The fifty-minute BBC documentary that nobody who's seen it has ever forgotten. Nigel Finch follows the Doctor and Ralph Steadman through the American sporting landscape — the camera barely keeping up, the subjects barely cooperating. The best hour of gonzo on film. Start here.
The definitive feature documentary from Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney. Produced by Graydon Carter, narrated by Johnny Depp reading Thompson's own words. The fullest portrait of the man on film — his arc from Louisville to Woody Creek, told by the people who were there.
A reconstruction of his last day at Owl Farm. Unsettling and necessary — not morbid but illuminating. The man who made his exit a piece of performance art deserves at least one serious accounting of how it ended.
Harrison Salisbury sits down with the Doctor for a formal discussion of the writing process and gonzo as a method. Rare archival footage from UGA. This is the one to show anyone who asks what gonzo actually means — Thompson explaining himself more patiently than he usually bothered to.
From the Omnibus footage — Thompson on the myth of Raoul Duke and what it meant to write yourself into the story as a character. The distinction between HST the man and Duke the narrator is where the whole gonzo project lives.
The early Letterman appearance before either of them was fully famous — Thompson arrives, immediately destabilizes the format, and produces a gift for the host that network television probably wouldn't clear today. The chemistry between these two is its own genre.
Thompson discusses life at the Woody Creek compound and what happens when you write unfavorably about a sitting vice president and the Secret Service takes an interest. Characteristically unbothered. Dave is characteristically trying to keep up.
Thompson on the Dukakis-Bush race with the ink barely dry on the results. A masterclass in political despair delivered at an angle no straight reporter would dare file from. The '88 election as seen from Owl Farm through whatever was in the glass.