1
00:00:37,646 --> 00:00:39,800
...handoff
on the left side.

2
00:00:39,846 --> 00:00:43,779
...first down, hunter's out at
the 20-yard line and a big...

3
00:00:44,649 --> 00:00:46,732
sondi wright: he'd known
for a long time

4
00:00:46,767 --> 00:00:48,815
that he was no longer
a really good writer.

5
00:00:48,850 --> 00:00:51,346
he had spurts.

6
00:00:51,381 --> 00:00:54,082
douglas brinkley:
he lost that gonzo edge.

7
00:00:57,381 --> 00:00:59,347
tom wolfe: I wonder what's
happening to old hunter.

8
00:00:59,382 --> 00:01:01,681
he's kind of losing it.

9
00:01:03,715 --> 00:01:06,381
charles perry: creatively, he
had written all his great stuff.

10
00:01:06,416 --> 00:01:09,182
he hadn't been really
productive for five or six years.

11
00:01:09,217 --> 00:01:12,182
I think he just had
run out of juice.

12
00:01:13,414 --> 00:01:15,047
brinkley:
in hunter's last years-

13
00:01:15,082 --> 00:01:17,614
in order to really get the
juices stirred up in him-

14
00:01:17,649 --> 00:01:19,414
in what we call
quintessential hunter-

15
00:01:19,449 --> 00:01:21,113
it took something like-

16
00:01:21,148 --> 00:01:23,748
it had to almost a feel
like a kick in the groin.

17
00:01:26,281 --> 00:01:29,614
johnny depp: "it was just after
dawn in woody creek, colorado,

18
00:01:29,649 --> 00:01:31,981
when the first plane hit
the world trade center

19
00:01:32,016 --> 00:01:34,698
in new york city
on tuesday morning.

20
00:01:34,733 --> 00:01:37,381
and as usual I was
writing about sports,

21
00:01:37,416 --> 00:01:39,246
but not for long.

22
00:01:39,281 --> 00:01:41,080
football suddenly
seemed irrelevant

23
00:01:41,115 --> 00:01:44,182
compared to the scenes of
destruction and utter devastation

24
00:01:44,217 --> 00:01:46,613
coming out
of new york on tv."

25
00:01:54,148 --> 00:01:57,815
"the towers are gone now,
reduced to bloody rubble,

26
00:01:57,850 --> 00:02:00,516
along with all hopes
for peace in our time-

27
00:02:00,551 --> 00:02:03,182
in the united states
or any other country."

28
00:02:12,514 --> 00:02:17,381
"make no mistake about it:
we are at war now."

29
00:02:17,416 --> 00:02:21,148
* "there must be
some way out of here" *

30
00:02:21,183 --> 00:02:23,780
* said the joker
to the thief... *

31
00:02:23,815 --> 00:02:26,414
depp: "it will be a religious war
- a sort of christian jihad

32
00:02:26,449 --> 00:02:28,047
fueled by religious hatred

33
00:02:28,082 --> 00:02:31,048
and led by merciless
fanatics on both sides-

34
00:02:31,083 --> 00:02:33,113
guerrilla warfare
on a global scale

35
00:02:33,148 --> 00:02:36,115
with no front lines
and no identifiable enemy."

36
00:02:36,150 --> 00:02:40,281
* all along
the watchtower *

37
00:02:40,316 --> 00:02:43,713
* princes kept the view

38
00:02:43,748 --> 00:02:46,546
* while all the women
came and went... *

39
00:02:46,581 --> 00:02:48,913
depp: "we're gonna punish
somebody for this attack,

40
00:02:48,948 --> 00:02:52,514
but just who or what will be blown
to smithereens is hard to say-

41
00:02:52,549 --> 00:02:56,448
maybe afghanistan,
maybe pakistan or iraq."

42
00:02:56,483 --> 00:02:59,682
* two riders
were approaching *

43
00:02:59,717 --> 00:03:02,846
* the wind began
to howl. *

44
00:03:02,881 --> 00:03:05,764
"this is going to be
a very expensive war,

45
00:03:05,799 --> 00:03:08,613
and victory is not
guaranteed for anyone-

46
00:03:08,648 --> 00:03:11,681
and certainly not for anyone
as baffled as george w bush.

47
00:03:11,716 --> 00:03:13,746
he will declare
a national security emergency

48
00:03:13,781 --> 00:03:17,347
and clamp down hard on everybody,
no matter where they live or why.

49
00:03:17,382 --> 00:03:19,179
winston churchill
once said,

50
00:03:19,214 --> 00:03:21,481
'the first casualty of war
is always the truth.'

51
00:03:21,516 --> 00:03:25,780
the lid is on.
loose lips sink ships.

52
00:03:25,815 --> 00:03:29,148
don't say anything that
might give aid to the enemy."

53
00:03:35,381 --> 00:03:38,715
tv anchor: a giant of
the written word has died.

54
00:03:38,750 --> 00:03:41,282
hunter s thompson
was a lot of things-

55
00:03:41,317 --> 00:03:43,815
a journalist,
an author, a patriot,

56
00:03:43,850 --> 00:03:46,047
a professional
troublemaker,

57
00:03:46,082 --> 00:03:49,646
a complex walking
monument to misbehavior

58
00:03:49,681 --> 00:03:53,082
who apparently took his own
life with a gun last night.

59
00:03:53,117 --> 00:03:56,015
depp: "it was always at
night, like a werewolf,

60
00:03:56,050 --> 00:03:58,349
that I would
take the thing out

61
00:03:58,384 --> 00:04:00,865
for an honest run
down the coast.

62
00:04:00,900 --> 00:04:03,312
I would start
in golden gate park,

63
00:04:03,347 --> 00:04:06,514
thinking only to run a few
long curves to clear my head."

64
00:04:28,015 --> 00:04:31,381
"the momentary freedom of the
park was like the one unlucky drink

65
00:04:31,416 --> 00:04:33,865
that shoves a wavering
alcoholic off the wagon.

66
00:04:33,900 --> 00:04:36,314
but in a matter of minutes,
i'd be out at the beach

67
00:04:36,349 --> 00:04:38,314
with the sound
of the engine in my ears,

68
00:04:38,349 --> 00:04:40,413
the surf booming up
on the sea wall

69
00:04:40,448 --> 00:04:43,815
and a fine empty road stretching
all the way down to santa cruz.

70
00:04:43,850 --> 00:04:46,279
there was no helmet
on those nights,

71
00:04:46,314 --> 00:04:50,148
no speed limit and no cooling
it down around the curves.

72
00:04:56,881 --> 00:05:00,381
then into second gear,
forgetting the cars

73
00:05:00,416 --> 00:05:03,846
and letting the beast
wind out- 35, 45.

74
00:05:03,881 --> 00:05:07,015
then into third, not worried
about green or red signals

75
00:05:07,050 --> 00:05:09,799
but only some other
werewolf loony.

76
00:05:09,834 --> 00:05:12,548
now there is no sound
except wind.

77
00:05:14,648 --> 00:05:16,746
the needle
leans down on 100,

78
00:05:16,781 --> 00:05:20,548
and wind-burned eyeballs strain
to see down the centerline-

79
00:05:20,583 --> 00:05:23,347
no room at all
for mistakes.

80
00:05:25,182 --> 00:05:27,182
that's when
the strange music starts."

81
00:05:27,217 --> 00:05:30,880
* in the night

82
00:05:30,915 --> 00:05:36,980
* though we're apart... *

83
00:05:37,015 --> 00:05:40,348
depp: "the edge
- there is no honest way to explain it

84
00:05:40,383 --> 00:05:43,681
because the only people
who really know where it is

85
00:05:43,716 --> 00:05:45,548
are the ones
who have gone over.

86
00:05:45,583 --> 00:05:47,680
the others-
the living-

87
00:05:47,715 --> 00:05:50,915
are those who pushed their control as
far as they felt they could handle it,

88
00:05:50,950 --> 00:05:53,514
and then pulled back,
or slowed down.

89
00:05:56,214 --> 00:05:59,548
but the edge...
is still out there."

90
00:06:08,247 --> 00:06:10,464
man: what is your name, please?

91
00:06:10,499 --> 00:06:15,080
my name is
hunter thompson.

92
00:06:15,115 --> 00:06:17,981
my name is hunter thompson.

93
00:06:18,016 --> 00:06:20,147
sonny barger:
I met hunter in the '60s

94
00:06:20,182 --> 00:06:22,414
a short time before
he wrote the book on us.

95
00:06:22,449 --> 00:06:24,047
and he went on to become

96
00:06:24,082 --> 00:06:25,948
probably one
of the greatest writers

97
00:06:25,983 --> 00:06:27,913
that america will ever have.

98
00:06:27,948 --> 00:06:29,748
doesn't mean he isn't
a jerk in my eyes,

99
00:06:29,783 --> 00:06:31,581
but he's
a very good writer.

100
00:06:33,848 --> 00:06:36,680
wolfe: hunter reminds
me so much of mark twain.

101
00:06:36,715 --> 00:06:40,448
he was a reporter- twain
started out as a reporter-

102
00:06:40,483 --> 00:06:42,346
with a wild imagination

103
00:06:42,381 --> 00:06:44,346
and he's not
trying to fool you.

104
00:06:44,381 --> 00:06:48,448
you know immediately that
he is filtering reality

105
00:06:48,483 --> 00:06:50,546
through what hunter
called gonzo.

106
00:06:50,581 --> 00:06:54,597
man: will the real hunter
thompson please stand up?

107
00:06:54,632 --> 00:06:58,614
wright: will the real
hunter thompson stand up?

108
00:07:01,748 --> 00:07:06,015
that was before I understood
what all that was going to mean.

109
00:07:11,948 --> 00:07:14,813
oops, are we marking?

110
00:07:14,848 --> 00:07:17,781
oh, no! god!
help us, jesus!

111
00:07:17,816 --> 00:07:20,680
I know it.
it's in my interest-

112
00:07:20,715 --> 00:07:22,865
maybe in the interest
of greatest good-

113
00:07:22,900 --> 00:07:24,980
for me to smoke
a joint and calm down.

114
00:07:25,015 --> 00:07:28,115
jimmy carter: he was not
afraid to rock the boat,

115
00:07:28,150 --> 00:07:30,013
to challenge
the establishment

116
00:07:30,048 --> 00:07:33,981
and express himself in unique and
radical, sometimes shocking, ways.

117
00:07:34,016 --> 00:07:37,548
pat buchanan: he described me
as a half-crazed davy crockett

118
00:07:37,583 --> 00:07:41,182
running around the parapets
of nixon's alamo.

119
00:07:41,217 --> 00:07:43,780
we were all amused
by him.

120
00:07:43,815 --> 00:07:46,314
he was an interesting guy
to be around.

121
00:07:46,349 --> 00:07:49,813
he asked you
unexpected questions.

122
00:07:49,848 --> 00:07:53,281
most people were surprised
that I walk on two legs.

123
00:07:53,316 --> 00:07:56,880
I think people think
I’m... very much-

124
00:07:56,915 --> 00:07:59,381
maybe a violent version
of that comic strip.

125
00:08:04,881 --> 00:08:08,364
this is the last drawing
I did of him so far.

126
00:08:08,399 --> 00:08:11,848
"my god! I musta missed-
it's hell down here!"

127
00:08:13,648 --> 00:08:15,881
ralph steadman: he's pushing the
boundaries as much as he could.

128
00:08:15,916 --> 00:08:19,780
life to him was
the challenge.

129
00:08:19,815 --> 00:08:22,081
he was gonna be dead
at 30, anyway,

130
00:08:22,116 --> 00:08:24,347
so now he was living
on borrowed time.

131
00:08:42,548 --> 00:08:44,546
"dear hunter,
it is over a year

132
00:08:44,581 --> 00:08:48,182
since you set the scene for your strangely
- planned suicide.

133
00:08:48,217 --> 00:08:50,314
the messages that I have
received from you

134
00:08:50,349 --> 00:08:53,598
up to the bush/kerry
election of 2004

135
00:08:53,633 --> 00:08:56,813
were infected
by a dismal undertone.

136
00:08:56,848 --> 00:09:00,564
'if bush wins,' you said,
'the planet is doomed.'

137
00:09:00,599 --> 00:09:04,123
when you pulled
the trigger on your magnum.44,

138
00:09:04,158 --> 00:09:07,648
my first reaction was to
say, 'about bloody time.

139
00:09:07,683 --> 00:09:10,299
he's been threatening
to do that for years.'

140
00:09:10,334 --> 00:09:12,915
you were never reasonable, and you knew,

141
00:09:12,950 --> 00:09:14,781
in spite
of your wayward spirit,

142
00:09:14,816 --> 00:09:16,680
you were not invincible.

143
00:09:16,715 --> 00:09:19,815
those who grew to be a
threat to your america

144
00:09:19,850 --> 00:09:21,446
continue to burgeon.

145
00:09:21,481 --> 00:09:25,013
for you, it was
victory or game over.

