Alex Gibney Visits Gonzo's Dark Side

Hunter S. Thompson was a relief.

For 2 1/2 years, documentarian Alex Gibney was a part-time inhabitant of the outrageous journalist's strange world, pouring through early screeds and wild, middle-of-the-night, middle-of-nowhere audio recordings.

The rest of Gibney's time was spent on torture: crafting "Taxi to the Dark Side," a film that examines the death of an Afghan taxi driver at the hands of U.S. soldiers.

"I would walk back and forth between the two films, and it was probably useful in both cases," recalls Gibney, who released and won an Oscar for "Taxi" in the time it took to complete "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson."

"Doing 'Taxi' gave me an appreciation for the darker side of Hunter. . . . He understood pretty dark stuff and could be a fairly cruel person himself," the director continues. "And from 'Taxi,' I just needed a break -- I needed some laughs. Having Hunter to go to was a real tonic."

Gibney, also responsible for critical documentaries on Henry Kissinger and the Enron scandal, is working on "Casino Jack," a documentary about Jack Abramoff that uses the lobbyist's explosive downfall as a way of examining Washington's seedier side.

He was approached by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter with the idea for a Thompson film soon after the legendary writer's 2005 suicide.

Gibney respected Thompson's work, but that wasn't what made him say yes.

"It was a good time to talk about Hunter, because I sensed that people in power, particularly politicians, were using the agreed-upon rules of journalism against journalists," he recalls, sitting in a lobby two blocks from the White House during a recent visit to Washington. "It seemed to me that Hunter, by not playing by the rules, offered a glimpse into another kind of possibility. And particularly now, that seemed worth exploring."

Gibney approached the project wanting to understand Thompson as a writer and provocateur, as much as a troubled character besotted by notorious addictions. The Thompson estate gave Gibney's team access to a trove of files and tapes that carry the film through his days running a campaign for a Colorado sheriff's position to the journey that became "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," his coverage of the 1972 presidential election and the author's eventual decline.

Every ounce of narration is Thompson's own words, captured on tape or read by acolyte Johnny Depp.

Getting Depp took some maneuvering. So did the others -- Tom Wolfe, Pat Buchanan, George McGovern and Jimmy Carter -- all of whom sat to talk, with great affection, about Thompson.