Gonzo politics

FEAR AND LOATHING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL '72 is the greatest book on politics I've ever read. The way Hunter S. Thompson skewers the political process is both hilarious AND insightful. He manages to be both profane AND profound. His writing is like a truth-seeking missile, even when he's lying through his teeth. As McGovern's campaign manager once said about the book, "It was the least accurate and yet most truthful account of the campaign" he knew of.

So how was it the least accurate? Well, he flat out made stuff up. For instance, after getting thrown off candidate Ed Muskie's campaign bus, Thompson started writing about rumors that the Demcratic frontrunner was taking a West African drug called Ibogaine, an upper of sorts that kept you from ever dozing off. Thompson claimed that Muskie appeared to be acting a little oddly of late and wondered if it might be the effect of the Ibogaine. Since Thompson was so clearly familiar with the world of drugs, other journalists figured he must know what he was talking about and actually asked Muskie about the rumor. Muskie angrily denied taking the drug and Thompson explained later that he had never reported Muskie WAS taking the drug, only that there were rumors he had taken it. He, of course, had started the rumor.

Now this was pretty nasty stuff, but Thompson suggested that politics has always been a nasty business and that he was just beating the politicians at their own game. He cited a story about LBJ who, during an earlier campaign, had instructed his campaign manager to start a rumor that his opponent had had carnal knowlege of his farm animals. When his campaign manager objected that no one would believe it, LBJ said he realized that. But let's make him have to deny it anyway.

And how was it the most truthful? First off, Thompson was very up front about his political biases. (He despised Nixon and Humphrey, for instance, and practically worshipped McGovern, at least early on.) That meant he could let fly with some of the most outrageous and imaginative invective ever levied against the candidates. After all, he was only reporting about how the candidates struck HIM.

Secondly, he really reported on the fly - meaning he was giving us a blow by blow account of what was actually happening on the campaign trail as it was happening, without a lot of sober-sided analysis to give it much context. He captures the crazy whirl that surrounds a campaign, a whirl that no other journalists at the time reported on. It was a behind the scenes look at the world of politics that no one had ever seen before. Proper journalists were too busy reporting on the candidates' speeches to report on what was really going on in the campaign. But Thompson was no proper journalist.

Now I've written all this, and haven't even gotten around to the movie that is the cause of all this reminiscing - GONZO:THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON. It's made by Alex Gibney, a documentary filmmaker who's been on quite a roll of late. A couple of years ago he made ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, last year he won an Oscar for TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, and now he's back with his Thompson doc. The reason I've spent so much time talking about Campaign Trail '72 is that I judge any work about Thompson on how it handles that particular book. And on that score, Gibney scores. In addition to all the necessary archival footage from the campaign, he also gets McGovern, and Gary Hart, McGovern's campaign manager, and Pat Buchanan, Nixon's press secretary, to talk about Thompson's coverage of their respective campaigns. McGovern clearly loves Hunter, laughingly telling tales of his unbelievable drinking binges. Gary Hart is all tight-lipped and "prim and proper" as he says "There's a real infantile aspect to Hunter. " And Pat Buchanan clearly gets a kick out of him, laughing about how hard he was on poor Hubert Humphrey, not just Richard Nixon.

The film also has some dark fun with parallels between now and 1972 (and 1968). Gibney sees clear parallels between the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq. George Bush seems to be channelling Nixon, Hillary Clinton may very well be Humphrey, and Barack Obama seems to be a reincarnation of Bobby Kennedy and/or McGovern.

The movie is also very good on Thompson's campaign for County Sheriff (his campaign platform including decriminalizing marijuana, tearing up the streets to put in bike paths, and changing the name of Aspen.) He even shaved his head, so he could blast the "long-haired" incumbent.

Now I don't want to ruin it for anybody, but, as you might have guessed, he lost the election ... just like George McGovern.

GONZO has already had its 2-screening run at SIFF, but it returns to Seattle for a regular run July 4th. Hunter Thompson will provide his own fireworks that day, since the film closes with his ashes being shot off an elaborate launching pad designed by Hunter himself and organized by his good friend Johnny Depp.