146
00:09:25,048 --> 00:09:29,247
I just wanted you to hang
around and nail the beauty

147
00:09:29,282 --> 00:09:31,379
of that image
of absolute evil.

148
00:09:31,414 --> 00:09:36,481
but you leave us with
a blueprint, old sport.

149
00:09:36,516 --> 00:09:38,481
take it up
with the gods.

150
00:09:38,516 --> 00:09:41,614
send word.
ralph."

151
00:09:43,314 --> 00:09:45,481
wright:
I think he was important

152
00:09:45,516 --> 00:09:47,346
in a literary way

153
00:09:47,381 --> 00:09:50,680
and also
in a political way.

154
00:09:50,715 --> 00:09:54,948
and I think that
his story is tragic.

155
00:09:54,983 --> 00:09:57,949
he was loving.

156
00:09:57,984 --> 00:10:00,880
he was generous.

157
00:10:00,915 --> 00:10:03,915
on the other end
of the spectrum,

158
00:10:03,950 --> 00:10:06,147
the boy in the man

159
00:10:06,182 --> 00:10:08,147
was absolutely vicious.

160
00:10:08,182 --> 00:10:09,980
god damn, you dumbass!
reach under there

161
00:10:10,015 --> 00:10:12,314
- and get some goddamned medicine!
- man: over here?

162
00:10:12,349 --> 00:10:14,212
to the right.

163
00:10:14,247 --> 00:10:16,481
anita thompson: hunter
had two extremes in him

164
00:10:16,516 --> 00:10:18,632
that he lived with
constantly-

165
00:10:18,667 --> 00:10:20,707
the generous,
beautiful hunter

166
00:10:20,742 --> 00:10:22,748
and the scary,
mean, cruel hunter.

167
00:10:22,783 --> 00:10:25,413
and he was aware
of both.

168
00:10:25,448 --> 00:10:28,514
I don't know if he was in
control of both all the time,

169
00:10:28,549 --> 00:10:30,298
but he was certainly
aware of both.

170
00:10:30,333 --> 00:10:32,107
and they became
present in his life

171
00:10:32,142 --> 00:10:33,881
when he was very young-
both sides.

172
00:10:42,247 --> 00:10:45,280
brinkley: you've gotta go
back to louisville, kentucky,

173
00:10:45,315 --> 00:10:48,314
to understand him. his
father died when he was young.

174
00:10:48,349 --> 00:10:51,247
so you had a mother
raising three boys

175
00:10:51,282 --> 00:10:53,212
on a librarian salary.

176
00:10:53,247 --> 00:10:55,481
he lived- it wasn't
even middle class,

177
00:10:55,516 --> 00:10:57,680
it was a lower-
middle-class existence.

178
00:10:57,715 --> 00:10:59,848
his friends were the rich
kids of louisville,

179
00:10:59,883 --> 00:11:01,913
the ones that
had all the privilege.

180
00:11:01,948 --> 00:11:04,681
so he was on the other side
of the railroad tracks.

181
00:11:04,716 --> 00:11:07,414
yet, hunter was very smart,
naturally intelligent,

182
00:11:07,449 --> 00:11:09,781
and he always felt
a bit like the outsider.

183
00:11:13,048 --> 00:11:15,913
he was a real hellion
on vandalism.

184
00:11:15,948 --> 00:11:19,614
the seminal experience was
when he and a group of buddies

185
00:11:19,649 --> 00:11:21,513
were partying
and smoking cigarettes

186
00:11:21,548 --> 00:11:24,114
and drinking beer.
they were all arrested.

187
00:11:24,149 --> 00:11:26,415
the rich kids who knew
the judges got out.

188
00:11:26,450 --> 00:11:28,681
hunter never got to walk
for graduation.

189
00:11:28,716 --> 00:11:30,246
he was in jail.

190
00:11:30,281 --> 00:11:32,648
depp: "I could see the
moon hung high in the sky

191
00:11:32,683 --> 00:11:35,047
with a mocking grin
on his face.

192
00:11:35,082 --> 00:11:37,881
I seized the bars,
and shrieked and wailed

193
00:11:37,916 --> 00:11:40,432
like a soul
who's lost in hell."

194
00:11:40,467 --> 00:11:42,913
wright:
essentially, inside...

195
00:11:42,948 --> 00:11:46,347
hunter was an agonized
human being.

196
00:11:46,382 --> 00:11:48,579
but he also felt

197
00:11:48,614 --> 00:11:51,579
like he had
the potential

198
00:11:51,614 --> 00:11:54,579
of being
a really great writer.

199
00:11:54,614 --> 00:11:58,281
brinkley: "the great gatsby"
is how hunter learned to write.

200
00:11:58,316 --> 00:12:01,182
he would type "the great
gatsby" over and over again

201
00:12:01,217 --> 00:12:04,466
just to learn
the music of fitzgerald.

202
00:12:04,501 --> 00:12:07,680
"the great gatsby"
was filled with anger

203
00:12:07,715 --> 00:12:10,346
that the whole deal
in american life was rigged.

204
00:12:10,381 --> 00:12:13,831
hunter identified with fitzgerald
i'd say more than any other writer.

205
00:12:13,866 --> 00:12:17,281
the difference is fitzgerald would
look in on the candy store window,

206
00:12:17,316 --> 00:12:19,482
look in on the storefronts
of the rich.

207
00:12:19,517 --> 00:12:21,648
hunter wanted
to smash the windows.

208
00:12:26,182 --> 00:12:29,548
wright: hunter was extremely seductive.

209
00:12:29,583 --> 00:12:31,948
I was very attracted
to hunter.

210
00:12:31,983 --> 00:12:34,314
his energy
was just phenomenal.

211
00:12:34,349 --> 00:12:36,279
he wrote every day.

212
00:12:36,314 --> 00:12:39,648
he was getting paid $100
for an article or something,

213
00:12:39,683 --> 00:12:41,680
but we were very poor.

214
00:12:41,715 --> 00:12:44,248
when I was pregnant
with my son,

215
00:12:44,283 --> 00:12:46,746
hunter shot elk
and I ate elk liver,

216
00:12:46,781 --> 00:12:49,414
milk and salad, period.
that's all I ate.

217
00:12:50,781 --> 00:12:53,047
brinkley: here was a guy struggling.

218
00:12:53,082 --> 00:12:55,082
he had his wife sondi
with him.

219
00:12:55,117 --> 00:12:57,047
he was living
on a freelancer,

220
00:12:57,082 --> 00:12:59,314
check to check,
barely able to pay rent.

221
00:12:59,349 --> 00:13:01,279
so when he got
the assignment

222
00:13:01,314 --> 00:13:03,212
from carey mcwilliams
of "the nation"

223
00:13:03,247 --> 00:13:05,048
to write about this
phenomenon- hell's angels-

224
00:13:05,083 --> 00:13:06,713
it was a big deal.

225
00:13:06,748 --> 00:13:08,931
man: "i, hunter thompson, am a writer.

226
00:13:08,966 --> 00:13:11,074
recently, I spent
over a year living

227
00:13:11,109 --> 00:13:13,147
in close contact
with a notorious

228
00:13:13,182 --> 00:13:15,681
california motorcycle gang
which is the basis

229
00:13:15,716 --> 00:13:17,646
of my new book,
'hell's angels.'"

230
00:13:17,681 --> 00:13:20,481
signed "hunter thompson."

231
00:13:22,381 --> 00:13:26,082
uh, number two, approximately how
many members do the hell's angels have?

232
00:13:26,117 --> 00:13:28,581
it varies.
anywhere from-

233
00:13:28,616 --> 00:13:30,632
i'd say 100 to 200.

234
00:13:32,648 --> 00:13:35,348
brinkley: hunter infiltrated the story.

235
00:13:35,383 --> 00:13:38,048
he considered himself
a photojournalist.

236
00:13:38,083 --> 00:13:41,147
in his early
applications for jobs,

237
00:13:41,182 --> 00:13:43,048
he was always looking
to be a photographer.

238
00:13:47,581 --> 00:13:51,114
depp: "the sight of a photographer
invariably whips the angels

239
00:13:51,149 --> 00:13:54,148
into a kissing frenzy. this
is a guaranteed square-jolter,

240
00:13:54,183 --> 00:13:57,148
and the angels are gleefully
aware of the reaction it gets.

241
00:13:57,183 --> 00:13:59,432
'they can't stand it,'
says terry.

242
00:13:59,467 --> 00:14:01,681
'it blows their minds
every time-

243
00:14:01,716 --> 00:14:04,379
especially
the tongue bit.'"

244
00:14:04,414 --> 00:14:07,648
wolfe: it is one of the bravura
pieces of reporting of all time.

245
00:14:07,683 --> 00:14:10,648
he actually, as they say,
ran with the angels for-

246
00:14:10,683 --> 00:14:13,147
he was embedded,
you know?

247
00:14:13,182 --> 00:14:15,347
he was embedded in the
hell's angels battalion.

248
00:14:26,548 --> 00:14:29,279
depp:
"the menace is loose again.

249
00:14:29,314 --> 00:14:31,980
the hell's angels,
the 100-carat headline,

250
00:14:32,015 --> 00:14:34,514
running fast and loud
on the early-morning freeway

251
00:14:34,549 --> 00:14:37,148
like genghis khan
on an iron horse...

252
00:14:38,715 --> 00:14:41,147
a monstrous steed
with a fiery anus,

253
00:14:41,182 --> 00:14:44,281
flat out through the eye of a
beer can and up your daughter's leg

254
00:14:44,316 --> 00:14:47,115
with no quarter asked
and none given."

255
00:14:47,150 --> 00:14:49,915
brinkley: it was the beginning of hunter

256
00:14:49,950 --> 00:14:51,579
developing his style.

257
00:14:51,614 --> 00:14:54,713
it is not gonzo,
it's not surreal.

258
00:14:54,748 --> 00:14:58,314
it is straight journalism,
but it's participatory.

259
00:15:00,115 --> 00:15:03,581
depp: "weird as it seems, as
this gang of costumed hoodlums

260
00:15:03,616 --> 00:15:05,513
converged on monterey
that morning

261
00:15:05,548 --> 00:15:08,015
they were on the verge
of 'making it big,'

262
00:15:08,050 --> 00:15:10,279
as the showbiz
people say,

263
00:15:10,314 --> 00:15:13,281
and they would owe most of their
success to a curious rape mania

264
00:15:13,316 --> 00:15:15,648
that rides on the shoulder
of american journalism

265
00:15:15,683 --> 00:15:18,746
like some jeering,
masturbating raven.

266
00:15:18,781 --> 00:15:22,014
nothing grabs an editor's
eye like a good rape.

267
00:15:22,049 --> 00:15:25,212
to them, the appearance
of the hell's angels

268
00:15:25,247 --> 00:15:27,981
must have seemed like a
wonderful publicity stunt."

269
00:15:30,082 --> 00:15:34,115
hell's angels accused
of rape and perversion,

270
00:15:34,150 --> 00:15:37,115
theft, narcotics
and violence.

271
00:15:39,048 --> 00:15:41,246
and the attorney
general says,

272
00:15:41,281 --> 00:15:44,214
"they will no longer be
allowed to threaten the lives,

273
00:15:44,249 --> 00:15:47,681
the peace and security
of honest citizens.

274
00:15:48,815 --> 00:15:51,114
hell's angels are
the biggest

275
00:15:51,149 --> 00:15:53,765
of the outlaw
motorcycle clubs."

276
00:15:53,800 --> 00:15:56,381
oh, shit!
I just can't do it.

277
00:15:58,115 --> 00:16:00,231
depp: "in a nation
of frightened dullards

278
00:16:00,266 --> 00:16:02,312
there's always a sorry
shortage of outlaws,

279
00:16:02,347 --> 00:16:06,381
and those few who make the
grade are always welcome.

280
00:16:06,416 --> 00:16:09,282
the hell's angels pose
for television cameramen

281
00:16:09,317 --> 00:16:11,865
and answered questions
on radio call-in shows.

282
00:16:11,900 --> 00:16:14,414
they were sought out
by mystics and poets,

283
00:16:14,449 --> 00:16:16,546
cheered on
by student rebels

284
00:16:16,581 --> 00:16:20,247
and invited to parties given
by liberals and intellectuals."

285
00:16:20,282 --> 00:16:23,546
number two,
who is the author

286
00:16:23,581 --> 00:16:26,915
that sort of leads the
kind of lsd sect out there

287
00:16:26,950 --> 00:16:29,214
in los-
san francisco?

288
00:16:29,249 --> 00:16:31,246
ken kesey.

289
00:16:31,281 --> 00:16:33,514
number two, the merry
pranksters gave a party

290
00:16:33,549 --> 00:16:35,681
for the hell's angels-
were you there?

291
00:16:35,716 --> 00:16:38,946
- -that lasted two days?
- yes.

292
00:16:38,981 --> 00:16:42,214
we're going out on an outing
- on a sunday outing.

