Breakfast With Hunter (2003)

Directed by Wayne Ewing

This is the first of two documentaries I watched about Hunter S. Thompson, and it turns out I had already seen both previously. No matter, as the antics of Hunter S. Thompson are timelessly entertaining. This film covered the years of roughly 1997-2002, and one of the main focuses is on the production of the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

To watch this film in contrast to earlier documentaries such as Hunter Goes to Hollywood and Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision is interesting since he is such a character. During the time frame of this documentary, Hunter was at least 60, and you would expect even a wild character such as him to be slowing down, but not Hunter, as his fans should know better than that. He is as outrageous and as outspoken as ever, the film even chronicles his DUI arrest from 1995 on election day, which Hunter fought furiously as he felt he was at the center of a political witch hunt, as evidenced by the fact that he blew a Breathalyzer test well below the Colorado state limit and was convinced the arresting officers acted without merit which he was later able to prove. Of course, the judge ruled that the officer's lies did not matter and he would have to proceed with a trial anyway.

Alongside this story the production of the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is chronicled, which is interesting in and of itself, because as anyone that has watched the Criterion DVD knows, the film became a mess itself. The original writing team of husband Alex Cox (who was set to direct) and wife Tod Davies, were later fired from the film due to "creative differences" with Hunter, who constantly stood up for the film because he believed it to be his best work.

This incident itself is documented in the film when Alex Cox and Tod Davies show up to discuss their script (which of course Hunter didn't read) and other ideas for the film. A polite disagreement ends in Hunter shouting at them and calling the producer Laila Nabulsi to shout at her as well.

When it becomes obvious that Alex Cox and Tod Davies are not the right artists to adapt the book into a film, it is left up to Hunter to ask his good friend Johnny Depp to wait another month without work while a new director is found for the movie. Due to their kinship (which is also explored throughout the film), Johnny agrees to wait, for which we are all glad, because as we now know, Fear and Loathing turned out to be one of Johnny's defining roles.

Peppered throughout these escapades are interviews with some of Hunter's best friends, from the actors John Cusack, Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, and Benicio Del Toro, to the forever Thompson-linked artist Ralph Steadman, and even Hunter's son Juan. Through these interviews we learn how Hunter has impacted and influenced most of the current generation of entertainers. He broke the mold of expectations of the role model and celebrity, both of which he was most certainly not, at least in his own mind.

However, the film also recognizes his strong moral values and how vehemently he implemented them in his own life and to the others around him. This is the portrait of a strong and outspoken man, and how his wild and often erratic behavior so well served the statement his life made.

9.1/10