this ♪

♪ Hah! ♪

♪ I'm the innocent bystander ♪

♪ Somehow I got stuck ♪

♪ Between the rock and the hard place
♪

♪ And I'm down on my luck ♪

♪ Yes, I'm down on my luck ♪

♪ Well, I'm down on my luck ♪

♪ And I'm hiding in Honduras ♪

♪ I'm a desperate man ♪

♪ Send lawyers, guns and money ♪

♪ The shit has hit the fan ♪

♪ Oh, hey, send lawyers, guns and money ♪

♪ Huh! ♪

♪ Send lawyers, guns and money ♪

♪ Send lawyers, guns and money ♪

♪ Hit it! ♪

♪ Send lawyers, guns and money ♪

♪ Oh! ♪