293
00:16:42,249 --> 00:16:45,448
oh, this is lovely.
you know, our little family.

294
00:16:45,483 --> 00:16:47,680
and so we ended up-
hunter said,

295
00:16:47,715 --> 00:16:50,648
"oh, you know,
something's happening over-

296
00:16:50,683 --> 00:16:53,615
let's go just kind
of check it out."

297
00:16:53,650 --> 00:16:56,513
the big banners
out there saying

298
00:16:56,548 --> 00:16:59,481
"the merry pranksters
welcome the hell's angels."

299
00:17:02,514 --> 00:17:05,613
I thought I was
having a lot of fun.

300
00:17:05,648 --> 00:17:08,497
juan was in the car asleep.
everybody was on acid.

301
00:17:08,532 --> 00:17:11,347
I wasn't.hunter wasn't.
he hadn't taken acid yet.

302
00:17:11,382 --> 00:17:13,615
and everybody is
pretty happy and dancing

303
00:17:13,650 --> 00:17:15,982
and then watching
this five-hour film

304
00:17:16,017 --> 00:17:18,314
or something
kesey had put together.

305
00:17:18,349 --> 00:17:21,346
and when we left...

306
00:17:21,381 --> 00:17:25,448
hunter said, "did you know
what was happening in there?"

307
00:17:25,483 --> 00:17:27,413
and I said,
"what do you mean?"

308
00:17:27,448 --> 00:17:30,897
and he said, "well, there
was a gangbang going on."

309
00:17:30,932 --> 00:17:34,347
hunter: I’m watching it as
I was about six feet away.

310
00:17:34,382 --> 00:17:36,312
see from the door,
the lights were on,

311
00:17:36,347 --> 00:17:38,980
there was a kind of a filmy
curtain over the door.

312
00:17:39,015 --> 00:17:42,381
you could see shadows moving around on
the side. if you knew what was happening-

313
00:17:42,416 --> 00:17:44,781
you could interpret the movements
of all these shadowy figures

314
00:17:44,816 --> 00:17:47,212
behind this curtain
- silhouettes is what they were.

315
00:17:47,247 --> 00:17:49,981
you could see people getting down on
her, other people holding her legs,

316
00:17:50,016 --> 00:17:51,713
and really...

317
00:17:51,748 --> 00:17:53,715
surrealistically
horrifying.

318
00:17:55,548 --> 00:17:58,214
brinkley: the tape recorder
for hunter was essential.

319
00:17:58,249 --> 00:18:00,179
he always brought
a tape recorder-

320
00:18:00,214 --> 00:18:04,214
like those famous- now- tapes
of the hell's angels party.

321
00:18:20,514 --> 00:18:24,182
brinkley: those tapes became a big
part of the book "hell's angels,"

322
00:18:24,217 --> 00:18:26,815
but he also loaned
those tapes to tom wolfe.

323
00:18:26,850 --> 00:18:29,813
wolfe used those tapes

324
00:18:29,848 --> 00:18:34,214
and extracted things from them for
"the electric kool-aid acid test."

325
00:18:34,249 --> 00:18:36,579
wolfe: I had a hard time with the tape

326
00:18:36,614 --> 00:18:39,197
about the rape scene
at the hell's angels party.

327
00:18:39,232 --> 00:18:41,746
it was dynamite, from a
reporting point of view,

328
00:18:41,781 --> 00:18:44,681
but the thing was, I knew who
the key figures in that were.

329
00:18:44,716 --> 00:18:48,048
one was the ex-wife...

330
00:18:48,083 --> 00:18:50,346
of neal cassady.

331
00:18:50,381 --> 00:18:54,448
and she
quite willingly...

332
00:18:54,483 --> 00:18:56,582
invited the-

333
00:18:56,617 --> 00:18:58,646
the entire corps

334
00:18:58,681 --> 00:19:01,680
of hell's angels
to have a go at her.

335
00:19:01,715 --> 00:19:05,314
wright: it wasn't the kesey
people who were doing the gangbang.

336
00:19:05,349 --> 00:19:08,848
they were about love
and happiness...

337
00:19:08,883 --> 00:19:12,312
and togetherness
and community...

338
00:19:12,347 --> 00:19:14,915
and love and light.
they were, the angels weren't.

339
00:19:16,314 --> 00:19:18,446
depp:
"it was about this time

340
00:19:18,481 --> 00:19:21,614
that my long-standing rapport with
the angels began to deteriorate.

341
00:19:21,649 --> 00:19:24,748
for nearly a year I had lived
in a world that seemed, at first,

342
00:19:24,783 --> 00:19:26,646
like something original.

343
00:19:26,681 --> 00:19:28,479
it was obvious
from the beginning

344
00:19:28,514 --> 00:19:31,015
that the menace bore little
resemblance to its publicized image.

345
00:19:31,050 --> 00:19:34,347
later, as they attracted
more and more attention,

346
00:19:34,382 --> 00:19:36,931
the mystique
was stretched so thin

347
00:19:36,966 --> 00:19:39,481
that it finally
became transparent.

348
00:19:41,481 --> 00:19:45,746
the honeymoon came to a
jangled end on october 16th,

349
00:19:45,781 --> 00:19:48,648
when the hell's angels attacked
a get out of vietnam demonstration

350
00:19:48,683 --> 00:19:50,781
at the oakland-berkeley
border."

351
00:19:56,548 --> 00:19:58,581
man on tv: the bike
rider is clifford workman,

352
00:19:58,616 --> 00:20:00,212
treasurer
of the hell's angels.

353
00:20:00,247 --> 00:20:02,113
he's here to challenge
his biographer,

354
00:20:02,148 --> 00:20:05,182
a tense young literary
journalist named hunter thompson.

355
00:20:05,217 --> 00:20:06,981
what did you think
of the book?

356
00:20:07,016 --> 00:20:09,113
well, I’ll tell you, al

357
00:20:09,148 --> 00:20:13,148
and hunter, everybody in this room,

358
00:20:13,183 --> 00:20:15,613
that that book
is 60% cheap trash.

359
00:20:15,648 --> 00:20:18,715
this is what happened: junkie
george was beating his own lady.

360
00:20:18,750 --> 00:20:21,581
al: junkie george?

361
00:20:23,281 --> 00:20:26,780
clifford: junkie george's
dog bit him, right?

362
00:20:26,815 --> 00:20:29,031
- hunter: I didn't see- - to
me, this is a personal affair.

363
00:20:29,066 --> 00:20:31,247
if a guy wants to beat his
wife and his dog bites him,

364
00:20:31,282 --> 00:20:32,613
that's between
the three of them.

365
00:20:32,648 --> 00:20:34,564
but there was somebody
about 30' to my left

366
00:20:34,599 --> 00:20:36,446
beating his wife
to a pulp on the rocks.

367
00:20:36,481 --> 00:20:38,481
if he had been beating her that
bad, somebody would have stopped him.

368
00:20:38,516 --> 00:20:40,346
oh, no.don't- don't-
you're kidding me

369
00:20:40,381 --> 00:20:42,331
and you're gonna kid everybody
else. nobody stopped him.

370
00:20:42,366 --> 00:20:44,281
you know he beat his wife up.
you just said it, right?

371
00:20:44,316 --> 00:20:46,615
you walked right up
to him and you said,

372
00:20:46,650 --> 00:20:48,880
"only a punk beats
his wife and dog."

373
00:20:48,915 --> 00:20:51,948
- you finish it- - and he said,
"hunter, you want some of this?"

374
00:20:51,983 --> 00:20:54,813
and you said, "no."
but you got it anyways.

375
00:20:54,848 --> 00:20:58,115
and when he hit you, three
or four others hit you too.

376
00:20:58,150 --> 00:20:59,813
we let them beat him up
for a minute,

377
00:20:59,848 --> 00:21:02,214
then we broke it up and
told him to get out of there.

378
00:21:02,249 --> 00:21:04,846
he left and got in his car. well, uh-

379
00:21:04,881 --> 00:21:08,379
he says that he went
to the police station

380
00:21:08,414 --> 00:21:11,648
all bloodied-up and they threw
him out, which is malarkey.

381
00:21:11,683 --> 00:21:13,981
I mean, but it's part
of his style of writing.

382
00:21:16,182 --> 00:21:18,881
depp: "my face looked
like it had been jammed

383
00:21:18,916 --> 00:21:21,131
into the spokes
of a speeding harley,

384
00:21:21,166 --> 00:21:23,690
and the only thing
keeping me awake

385
00:21:23,725 --> 00:21:26,214
was the spastic pain
of a broken rib.

386
00:21:26,249 --> 00:21:28,179
it had been
a bad trip-

387
00:21:28,214 --> 00:21:31,881
fast and wild in some moments,
slow and dirty in others,

388
00:21:31,916 --> 00:21:35,082
but on balance
it looked like a bummer.

389
00:21:35,117 --> 00:21:37,212
on my way back
to san francisco,

390
00:21:37,247 --> 00:21:39,314
I tried to compose
a fitting epitaph.

391
00:21:39,349 --> 00:21:41,479
I wanted
something original,

392
00:21:41,514 --> 00:21:44,748
but there was no escaping the
echo of mistah kurtz's final words

393
00:21:44,783 --> 00:21:46,448
from the 'heart
of darkness':

394
00:21:46,483 --> 00:21:50,246
'the horror!
the horror!

395
00:21:50,281 --> 00:21:53,048
exterminate
all the brutes!'"

396
00:21:54,848 --> 00:21:57,948
brinkley: although "hell's
angels" rocketed him

397
00:21:57,983 --> 00:21:59,880
to name recognition
and success,

398
00:21:59,915 --> 00:22:02,948
he didn't see it himself as being
the successful book that he wanted.

399
00:22:02,983 --> 00:22:04,579
it didn't sell enough
for him,

400
00:22:04,614 --> 00:22:06,680
even though it made
the best-seller list.

401
00:22:06,715 --> 00:22:09,481
he didn't make enough money off of
it.he felt ripped off by the publisher.

402
00:22:09,516 --> 00:22:11,179
he got frustrated
with that.

403
00:22:11,214 --> 00:22:14,031
he had thought that it
would be the home run,

404
00:22:14,066 --> 00:22:16,813
but what it did do,
that book made him realize

405
00:22:16,848 --> 00:22:20,214
that there was a market in
the freak circus of the '60s.

406
00:22:23,781 --> 00:22:27,748
brinkley: and it became this
thing going on out in the bay area

407
00:22:27,783 --> 00:22:30,381
and hunter was
deeply part of it.

408
00:22:33,715 --> 00:22:37,246
he used to drive
his bsa lightning motorbike

409
00:22:37,281 --> 00:22:40,981
and go to the matrix and
befriended jefferson airplane.

410
00:22:41,016 --> 00:22:43,314
he had a huge crush
on grace slick.

411
00:22:43,349 --> 00:22:44,880
* oh!

412
00:22:44,915 --> 00:22:46,848
* is it any wonder
why I feel like *

413
00:22:46,883 --> 00:22:49,915
* my whole
life is through? *

414
00:22:49,950 --> 00:22:51,913
* yeah!

415
00:22:51,948 --> 00:22:55,164
* when I stop feeling how
strong my love is for you... *

416
00:22:55,199 --> 00:22:58,381
jann wenner: the san
francisco bay area was a hotbed

417
00:22:58,416 --> 00:23:00,013
of live
rock 'n' roll stuff,

418
00:23:00,048 --> 00:23:02,347
drug culture,
psychedelics, kesey,

419
00:23:02,382 --> 00:23:05,713
politics,
campus activism.

420
00:23:05,748 --> 00:23:07,579
it was more on the edge
culturally

421
00:23:07,614 --> 00:23:10,314
than any other place in the
country. there's more freedom there.

422
00:23:10,349 --> 00:23:13,379
"rolling stone" began and
merged all those elements.

423
00:23:13,414 --> 00:23:16,097
and we just thought there was a
time for a new kind of politics

424
00:23:16,132 --> 00:23:18,781
and it would emerge out of
the rock 'n' roll consciousness

425
00:23:18,816 --> 00:23:21,347
and that rock 'n' roll
ethos and that idea.

426
00:23:21,382 --> 00:23:27,748
* today I feel like
pleasing you *

427
00:23:27,783 --> 00:23:29,713
* more than before...

428
00:23:29,748 --> 00:23:32,448
wright: the energy was just phenomenal.

429
00:23:32,483 --> 00:23:35,682
it was like
losing your identity

430
00:23:35,717 --> 00:23:38,881
and being
just kind of sucked...

431
00:23:38,916 --> 00:23:41,379
into whatever,
you know?

432
00:23:41,414 --> 00:23:43,379
whatever-
whatever this was,

433
00:23:43,414 --> 00:23:46,347
it was some kind of
magical something or other.

434
00:23:46,382 --> 00:23:48,881
*...all I want to do

435
00:23:50,881 --> 00:23:54,212
* to be loving you

436
00:23:54,247 --> 00:24:00,281
* it'll all be there when
my dreams come true... *

437
00:24:02,748 --> 00:24:05,815
tim crouse: hunter was a
romantic. hunter's utopia,

438
00:24:05,850 --> 00:24:09,247
which he had experienced
before I met him,

439
00:24:09,282 --> 00:24:13,346
was san francisco
in the early '60s.

440
00:24:13,381 --> 00:24:17,748
but there was always
two great moral pressures-

441
00:24:17,783 --> 00:24:20,312
the war
and civil rights.

442
00:24:20,347 --> 00:24:25,013
* today you'll make me say... *

443
00:24:25,048 --> 00:24:28,314
buchanan: there's bitterness
and nastiness to politics today,

444
00:24:28,349 --> 00:24:31,815
but I don't sense
the same anger and rage

445
00:24:31,850 --> 00:24:34,047
that we had
in the 1960s-

446
00:24:34,082 --> 00:24:35,680
anti-war demonstrations,
riots,

447
00:24:35,715 --> 00:24:40,614
disorders of racial conflict,
the generational conflict.

448
00:24:40,649 --> 00:24:42,648
and hunter was right
in the middle of that.

449
00:24:42,683 --> 00:24:46,247
*...any more
than all I am *

450
00:24:46,282 --> 00:24:49,448
* would be a lie...

451
00:24:51,614 --> 00:24:54,381
brinkley: the last period
where there was an optimism

452
00:24:54,416 --> 00:24:56,481
in hunter about america
were the kennedys,

453
00:24:56,516 --> 00:24:59,299
with john kennedy
and bobby kennedy.

454
00:24:59,334 --> 00:25:02,047
hunter liked that they
had such hubris.

455
00:25:02,082 --> 00:25:05,681
they could be good politicians
but play hard at midnight.

456
00:25:05,716 --> 00:25:08,347
that meant a lot.
those were his guys.

457
00:25:08,382 --> 00:25:09,980
I want
the politics of hope,

458
00:25:10,015 --> 00:25:12,548
because I think that we can
do better in this country.

459
00:25:12,583 --> 00:25:14,179
and I don't think
that we can say

460
00:25:14,214 --> 00:25:16,379
that we are joyous
or that we are happy

461
00:25:16,414 --> 00:25:19,097
if 590 americans are killed
in vietnam last week

462
00:25:19,132 --> 00:25:21,781
and if we have rioting
in our nation's capital.

463
00:25:21,816 --> 00:25:23,314
I think that
we can do better.

464
00:25:23,349 --> 00:25:25,881
*...all for you.

465
00:25:31,314 --> 00:25:34,179
depp: "the day after
robert kennedy died

466
00:25:34,214 --> 00:25:37,481
I received a notice from the
local railway express office

467
00:25:37,516 --> 00:25:40,713
saying my walther p-38
automatic pistol had arrived.

468
00:25:40,748 --> 00:25:45,015
we shot it one afternoon, agreeing
that it had a very smooth action...

469
00:25:45,050 --> 00:25:47,479
and then I sent it back.

470
00:25:47,514 --> 00:25:49,697
returning the p-38
solved nothing.

471
00:25:49,732 --> 00:25:51,846
it only postponed
the necessity

472
00:25:51,881 --> 00:25:54,048
of coming to grips
with my gun problem."

473
00:25:54,083 --> 00:25:57,613
* hey, joe...

474
00:25:57,648 --> 00:26:00,347
* where you goin'
with that gun in your hand? *

475
00:26:03,715 --> 00:26:06,381
brinkley: hunter saw guns as
one of the great things in life.

476
00:26:06,416 --> 00:26:09,048
he loved shooting them and
firing them whenever he could.

477
00:26:09,083 --> 00:26:11,915
* where you goin'
with that gun in your hand? *

478
00:26:11,950 --> 00:26:13,546
when he's at big sur,
he would go

479
00:26:13,581 --> 00:26:16,715
wild-boar, wild-pig hunting
with a submachine gun.

480
00:26:20,481 --> 00:26:22,915
juan thompson: I had a bb gun
when I was like seven, probably.

481
00:26:22,950 --> 00:26:24,932
those are some of my best
memories from that time,

482
00:26:24,967 --> 00:26:26,915
because it was something
we both enjoyed doing,

483
00:26:26,950 --> 00:26:28,832
but it was also because
it was time

484
00:26:28,867 --> 00:26:30,680
we were building
our relationship

485
00:26:30,715 --> 00:26:33,831
as a father and son, and not
just as kind of roommates.

486
00:26:33,866 --> 00:26:36,913
wenner: the guns
- they weren't just for amusement.

487
00:26:36,948 --> 00:26:39,082
he liked the noise, the violence
and the destruction of it.

488
00:26:39,117 --> 00:26:41,247
and he had that
in his personal life too.

489
00:26:41,282 --> 00:26:43,279
we had
a real violent streak.

490
00:26:43,314 --> 00:26:45,646
wright: the first time
he took acid, hunter says,

491
00:26:45,681 --> 00:26:48,581
"sondi, get me the gun." i
said, "I can't get you the gun.

492
00:26:48,616 --> 00:26:52,715
I’m terrified something
is gonna happen to juan."

493
00:26:52,750 --> 00:26:55,215
and- and hunter says,

494
00:26:55,250 --> 00:26:57,646
"you get me that gun

495
00:26:57,681 --> 00:27:00,913
or I’m throwing this boot
through the window."

496
00:27:00,948 --> 00:27:03,581
he throws the boot through the
window.

497
00:27:05,514 --> 00:27:09,048
depp: "had my brain turned
into jelly from too much acid?

498
00:27:09,083 --> 00:27:11,648
what was I doing
with all these guns?

499
00:27:11,683 --> 00:27:13,279
my angst began
to fester

500
00:27:13,314 --> 00:27:15,997
as the gun-control argument
raged closer to home.

501
00:27:16,032 --> 00:27:18,646
more and more people
began telling each other

502
00:27:18,681 --> 00:27:23,148
that the gun was the ultimate
cure for what ails us...

503
00:27:23,183 --> 00:27:25,113
the american way."

504
00:27:25,148 --> 00:27:28,846
brinkley: by 1968,
hunter takes on this idea

505
00:27:28,881 --> 00:27:31,715
that he's gonna be able to write
on the death of the american dream.

506
00:27:31,750 --> 00:27:34,414
and hunter thought
that covering politics-

507
00:27:34,449 --> 00:27:36,581
'68 was gonna
be the book.

508
00:27:41,648 --> 00:27:44,481
depp: "I went to
chicago as a journalist.

509
00:27:44,516 --> 00:27:47,314
my candidate had been
murdered in los angeles

510
00:27:47,349 --> 00:27:48,915
two months earlier."

511
00:27:53,381 --> 00:27:58,281
* come on, come on,
come on *

512
00:27:58,316 --> 00:27:59,913
* come on

513
00:27:59,948 --> 00:28:03,479
* didn't I make
you feel... *

514
00:28:03,514 --> 00:28:06,514
crouse: hunter was in chicago
right in the midst of the gas

515
00:28:06,549 --> 00:28:08,446
and the beatings
and everything else.

516
00:28:08,481 --> 00:28:11,614
and I think that
that was a milestone event

517
00:28:11,649 --> 00:28:14,212
for hunter
that he never got over.

518
00:28:14,247 --> 00:28:17,446
and he never forgave humphrey
who was the candidate,

519
00:28:17,481 --> 00:28:20,681
and he never forgave muskie who
was the vice-presidential candidate

520
00:28:20,716 --> 00:28:24,446
for supporting mayor daley
and his chicago police.

521
00:28:24,481 --> 00:28:30,448
* take it, take another little
piece of my heart now, baby... *

522
00:28:30,483 --> 00:28:33,212
depp: "I witnessed at
least 10 beatings in chicago

523
00:28:33,247 --> 00:28:36,881
that were worse than anything
I ever saw the hell's angels do.

524
00:28:36,916 --> 00:28:39,381
I left in a state
of hysterical angst,

525
00:28:39,416 --> 00:28:41,446
convinced
by what I had seen

526
00:28:41,481 --> 00:28:44,082
that the american dream was
clubbing itself to death."

527
00:28:44,117 --> 00:28:46,746
* if it makes you
feel good... *

528
00:28:46,781 --> 00:28:50,448
wright: there were only tears twice that
I remember ever in our 19 years together.

529
00:28:50,483 --> 00:28:53,881
I remember one, when he came back
from the democratic convention.

530
00:28:53,916 --> 00:28:55,915
and he was telling me
the stories

531
00:28:55,950 --> 00:28:57,880
about the people
being beaten

532
00:28:57,915 --> 00:29:01,248
and he- you know,
the tears just-

533
00:29:01,283 --> 00:29:04,546
and that was
very- you know.

534
00:29:04,581 --> 00:29:07,931
it was
- hunter was a man that didn't cry.

535
00:29:07,966 --> 00:29:11,246
* and baby, deep down
in your heart... *

536
00:29:11,281 --> 00:29:15,214
wright: and he cared so
much. hunter was a patriot.

537
00:29:15,249 --> 00:29:17,579
he knew the constitution,
he cared about it,

538
00:29:17,614 --> 00:29:21,247
and then there he was in chicago
and it's all being destroyed.

539
00:29:23,148 --> 00:29:25,764
* take it, take
another little piece... *

540
00:29:25,799 --> 00:29:28,381
wright: I think chicago
inspired him to do-

541
00:29:28,416 --> 00:29:30,780
to do more,
to get more involved.

542
00:29:30,815 --> 00:29:32,913
* take another little
piece of my heart *

543
00:29:32,948 --> 00:29:36,179
- * now, darling, yeah yeah yeah *
- * oh, have a...

544
00:29:36,214 --> 00:29:39,331
wenner: right away, riots started
- chicago, '68 took place.

545
00:29:39,366 --> 00:29:42,890
then that was kind of a
radicalizing, galvanizing event.

546
00:29:42,925 --> 00:29:45,820
we were already eschewing
mainstream nostalgia in politics

547
00:29:45,855 --> 00:29:48,715
saying, "look, the system
is too rigged. politics is...

548
00:29:48,750 --> 00:29:50,346
fine, but in
some other venue."

549
00:29:50,381 --> 00:29:52,379
I got a letter from hunter
out of the blue,

550
00:29:52,414 --> 00:29:54,914
complimenting me on "rolling
stone," how much he liked it.

551
00:29:54,949 --> 00:29:57,414
so I wrote him back and said,
"what are you doing these days?

552
00:29:57,449 --> 00:29:59,113
i'd love to have you
in the magazine."

553
00:29:59,148 --> 00:30:01,531
then he mentioned
he was running for sheriff.

554
00:30:01,566 --> 00:30:03,874
so I said, "how about
that? sounds great."

555
00:30:03,909 --> 00:30:06,147
it's the kind of thing
we would run today,

556
00:30:06,182 --> 00:30:09,848
you know, somebody running for sheriff
in aspen, trying to take over the town.

557
00:30:09,883 --> 00:30:12,514
james salter:
hunter thompson is a moralist

558
00:30:12,549 --> 00:30:14,513
posing as an immoralist.

559
00:30:14,548 --> 00:30:18,082
nixon is an immoralist
disguised as a moralist.

560
00:30:18,117 --> 00:30:20,113
this is james salter.

561
00:30:20,148 --> 00:30:23,681
there'll be thieves and auto wrecks
in aspen whoever gets elected,

562
00:30:23,716 --> 00:30:25,915
but hunter represents
something wholly alien

563
00:30:25,950 --> 00:30:28,314
to the other candidates
for sheriff-

564
00:30:28,349 --> 00:30:30,646
ideas,
and the sympathy

565
00:30:30,681 --> 00:30:34,082
towards the young, generous,
grass-oriented society,

566
00:30:34,117 --> 00:30:36,379
which is making
the only serious effort

567
00:30:36,414 --> 00:30:39,781
to face the technological
nightmare we have created.

568
00:30:39,816 --> 00:30:41,746
the only thing
against him is

569
00:30:41,781 --> 00:30:44,212
he is a visionary who
wants to cure the world.

570
00:30:44,247 --> 00:30:47,514
george stranahan: first of all,
he drove everybody batshit nuts.

571
00:30:47,549 --> 00:30:50,446
hunter was my friend
and neighbor,

572
00:30:50,481 --> 00:30:54,048
the man who never paid his
rent, broke up my marriage

573
00:30:54,083 --> 00:30:55,781
and taught my children
to smoke dope.

574
00:30:57,015 --> 00:30:58,880
now hunter
was outrageous,

575
00:30:58,915 --> 00:31:01,247
but there was
such a sort of movement

576
00:31:01,282 --> 00:31:03,798
that this guy
may be crazy,

577
00:31:03,833 --> 00:31:06,314
but better that
than whitmire.

578
00:31:11,281 --> 00:31:15,148
announcer: the american sheriff's
job was carved out of the rugged west.

579
00:31:15,183 --> 00:31:16,913
it was a desperately-
needed position

580
00:31:16,948 --> 00:31:21,182
of few words, much action,
and little praise or glory.

581
00:31:21,217 --> 00:31:23,913
today the sheriff has
reams of responsibility.

582
00:31:23,948 --> 00:31:27,481
but still- as in the past-
the number-one responsibility

583
00:31:27,516 --> 00:31:30,648
is to protect his people
and enforce their laws.

584
00:31:30,683 --> 00:31:32,613
vote for and elect

585
00:31:32,648 --> 00:31:35,413
carrol whitmire
for our sheriff.

586
00:31:35,448 --> 00:31:37,915
I think a lot of places are
beyond this kind of politics.

587
00:31:39,715 --> 00:31:42,048
we seemed to be running an
experiment that people were watching.

588
00:31:45,481 --> 00:31:48,681
stranahan: hunter came to aspen,
he had moved into our farm.

589
00:31:48,716 --> 00:31:50,513
hunter liked
to talk politics.

590
00:31:50,548 --> 00:31:55,082
I was just at that age
of war protest- 1968.

591
00:31:55,117 --> 00:31:58,080
I was becoming
political...

592
00:31:58,115 --> 00:32:00,781
and so hunter and I had a
lot in common to talk about.

593
00:32:03,481 --> 00:32:06,948
bob braudis: aspen then was
a magnet for intellectuals

594
00:32:06,983 --> 00:32:09,248
who wanted to drop out.

595
00:32:09,283 --> 00:32:11,479
and hunter convinced us

596
00:32:11,514 --> 00:32:13,414
that we didn't have much
effect on what happened

597
00:32:13,449 --> 00:32:15,479
in washington
day to day

598
00:32:15,514 --> 00:32:19,247
and what happened in washington from
day to day didn't have much effect on us.

599
00:32:19,282 --> 00:32:23,365
but what happened in pitkin
county had a visceral,

600
00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:27,413
daily, hourly effect on
the way we lived here.

601
00:32:27,448 --> 00:32:31,347
people didn't understand
that aspen was a battleground.

602
00:32:31,382 --> 00:32:34,080
aspen was more
of a disneyland.

603
00:32:34,115 --> 00:32:38,015
hunter was a visionary. he
understood more about land use

604
00:32:38,050 --> 00:32:40,013
and development
than any of us did.

605
00:32:40,048 --> 00:32:44,781
nobody at the time was
standing up to the bulldozers.

606
00:32:44,816 --> 00:32:46,781
"tentative platform,
thompson for sheriff,

607
00:32:46,816 --> 00:32:50,080
aspen, colorado, 1970:

608
00:32:50,115 --> 00:32:54,648
1- rip up all city streets
with jackhammers

609
00:32:54,683 --> 00:32:57,346
and sod the streets
at once.

610
00:32:57,381 --> 00:33:01,164
2- change the name 'aspen'
to 'fat city.'

611
00:33:01,199 --> 00:33:04,913
this would prevent
greedheads, land-rapers

612
00:33:04,948 --> 00:33:07,915
and other human jackals from
capitalizing on the name 'aspen.'

613
00:33:07,950 --> 00:33:11,848
these swines should be
fucked, broken,

614
00:33:11,883 --> 00:33:13,846
and driven
across the land.

615
00:33:13,881 --> 00:33:17,579
3- it will be
the general philosophy

616
00:33:17,614 --> 00:33:21,015
of the sheriff's office
that no drug worth taking

617
00:33:21,050 --> 00:33:23,215
should be sold
for money.

618
00:33:23,250 --> 00:33:25,346
my first act as sheriff

619
00:33:25,381 --> 00:33:29,347
will be to install on the
courthouse lawn a set of stocks

620
00:33:29,382 --> 00:33:31,915
in order to punish
dishonest dope dealers

621
00:33:31,950 --> 00:33:34,013
in a proper
public fashion."

622
00:33:38,448 --> 00:33:40,446
juan: I was only about six at the time,

623
00:33:40,481 --> 00:33:42,479
but legend has it that
my father shaved his head

624
00:33:42,514 --> 00:33:46,414
so he could say, "unlike my
long-haired opponent, sheriff whitmire."

625
00:33:46,449 --> 00:33:48,531
I just wish I could
have been old enough

626
00:33:48,566 --> 00:33:50,824
to really understand
people's reaction

627
00:33:50,859 --> 00:33:53,047
about this crazy,
bald, freak drug-fiend

628
00:33:53,082 --> 00:33:56,281
who was about to take over
the whole political mechanism.

629
00:33:57,848 --> 00:34:01,113
* holly came
from miami, f.l.a... *

630
00:34:01,148 --> 00:34:04,314
hunter thompson is the only
candidate who has the imagination

631
00:34:04,349 --> 00:34:08,281
and intelligence to be
a law-enforcement executive.

632
00:34:08,316 --> 00:34:10,199
elect hunter thompson
sheriff.

633
00:34:10,234 --> 00:34:12,047
you haven't been
listening!

634
00:34:12,082 --> 00:34:14,381
why doesn't anybody
listen to me anymore?!

635
00:34:14,416 --> 00:34:16,646
this is for your own good!

636
00:34:16,681 --> 00:34:20,048
* hey, honey, take
a walk on the wild side... *

637
00:34:22,448 --> 00:34:25,381
braudis: at the start, I think
it was more to get a message out

638
00:34:25,416 --> 00:34:27,913
knowing that defeat
was certain.

639
00:34:27,948 --> 00:34:31,781
the serious component of
hunter's campaign snowballed

640
00:34:31,816 --> 00:34:35,113
and, as the movement
gained momentum,

641
00:34:35,148 --> 00:34:38,546
I think hunter actually
believed that he had a chance.

642
00:34:38,581 --> 00:34:42,448
and a lot of us that were
supporting hunter shared that belief.

643
00:34:42,483 --> 00:34:45,581
we're trying to get together
a list of endorsements

644
00:34:45,616 --> 00:34:47,899
for hunter thompson
for sheriff.

645
00:34:47,934 --> 00:34:50,147
braudis:
we were all freaks-

646
00:34:50,182 --> 00:34:53,379
the people who came together
in support of hunter-

647
00:34:53,414 --> 00:34:57,314
but I think our biggest issue
at the time was the environment,

648
00:34:57,349 --> 00:34:59,279
and a secondary issue

649
00:34:59,314 --> 00:35:01,748
was the illegal status
of drugs.

650
00:35:01,783 --> 00:35:04,147
what is that
you're smoking?

651
00:35:04,182 --> 00:35:06,748
this is what I believe
to be marijuana.

652
00:35:08,648 --> 00:35:10,931
you mean you can't tell?

653
00:35:10,966 --> 00:35:13,179
an awful lot of us
were smoking dope

654
00:35:13,214 --> 00:35:15,648
because the government said,
"thou shalt not."

655
00:35:15,683 --> 00:35:17,279
we said, "we shall."

656
00:35:17,314 --> 00:35:20,547
marijuana laws are
one of the reasons

657
00:35:20,582 --> 00:35:23,746
that has engendered
this lack of respect

658
00:35:23,781 --> 00:35:26,881
that cops complain about
all over the country.

659
00:35:26,916 --> 00:35:30,115
when you get a whole
generation that grows up

660
00:35:30,150 --> 00:35:33,279
as felons, they know
the law is ridiculous

661
00:35:33,314 --> 00:35:35,312
and they're told us
all this gibberish about it-

662
00:35:35,347 --> 00:35:38,214
"it drives you crazy and makes your
brain soft, and your feet fall off."

663
00:35:40,715 --> 00:35:42,680
even the police know
it's a silly law.

664
00:35:42,715 --> 00:35:45,680
it's time that we
either bridge that chasm

665
00:35:45,715 --> 00:35:48,113
with some kind of realistic
law enforcement or else-

666
00:35:48,148 --> 00:35:51,115
I don't think it's gonna be bridged in
this country. we're going to revolution.

667
00:35:51,150 --> 00:35:53,082
wright: I think that was one of hunter's

668
00:35:53,117 --> 00:35:55,147
greatest times,
myself.

669
00:35:55,182 --> 00:35:57,981
he had the passion
to move people,

670
00:35:58,016 --> 00:36:00,815
change people's thinking,

671
00:36:00,850 --> 00:36:03,980
make them act

672
00:36:04,015 --> 00:36:07,514
and bring them out-
not just defy authority

673
00:36:07,549 --> 00:36:10,312
and take as many drugs
as you want,

674
00:36:10,347 --> 00:36:13,614
but to make a real difference
trying to change the system,

675
00:36:13,649 --> 00:36:15,880
make the system work

676
00:36:15,915 --> 00:36:18,182
and make
the system good.

677
00:36:18,217 --> 00:36:20,115
he had that in him.

678
00:36:21,781 --> 00:36:24,579
whitmire: if he was elected
sheriff, I can foresee

679
00:36:24,614 --> 00:36:29,182
that you would have an influx
of what we call the hippies.

680
00:36:29,217 --> 00:36:31,832
and I think
if this happened,

681
00:36:31,867 --> 00:36:34,448
it would actually
destroy aspen.

682
00:36:41,848 --> 00:36:44,781
man: when you publicly
come out with statements

683
00:36:44,816 --> 00:36:46,414
of mescaline,
marijuana-

684
00:36:46,449 --> 00:36:48,913
my good god!

685
00:36:48,948 --> 00:36:51,015
this isn't the way
of american life.

686
00:36:51,050 --> 00:36:54,713
* you walk
into the room *

687
00:36:54,748 --> 00:36:57,048
* with your pencil
in your hand *

688
00:36:57,083 --> 00:36:59,746
* you see
somebody naked *

689
00:36:59,781 --> 00:37:02,646
* and you say,
"who is that, man?" *

690
00:37:02,681 --> 00:37:07,448
they are raping our forests.some
of them are living like animals.

691
00:37:07,483 --> 00:37:10,015
* because something
is happening here *

692
00:37:10,050 --> 00:37:14,115
* but you don't know
what it is *

693
00:37:14,150 --> 00:37:19,247
* do you,
mr. jones? *

694
00:37:19,282 --> 00:37:21,579
hunter thompson...

695
00:37:21,614 --> 00:37:25,097
has no grip on reality.
I think he's psychotic.

696
00:37:25,132 --> 00:37:28,581
I think if there was ever
gonna be any excesses

697
00:37:28,616 --> 00:37:30,546
within the sheriff's
department,

698
00:37:30,581 --> 00:37:33,915
i'd look for more out of hunter
thompson than carrol whitmire.

699
00:37:33,950 --> 00:37:35,913
* and you go watch
the geek... *

700
00:37:35,948 --> 00:37:38,980
braudis: he was a
redneck and very popular

701
00:37:39,015 --> 00:37:42,581
with the people who
controlled this valley then.

702
00:37:42,616 --> 00:37:44,579
they didn't want
a smart sheriff.

703
00:37:44,614 --> 00:37:46,748
they wanted people
who would do their bidding.

704
00:37:46,783 --> 00:37:48,413
* be such a freak...

705
00:37:48,448 --> 00:37:51,281
I’m not at all embarrassed at
the use of the word "freak."

706
00:37:51,316 --> 00:37:53,915
I think the way things are
going, in this country today

707
00:37:53,950 --> 00:37:56,514
it's a very honorable
designation. I’m proud of it.

708
00:37:56,549 --> 00:37:58,913
* and something
is happening here... *

709
00:37:58,948 --> 00:38:01,214
hunter: we have a situation
here, an isolated town,

710
00:38:01,249 --> 00:38:03,080
with a very unusual
kind of population.

711
00:38:03,115 --> 00:38:06,115
we do have a freak power
base. it's undeniable.

712
00:38:06,150 --> 00:38:08,680
we have about 1,000
votes that wouldn't-

713
00:38:08,715 --> 00:38:12,781
if I went out there and walked through
the streets naked with a bomb in each hand,

714
00:38:12,816 --> 00:38:15,281
they would still vote for me.

715
00:38:19,247 --> 00:38:22,212
braudis: one of hunter's
"freak power" tools

716
00:38:22,247 --> 00:38:24,964
was to register people
who had never voted before.

717
00:38:24,999 --> 00:38:27,840
okay, where's this voting place?

718
00:38:27,875 --> 00:38:30,681
hunter, 182; whitmire, 137.

719
00:38:30,716 --> 00:38:32,514
- ricks, 10.
- yeah!right!

720
00:38:36,748 --> 00:38:38,548
woman: one could do it, one could do it.

721
00:38:38,583 --> 00:38:40,846
the suburbs-
the silent majority.

722
00:38:40,881 --> 00:38:45,115
- Okay, here's the totals. - He's not
available right at this second.

723
00:38:47,948 --> 00:38:51,312
whitmire, 204;

724
00:38:51,347 --> 00:38:54,015
hunter, 173.

725
00:38:54,050 --> 00:38:56,613
okay, uh...

726
00:38:56,648 --> 00:38:59,246
unfortunately, it proved
what I set out to prove-

727
00:38:59,281 --> 00:39:02,714
and it was more a political
point than a local election-

728
00:39:02,749 --> 00:39:06,148
- that the american dream
really is -. -

729
00:39:06,183 --> 00:39:09,080
very hard to have
a baldheaded lunatic-

730
00:39:09,115 --> 00:39:11,347
I’ll do that for the
cameras. hey, you fellows.

731
00:39:11,382 --> 00:39:13,646
man:
all right!

732
00:39:13,681 --> 00:39:17,613
and we made a mistake
in thinking...

733
00:39:17,648 --> 00:39:19,781
that the town was ready for
an honest political campaign.

734
00:39:19,816 --> 00:39:23,346
depp: "we frighten the bastards so badly

735
00:39:23,381 --> 00:39:26,312
that on election day they
rolled people in wheelchairs-

736
00:39:26,347 --> 00:39:30,614
Even on stretchers, into the
polling places to vote against us.

737
00:39:30,649 --> 00:39:34,515
and when I lost, they instantly
got down to making sure

738
00:39:34,550 --> 00:39:38,381
that nobody like me could
ever run for office again."

739
00:39:38,416 --> 00:39:40,980
we ran that story,

740
00:39:41,015 --> 00:39:44,314
had the infamous poster
of a two-thumbed hand

741
00:39:44,349 --> 00:39:45,946
holding a peyote button.

742
00:39:45,981 --> 00:39:50,881
he came in and talked to an
editor named john lombardi.

743
00:39:50,916 --> 00:39:53,615
afterwards, lombardi,
who was from philadelphia

744
00:39:53,650 --> 00:39:56,232
and was not quite used
to the west coast crazy-

745
00:39:56,267 --> 00:39:58,815
he said, "you know, that
hunter thompson is weird.

746
00:39:58,850 --> 00:40:00,513
he's really weird.

747
00:40:00,548 --> 00:40:02,714
he came in with a box
full of wigs and hats.

748
00:40:02,749 --> 00:40:04,881
he was taking them off
and putting them on

749
00:40:04,916 --> 00:40:07,232
in the middle
of the conversation."

750
00:40:17,848 --> 00:40:22,047
* please allow me
to introduce myself *

751
00:40:22,082 --> 00:40:26,212
* I’m a man of wealth
and taste... *

752
00:40:26,247 --> 00:40:28,446
wenner: ralph is crazier
than hunter ever was.

753
00:40:28,481 --> 00:40:30,548
whereas hunter could always
pull back from the edge,

754
00:40:30,583 --> 00:40:33,813
ralph was a true believer.
and if it was time

755
00:40:33,848 --> 00:40:35,864
to take the fucking thing
down, ralph was prepared

756
00:40:35,899 --> 00:40:37,881
to go in like guy fawkes
and blow up parliament.

757
00:40:37,916 --> 00:40:41,681
and so we had
this purity of vision,

758
00:40:41,716 --> 00:40:43,579
and hunter saw that.

759
00:40:43,614 --> 00:40:45,681
I know you from
somewhere. I wonder where.

760
00:40:45,716 --> 00:40:47,413
* pleased
to meet you... *

761
00:40:47,448 --> 00:40:49,579
have I seen you
somewhere before?

762
00:40:49,614 --> 00:40:52,182
are you listening to me?
are you listening?

763
00:40:52,217 --> 00:40:54,212
please!

764
00:40:54,247 --> 00:40:57,281
stewardess: on behalf of rocky
mountain airways and your flight crew,

765
00:40:57,316 --> 00:40:59,414
we'd like to thank you
for flying with us today.

766
00:40:59,449 --> 00:41:01,379
have a pleasant stay
in aspen

767
00:41:01,414 --> 00:41:03,946
or wherever your final
destination might be.

768
00:41:03,981 --> 00:41:07,064
steadman: I think what
he saw in this connection

769
00:41:07,099 --> 00:41:10,148
was somebody that somehow
saw the thing in pictures

770
00:41:10,183 --> 00:41:13,179
as he saw it in words.
and that seemed to me

771
00:41:13,214 --> 00:41:16,148
to be part of the whole
chemistry, of our chemistry,

772
00:41:16,183 --> 00:41:17,948
that made gonzo
possible.

773
00:41:17,983 --> 00:41:20,946
here I go.

774
00:41:20,981 --> 00:41:24,048
perry: i've seen the
illustrations steadman was doing

775
00:41:24,083 --> 00:41:26,013
before he worked
with hunter.

776
00:41:26,048 --> 00:41:30,048
he was much more conventional
before hunter got ahold of him.

777
00:41:30,083 --> 00:41:32,813
hunter told me
he liked steadman's stuff,

778
00:41:32,848 --> 00:41:36,614
so he asked him to help
him cover the kentucky derby

779
00:41:36,649 --> 00:41:39,246
for a magazine
called "scanlan's."

780
00:41:39,281 --> 00:41:41,914
and ralph told me as soon
as he got off the airplane,

781
00:41:41,949 --> 00:41:44,548
hunter gave him some
psilocybin and his life changed.

782
00:41:44,583 --> 00:41:47,281
- come on, buddy.
- come on, hey! hunter!

783
00:41:50,182 --> 00:41:52,981
* when after all
it was you and me... *

784
00:41:53,016 --> 00:41:55,346
so nice to see you.

785
00:41:55,381 --> 00:41:57,115
wright: ralph-
when he first met hunter,

786
00:41:57,150 --> 00:41:58,680
he'd never done
any drugs.

787
00:41:58,715 --> 00:42:02,115
he drank, but he'd never
done anything hallucinogenic.

788
00:42:02,150 --> 00:42:05,281
and so here comes hunter,
he gives him mescaline

789
00:42:05,316 --> 00:42:08,479
and he loses it.

790
00:42:08,514 --> 00:42:10,448
you know,
ralph loses it.

791
00:42:13,748 --> 00:42:15,379
steadman:
I was a choirboy-

792
00:42:15,414 --> 00:42:18,082
you know, decent,
innocent abroad.

793
00:42:18,117 --> 00:42:19,680
you know how things are.

794
00:42:19,715 --> 00:42:22,948
and so I guess
it was attractive,

795
00:42:22,983 --> 00:42:25,281
that kind of raciness.

796
00:42:27,281 --> 00:42:29,246
* oh, yeah

797
00:42:29,281 --> 00:42:30,748
* get down, baby...

798
00:42:33,681 --> 00:42:36,147
steadman: I think the
birth of gonzo happened

799
00:42:36,182 --> 00:42:38,579
when the evil came out
of me in the drawings.

800
00:42:38,614 --> 00:42:41,713
depp: "unlike most of the
others in the press box,

801
00:42:41,748 --> 00:42:44,881
we didn't give a hoot in hell
what was happening on the track.

802
00:42:44,916 --> 00:42:47,514
we had come to watch
the real beasts perform.

803
00:42:47,549 --> 00:42:49,981
when the crowd stood
to face the flag

804
00:42:50,016 --> 00:42:51,813
and sing
'my old kentucky home,'

805
00:42:51,848 --> 00:42:54,514
steadman faced the crowd
and sketched frantically.

806
00:42:54,549 --> 00:42:57,446
thousands of raving,
stumbling drunks

807
00:42:57,481 --> 00:43:00,715
getting angrier and angrier as
they lose more and more money."

808
00:43:00,750 --> 00:43:04,299
wolfe: in that story, you
get all of the attitudes

809
00:43:04,334 --> 00:43:07,624
to the derby, and you
never get to the derby.

810
00:43:07,659 --> 00:43:10,915
you're there to-
he said to come to the derby,

811
00:43:10,950 --> 00:43:12,981
and you get all
the drunk southerners,

812
00:43:13,016 --> 00:43:15,099
you get all
the weird socialites,

813
00:43:15,134 --> 00:43:17,147
the weird bookies,
the hangers-on.

814
00:43:17,182 --> 00:43:19,648
depp: "it was a face
i'd seen a thousand times

815
00:43:19,683 --> 00:43:21,246
at every derby
i'd been to.

816
00:43:21,281 --> 00:43:25,347
I saw it in my head as the
mask of the whiskey gentry-

817
00:43:25,382 --> 00:43:29,713
the inevitable result
of too much inbreeding."

818
00:43:29,748 --> 00:43:31,981
hunter: first, i'd realized i
was doing something different.

819
00:43:32,016 --> 00:43:34,247
a friend of mine,
he wrote me a note saying

820
00:43:34,282 --> 00:43:36,613
"that derby piece
was pure gonzo."

821
00:43:36,648 --> 00:43:38,015
and I thought, "well,
if that's what it was..."

822
00:43:38,050 --> 00:43:40,365
I thought
it was a brutal failure.

823
00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:42,681
i'd botched my assignment,
you know?

824
00:43:42,716 --> 00:43:44,479
it was one
of my worst failures

825
00:43:44,514 --> 00:43:47,631
and I got this onslaught
of mail- mail, calls-

826
00:43:47,666 --> 00:43:50,748
saying I made a great
breakthrough in journalism.

827
00:43:50,783 --> 00:43:52,446
well, christ,
if I made it-

828
00:43:52,481 --> 00:43:54,846
as a breakthrough, we've
gotta call it something.

829
00:43:54,881 --> 00:43:57,915
so I liked the word "gonzo," and
it seemed to me what I was doing-

830
00:43:57,950 --> 00:44:01,148
kind of nice and crazy,
like zen. gonzo.

831
00:44:01,183 --> 00:44:03,413
* hope you guess
my name... *

832
00:44:03,448 --> 00:44:06,448
- I’m edward.
- steadman: he has a bird called edward.

833
00:44:06,483 --> 00:44:08,379
he's such
a marvelous character.

834
00:44:08,414 --> 00:44:12,448
I think hunter tormented it, but
it was kind of a two-way affection.

835
00:44:12,483 --> 00:44:15,548
hunter would use it,
I think, to bounce off,

836
00:44:15,583 --> 00:44:17,513
to bring
into the story

837
00:44:17,548 --> 00:44:19,579
how he was feeling about
it, who was the bird.

838
00:44:19,614 --> 00:44:23,247
I suppose that at some point
i, in a way, became the bird.

839
00:44:24,981 --> 00:44:27,881
speak up, edward. speak
up! speak up! talk to me!

840
00:44:27,916 --> 00:44:31,082
he banged the cage-
bang bang bang bang!

841
00:44:31,117 --> 00:44:33,080
"edward.
it's me, edward.

842
00:44:33,115 --> 00:44:34,880
I’m coming
to get you, edward."

843
00:44:34,915 --> 00:44:39,082
he'd open the cage, and he'd
say, "edward, there is no bird god

844
00:44:39,117 --> 00:44:40,980
that's gonna help you
now, edward."

845
00:44:41,015 --> 00:44:44,581
and this bird's going...

846
00:44:46,082 --> 00:44:48,581
steadman: I feel like
edward sometimes...

847
00:44:48,616 --> 00:44:50,065
now, we're going
to talk, edward.

848
00:44:50,100 --> 00:44:51,840
steadman:
...holding me like a bird,

849
00:44:51,875 --> 00:44:53,581
and I’m trying to bite
my way out of it.

850
00:44:54,715 --> 00:44:57,013
I never felt fear

851
00:44:57,048 --> 00:44:59,781
when he was
at the wheel.

852
00:44:59,816 --> 00:45:03,015
there's no holes
over here.

853
00:45:03,050 --> 00:45:06,179
- ooh!
- this is a big box.

854
00:45:06,214 --> 00:45:08,648
no wonder why I don't buy
american cars. god damn it.

855
00:45:08,683 --> 00:45:11,047
move over, I’m gonna kill
somebody! you're too small!

856
00:45:11,082 --> 00:45:13,581
I want to kill somebody
a lot bigger than you!

857
00:45:13,616 --> 00:45:17,281
- what's the speed limit?
- 70. oh my god, it's 75.

858
00:45:17,316 --> 00:45:20,082
holy shit.
no wonder he's going-

859
00:45:22,015 --> 00:45:23,780
duke's voice: we were
somewhere around barstow,

860
00:45:23,815 --> 00:45:26,581
on the edge of the desert, when
the drugs began to take hold.

861
00:45:26,616 --> 00:45:29,415
suddenly, there was a
terrible roar all around us

862
00:45:29,450 --> 00:45:32,615
and the sky was full of
what looked like huge bats,

863
00:45:32,650 --> 00:45:35,746
all swooping and screeching
and diving around the car.

864
00:45:35,781 --> 00:45:38,781
and a voice was screaming, "holy
jesus, what are these goddamn animals?!"

865
00:45:42,581 --> 00:45:45,347
did you say
something?huh?

866
00:45:45,382 --> 00:45:47,179
never mind.

867
00:45:47,214 --> 00:45:49,379
- it's your turn to drive.
- * everybody's dancing... *

868
00:45:49,414 --> 00:45:51,247
duke's voice: "no point in
mentioning these bats," I thought.

869
00:45:51,282 --> 00:45:53,279
"the poor bastard
will see them soon enough."

870
00:45:53,314 --> 00:45:56,048
wenner: "fear and loathing in las vegas"
- it starts off like a rocket.

871
00:45:56,083 --> 00:45:57,848
"we were somewhere
on the edge of barstow

872
00:45:57,883 --> 00:45:59,680
when the drugs began
to take hold."

873
00:45:59,715 --> 00:46:02,579
well, that just grabs you-
damn- right there,

874
00:46:02,614 --> 00:46:05,548
the description of the trunk
what was in the trunk-

875
00:46:05,583 --> 00:46:07,312
all the drugs,
the salt shakers

876
00:46:07,347 --> 00:46:09,448
full of mescaline, cocaine-
on and on and on.

877
00:46:09,483 --> 00:46:11,312
it was mad genius stuff.

878
00:46:11,347 --> 00:46:13,214
duke's voice:
we had two bags of grass,

879
00:46:13,249 --> 00:46:15,446
75 pellets of mescaline,

880
00:46:15,481 --> 00:46:18,080
five sheets of high-powered
blotter acid,

881
00:46:18,115 --> 00:46:20,115
- a salt shaker half-full of
cocaine... -

882
00:46:20,150 --> 00:46:22,748
...a pint of raw ether,
and two dozen amyls.

883
00:46:22,783 --> 00:46:25,312
not that we needed
all that for the trip,

884
00:46:25,347 --> 00:46:28,115
but once you get locked into
a serious drug collection,

885
00:46:28,150 --> 00:46:32,048
the tendency is to push it
as far as you can.

886
00:46:32,083 --> 00:46:34,065
* don't matter
where you come from... *

887
00:46:34,100 --> 00:46:36,013
radio host:
a house subcommittee report

888
00:46:36,048 --> 00:46:40,448
says illegal drugs killed
160 american gis last year,

889
00:46:40,483 --> 00:46:43,147
40 of them
in vietnam. drugs-

890
00:46:43,182 --> 00:46:46,715
- * one toke over the line, sweet jesus... *
- one toke, man!

891
00:46:46,750 --> 00:46:50,513
* one toke over the line

892
00:46:50,548 --> 00:46:53,748
* sittin' downtown
in a railway station *

893
00:46:53,783 --> 00:46:56,080
* one toke
over the line... *

894
00:46:56,115 --> 00:46:58,548
wenner: through all this time,
he's traveling with oscar acosta.

895
00:46:58,583 --> 00:47:01,446
they went there and had
this drug rampage.

896
00:47:01,481 --> 00:47:03,746
- I found some good grass for $12 a lid.
- hunter: good.

897
00:47:03,781 --> 00:47:06,915
- I just ordered two lids.
I’ll get it tomorrow. - God bless you.

898
00:47:06,950 --> 00:47:09,098
wenner: hunter's raoul
duke- the author of the book-

899
00:47:09,133 --> 00:47:11,247
we published whatever was
published in "rolling stone."

900
00:47:11,282 --> 00:47:12,980
it was published
as "by raoul duke."

901
00:47:13,015 --> 00:47:16,298
oscar transmogrifies
from oscar zeta acosta,

902
00:47:16,333 --> 00:47:19,546
crusading chicano attorney,
into dr. gonzo.

903
00:47:19,581 --> 00:47:23,748
* I felt the joy and i
learned about the pain *

904
00:47:23,783 --> 00:47:25,379
* then my mama said...

905
00:47:25,414 --> 00:47:27,464
laila nabulsi:
raoul duke and dr. gonzo

906
00:47:27,499 --> 00:47:29,514
were hunter thompson
and oscar acosta.

907
00:47:29,549 --> 00:47:31,479
he just used that
as a cover.

908
00:47:31,514 --> 00:47:33,446
you have these
sort of antiheroes.

909
00:47:33,481 --> 00:47:35,347
it's "butch cassidy
and the sundance kid."

910
00:47:35,382 --> 00:47:37,179
it's just the next
version in a way.

911
00:47:37,214 --> 00:47:39,748
they're outlaws.
these guys were fighting

912
00:47:39,783 --> 00:47:41,715
and they really
were in real life.

913
00:47:41,750 --> 00:47:43,665
oscar acosta was
using the law

914
00:47:43,700 --> 00:47:45,546
and the brown power movement

915
00:47:45,581 --> 00:47:49,281
and hunter was fighting with
the pen and using journalism.

916
00:47:49,316 --> 00:47:52,948
so they really were warriors
of their generation.

917
00:47:52,983 --> 00:47:56,581
*...in a railway station,
one toke over the line *

918
00:47:56,616 --> 00:47:58,965
* one toke, one toke
over the line. *

919
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:01,279
brinkley: when hunter went to las vegas,

920
00:48:01,314 --> 00:48:03,182
he was on an assignment
for "sports illustrated"

921
00:48:03,217 --> 00:48:05,579
to write about
this motorcycle race.

922
00:48:05,614 --> 00:48:09,314
they only wanted a very brief, almost
like a little box about the race.

923
00:48:09,349 --> 00:48:13,581
he delivered this screed that
went on for about 60 pages

924
00:48:13,616 --> 00:48:16,148
detailing the desert
and everything that happened.

925
00:48:16,183 --> 00:48:18,781
and it had in it
a little bit of that

926
00:48:18,816 --> 00:48:21,646
wild, druggy...

927
00:48:21,681 --> 00:48:24,680
feel that the final "fear and
loathing in las vegas" had.

928
00:48:24,715 --> 00:48:28,548
duke's voice: ignore this terrible
drug. pretend it's not happening.

929
00:48:29,614 --> 00:48:33,815
uh... hI there!

930
00:48:33,850 --> 00:48:35,815
my name...

931
00:48:35,850 --> 00:48:38,013
uh...

932
00:48:38,048 --> 00:48:41,813
- raoul duke.
- your suite isn't ready yet, but...

933
00:48:41,848 --> 00:48:43,681
someone was looking for you.

934
00:48:43,716 --> 00:48:46,148
no! we haven't
done anything yet. move!

935
00:48:46,183 --> 00:48:47,613
I can handle this.

936
00:48:47,648 --> 00:48:49,646
at that point
there was still

937
00:48:49,681 --> 00:48:51,848
kind of that timothy leary
approach to psychedelics

938
00:48:51,883 --> 00:48:53,980
going around, where it's
this very pious thing.

939
00:48:54,015 --> 00:48:57,514
you sat on a persian rug
and listened to indian music.

940
00:48:58,648 --> 00:49:01,212
there had been
very little in the way

941
00:49:01,247 --> 00:49:04,214
of actually dealing with the fact that
when you're stoned on psychedelics,

942
00:49:04,249 --> 00:49:06,179
you're often just
way out of control

943
00:49:06,214 --> 00:49:08,648
and you don't know how
you're gonna handle things.

944
00:49:08,683 --> 00:49:11,749
and hunter made that
his real topic.

945
00:49:11,784 --> 00:49:14,780
depp: "what leary took down with him

946
00:49:14,815 --> 00:49:17,015
was the central illusion
of a whole lifestyle

947
00:49:17,050 --> 00:49:18,646
that he helped create-

948
00:49:18,681 --> 00:49:20,881
a generation
of permanent cripples,

949
00:49:20,916 --> 00:49:23,047
failed seekers,
who never understood

950
00:49:23,082 --> 00:49:26,579
the essential old-mystic
fallacy of the acid culture:

951
00:49:26,614 --> 00:49:29,581
the desperate assumption that
somebody or at least some force

952
00:49:29,616 --> 00:49:32,981
is tending the light
at the end of the tunnel."

953
00:49:35,015 --> 00:49:37,214
woman: I don't know about you, but
I’m starting to feel that drink.

954
00:49:37,249 --> 00:49:39,246
- peanuts, man.
- oh, god! oh, god.

955
00:49:39,281 --> 00:49:41,314
two cuba libres with beer
and mescal on the side.

956
00:49:43,848 --> 00:49:47,714
duke's voice: terrible things
were happening all around us.

957
00:49:47,749 --> 00:49:51,546
it's impossible to walk in this muck
- no footing at all.

958
00:49:51,581 --> 00:49:55,481
perry: at last there was a vocabulary
for talking about psychedelics,

959
00:49:55,516 --> 00:49:58,080
and it was also an early
clue to the new direction-

960
00:49:58,115 --> 00:50:01,247
more and more craziness from hunter.
of course, he was high anyway.

961
00:50:01,282 --> 00:50:03,214
I never saw the guy
without either a can of bud

962
00:50:03,249 --> 00:50:05,065
or a bottle of wild turkey in his hand.

963
00:50:05,100 --> 00:50:06,846
he drank a bottle
of bourbon a day,

964
00:50:06,881 --> 00:50:09,980
and that was on top of all
the pills he was taking,

965
00:50:10,015 --> 00:50:13,614
so he was just constantly pushing
the limit of consciousness.

966
00:50:16,414 --> 00:50:20,082
duke's voice: I was right in the
middle of a fucking reptile zoo

967
00:50:20,117 --> 00:50:23,466
and somebody was giving
booze to these goddamn things.

968
00:50:23,501 --> 00:50:26,815
it won't be long now before
they tear us to shreds!

969
00:50:29,148 --> 00:50:30,613
please!

970
00:50:30,648 --> 00:50:32,681
tell me about
the fucking golf shoes!

971
00:50:32,716 --> 00:50:34,980
all: huh?

972
00:50:35,015 --> 00:50:38,181
the rejection by "sports
illustrated" infuriated him.

973
00:50:38,216 --> 00:50:41,347
and it was only at that point
that he started realizing,

974
00:50:41,382 --> 00:50:43,312
like, "eureka!
chicago may not be

975
00:50:43,347 --> 00:50:45,347
where the death
of the american dream is.

976
00:50:45,382 --> 00:50:47,481
it's las vegas."

977
00:50:49,616 --> 00:50:53,082
* ooh yes!

978
00:50:56,934 --> 00:51:00,646
* ooh yes!

979
00:51:00,681 --> 00:51:03,680
* these long strange nights

980
00:51:03,715 --> 00:51:07,013
* these long
strange nights... *

981
00:51:07,048 --> 00:51:10,231
wenner: hunter had rented a
cadillac and wanted me to pay for it.

982
00:51:10,266 --> 00:51:13,423
I said, "no," you know? "I’m not
paying for the rent of a cadillac."

983
00:51:13,458 --> 00:51:16,581
and he was like, "well, I can't
cover the goddamn american dream

984
00:51:16,616 --> 00:51:19,082
in a volkswagen. what the
fuck is wrong with you?"

985
00:51:19,117 --> 00:51:21,113
and um...

986
00:51:21,148 --> 00:51:23,148
you know, of course
that's quite true.

987
00:51:25,933 --> 00:51:28,579
* drive your stake

988
00:51:28,614 --> 00:51:32,814
* through
a darkened heart *

989
00:51:32,849 --> 00:51:36,980
* in a red
mercedes benz... *

990
00:51:37,015 --> 00:51:38,798
depp: "breakdown on paradise blvd."

991
00:51:38,833 --> 00:51:40,546
"at this point
in the chronology,

992
00:51:40,581 --> 00:51:43,448
dr. duke appears to have
broken down completely.

993
00:51:43,483 --> 00:51:45,846
the original manuscript
is so splintered

994
00:51:45,881 --> 00:51:48,848
that we were forced to seek
out the original tape recording

995
00:51:48,883 --> 00:51:52,265
and transcribe it
verbatim."

996
00:51:52,300 --> 00:51:55,613
hunter:
testing- one, two.

997
00:51:55,648 --> 00:52:00,247
closing.
okay, it is now 11:30 a.m.

998
00:52:17,115 --> 00:52:19,631
depp: "the transcription
begins somewhere

999
00:52:19,666 --> 00:52:22,113
on the northeast outskirts
of las vegas-

1000
00:52:22,148 --> 00:52:25,481
zooming along paradise road
in the white whale."

1001
00:52:51,815 --> 00:52:53,646
- hello.
- may I help you?

1002
00:52:53,681 --> 00:52:56,115
- yeah.you have
tacos here? - mm-hmm.

1003
00:52:56,150 --> 00:52:58,082
but they're five
for a dollar?

1004
00:52:58,117 --> 00:52:59,613
I’ll take
five of them.

1005
00:52:59,648 --> 00:53:02,064
do you want
anything to drink?

1006
00:53:02,099 --> 00:53:04,446
beer. no, I have
beer in the car-

1007
00:53:04,481 --> 00:53:07,581
tons of it - the whole back
seat's loaded with it.

1008
00:53:07,616 --> 00:53:09,212
we're looking
for the american dream.

1009
00:53:09,247 --> 00:53:11,314
we were told that it was
somewhere in this area, but-

1010
00:53:11,349 --> 00:53:13,346
- the american dream?
- yeah, the american dream.

1011
00:53:13,381 --> 00:53:15,781
- I’ll tell you something-
go to paradise. - is that it?

1012
00:53:15,816 --> 00:53:18,182
we're here looking for it
because they sent us out here,

1013
00:53:18,217 --> 00:53:20,782
all the way from san
francisco, to look for it.

1014
00:53:20,817 --> 00:53:23,312
that's why they gave us
that white cadillac.

1015
00:53:23,347 --> 00:53:26,280
they figured that we could
catch up with it in that.

1016
00:53:26,315 --> 00:53:29,214
hey, luke, do you know
where the american dream is?

1017
00:53:29,249 --> 00:53:31,346
acosta:
she's asking him.

1018
00:53:31,381 --> 00:53:33,946
- what is it?
- that's what we don't know.

1019
00:53:33,981 --> 00:53:36,715
we were sent out here from san
francisco to look for the american dream.

1020
00:53:36,750 --> 00:53:38,179
now are you guys serious?!
because-

1021
00:53:38,214 --> 00:53:41,312
acosta: no, look at the
car. I mean, do I look like-

1022
00:53:41,347 --> 00:53:46,981
could that be the old psychiatrists'
club? it was a discotheque place.

1023
00:53:47,016 --> 00:53:50,614
all we were told was, "go till
you find the american dream.

1024
00:53:50,649 --> 00:53:52,080
take this white cadillac

1025
00:53:52,115 --> 00:53:53,579
and go find
the american dream.

1026
00:53:53,614 --> 00:53:55,531
it's somewhere
in the las vegas area."

1027
00:53:55,566 --> 00:53:57,413
are you taking
pictures of it or-

1028
00:53:57,448 --> 00:54:01,314
- no, no, pictures, just... - somebody
just sent you on a goose chase.

1029
00:54:01,349 --> 00:54:03,448
it's sort of a wild goose
chase more or less, yeah.

1030
00:54:03,483 --> 00:54:05,448
woman: it has to be
the old psychiatrists'.

1031
00:54:05,483 --> 00:54:07,115
but the only people
who hang out there

1032
00:54:07,150 --> 00:54:09,147
is a bunch
of pushers, peddlers,

1033
00:54:09,182 --> 00:54:11,681
- uppers-and-downers and all
that stuff. - maybe that's it.

1034
00:54:11,716 --> 00:54:13,513
- dopers.
- could be it.

1035
00:54:13,548 --> 00:54:15,715
I think this place, the
way you're describing it-

1036
00:54:15,750 --> 00:54:17,948
I think- you know,
maybe that's it.

1037
00:54:23,881 --> 00:54:26,815
wenner: hunter said, you
know, vegas is the city

1038
00:54:26,850 --> 00:54:28,780
that was the death
of what he thought

1039
00:54:28,815 --> 00:54:30,946
was the american dream.
in that famous scene,

1040
00:54:30,981 --> 00:54:34,848
he sees that opportunity and possibility
that was represented by the '60s.

1041
00:54:34,883 --> 00:54:37,279
"the wave rolls back

1042
00:54:37,314 --> 00:54:39,147
and," he said, "once for
a beautiful moment there,

1043
00:54:39,182 --> 00:54:42,448
- we thought we had it."
- * it feels the way we die... *

1044
00:54:42,483 --> 00:54:45,765
duke's voice: san francisco
in the middle of the '60s

1045
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:49,048
was a very special time
and place to be a part of,

1046
00:54:49,083 --> 00:54:51,013
but no explanation,

1047
00:54:51,048 --> 00:54:53,946
no mix of words
or music or memories

1048
00:54:53,981 --> 00:54:56,981
can touch that sense of
knowing that you were there

1049
00:54:57,016 --> 00:54:59,981
and alive in that corner
of time in the world,

1050
00:55:00,016 --> 00:55:02,813
whatever it meant.

1051
00:55:02,848 --> 00:55:06,548
* and you may not
know why... *

1052
00:55:08,581 --> 00:55:12,347
duke's voice: there was madness
in any direction, at any hour.

1053
00:55:12,382 --> 00:55:15,065
you could strike
sparks anywhere.

1054
00:55:15,100 --> 00:55:17,591
there was a fantastic
universal sense

1055
00:55:17,626 --> 00:55:20,082
that whatever
we were doing was right,

1056
00:55:20,117 --> 00:55:21,846
that we were winning.

1057
00:55:21,881 --> 00:55:24,179
and that, I think,
was the handle...

1058
00:55:24,214 --> 00:55:29,100
I have seen... the promised land.

1059
00:55:29,367 --> 00:55:31,601
duke's voice:...that
sense of inevitable victory

1060
00:55:31,636 --> 00:55:33,267
over the forces
of old and evil.

1061
00:55:33,367 --> 00:55:35,901
not in any mean
or military sense;

1062
00:55:35,936 --> 00:55:37,801
<i>we didn't need that.</i>

1063
00:55:37,867 --> 00:55:40,466
<i>our energy
would simply prevail.</i>

1064
00:55:41,832 --> 00:55:43,997
<i>we had
all the momentum.</i>

1065
00:55:44,032 --> 00:55:47,932
<i>we were riding the crest of
a high and beautiful wave.</i>

1066
00:55:47,933 --> 00:55:50,000
I may not get there with you...

1067
00:55:50,735 --> 00:55:53,335
but I want you to know tonight...

1068
00:55:53,481 --> 00:55:57,700
that, we, as a people,
will get to the promised land!

1069
00:55:58,441 --> 00:56:01,441
<i>duke's voice: so now,
less than five years later,</i>

1070
00:56:02,441 --> 00:56:04,441
<i>you can go up
on a steep hill</i>

1071
00:56:04,442 --> 00:56:05,442
<i>in las vegas
and look west</i>

1072
00:56:06,254 --> 00:56:07,985
and with
the right kind of eyes

1073
00:56:08,020 --> 00:56:10,870
you can almost see
the high-water mark,

1074
00:56:10,905 --> 00:56:13,720
that place where
the wave finally broke...

1075
00:56:13,755 --> 00:56:16,852
and rolled back.

1076
00:56:16,887 --> 00:56:19,386
martin luther king was shot
and was killed tonight.

1077
00:56:25,787 --> 00:56:28,785
nabulsi: it's amazing
to think that in 1971

1078
00:56:28,820 --> 00:56:32,486
he already saw that final
nail in the coffin of the '60s,

1079
00:56:32,521 --> 00:56:34,518
which is
really bittersweet.

1080
00:56:34,553 --> 00:56:37,370
and I think for hunter
it was bittersweet,

1081
00:56:37,405 --> 00:56:40,429
so I think speech
sort of encapsulates that.

1082
00:56:40,464 --> 00:56:43,453
I haven't read anything else
on that generation,

1083
00:56:43,488 --> 00:56:46,254
that subject
that moves me as much.

1084
00:56:46,289 --> 00:56:48,287
I felt it was
so important.

1085
00:56:48,322 --> 00:56:50,370
to me, it was
the driving thing

1086
00:56:50,405 --> 00:56:52,312
that made me
wanna do the movie.

1087
00:56:52,347 --> 00:56:54,185
well, I don't like
the idea of it-

1088
00:56:54,220 --> 00:56:56,953
that isn't one of the best
fucking things i've ever written-

1089
00:56:56,988 --> 00:56:59,351
to turn it into some kind of
a stupid cartoon show-

1090
00:56:59,386 --> 00:57:01,220
woman: it's one of the best
things that anybody's ever written.

1091
00:57:01,255 --> 00:57:03,121
I just happen to have
a very high affection

1092
00:57:03,156 --> 00:57:04,952
for that one piece
and so do other people.

1093
00:57:04,987 --> 00:57:07,254
nabulsi: before terry gilliam
was hired to direct the film,

1094
00:57:07,289 --> 00:57:09,620
there was another director,
but things didn't work out

1095
00:57:09,655 --> 00:57:12,384
when he wanted to put
this animated sequence

1096
00:57:12,419 --> 00:57:17,254
in the wave speech of this
little hunter on a wave of bones.

1097
00:57:17,289 --> 00:57:19,221
you can see that I might
be a little bit edgy

1098
00:57:19,256 --> 00:57:21,154
when you talk about
putting it in a cartoon form

1099
00:57:21,189 --> 00:57:22,918
with me on
some kind of tidal wave

1100
00:57:22,953 --> 00:57:25,718
across some imaginary
mickey mouse desert.

1101
00:57:25,753 --> 00:57:28,485
man: you've been put in
a cartoon form already.

1102
00:57:28,520 --> 00:57:30,969
the problem is that you've
published a novel with cartoons.

1103
00:57:31,004 --> 00:57:33,419
- I hired ralph to do some drawings.
- and they're great.

1104
00:57:33,454 --> 00:57:35,453
- no no no no.
- you're really getting me angry.

1105
00:57:35,488 --> 00:57:37,119
nabulsi: I know hunter well enough

1106
00:57:37,154 --> 00:57:39,987
that even if he was mad,
I’m not terrified

1107
00:57:40,022 --> 00:57:41,904
and I know how
to get through it,

1108
00:57:41,939 --> 00:57:43,787
but I was just
sort of shocked

1109
00:57:43,822 --> 00:57:46,351
that it had gone
so awry.

1110
00:57:46,386 --> 00:57:49,720
hunter on tv: just don't
fucking go and make it a cartoon!

1111
00:57:49,755 --> 00:57:51,451
all right, we're having
a little problem here

1112
00:57:51,486 --> 00:57:54,353
with your goddamn stupid
fucking cartoons in this thing.

1113
00:57:54,388 --> 00:57:55,704
if you think you're in
charge of this movie,

1114
00:57:55,739 --> 00:57:57,020
we're gonna have
a real problem right now.

1115
00:57:57,055 --> 00:57:59,204
if you want war-
here we go, baby-

1116
00:57:59,239 --> 00:58:01,318
there's gonna be
a nasty fucking war.

1117
00:58:01,353 --> 00:58:05,419
yeah, but I don't like you
turning on me at the end.

1118
00:58:05,454 --> 00:58:06,920
I must say I don't like that at all.

1119
00:58:06,955 --> 00:58:08,351
hunter:
what should I have said?

1120
00:58:08,386 --> 00:58:10,318
"no, i've known laila
for many years...

1121
00:58:10,353 --> 00:58:13,553
...and she would never say that."

1122
00:58:13,588 --> 00:58:18,020
- man #2: fuck. - he had
a kind of over-the-top

1123
00:58:18,055 --> 00:58:20,651
dramatic way of being.

1124
00:58:20,686 --> 00:58:23,686
yeah, I’ll talk to hunter now.
yeah, okay.

1125
00:58:23,721 --> 00:58:25,651
hunter, how are ya?

1126
00:58:25,686 --> 00:58:28,187
wenner: hunter always had
to have a running crisis.

1127
00:58:28,222 --> 00:58:29,887
going on
of some type of other-

1128
00:58:29,922 --> 00:58:31,518
to animate him,
to get him going.

1129
00:58:31,553 --> 00:58:34,620
what disease? I mean, do you
- is it a potentially serious thing?

1130
00:58:35,753 --> 00:58:37,753
brain- brain damage.

1131
00:58:37,788 --> 00:58:39,586
I see.

1132
00:58:41,353 --> 00:58:42,920
jimmy buffet: hunter did
everything for effect.

1133
00:58:42,955 --> 00:58:45,720
he was not ever happy,
I don't believe,

1134
00:58:45,755 --> 00:58:48,554
when things were
stable and tranquil.

1135
00:58:48,589 --> 00:58:51,353
crouse: hunter was a force of nature.

1136
00:58:51,388 --> 00:58:53,518
hunter would sit

1137
00:58:53,553 --> 00:58:56,085
very still
and very straight

1138
00:58:56,120 --> 00:58:59,918
with his arms up
like this, waiting.

1139
00:58:59,953 --> 00:59:03,987
and all of a sudden, he would
get a jolt and he would type.

1140
00:59:04,022 --> 00:59:05,752
he also had deadlines,

1141
00:59:05,787 --> 00:59:08,003
and hunter never met
a deadline.

1142
00:59:08,038 --> 00:59:10,185
he was completely
behind deadline.

1143
00:59:10,220 --> 00:59:13,020
he hadn't written a word and
jann was calling and screaming.

1144
00:59:13,055 --> 00:59:15,820
hunter was, at that time,
carrying around the mojo wire...

1145
00:59:15,855 --> 00:59:17,852
announcer:
just insert the document-

1146
00:59:17,887 --> 00:59:23,187
...which was a suitcase-sized
portable transmission machine.

1147
00:59:23,222 --> 00:59:25,154
announcer: in just six minutes or less,

1148
00:59:25,189 --> 00:59:27,351
an exact copy
of the document

1149
00:59:27,386 --> 00:59:29,485
can be received anywhere
in the country.

1150
00:59:29,520 --> 00:59:31,586
he said, "i've gotta do the story." i
said, "you haven't written the story."

1151
00:59:31,621 --> 00:59:33,820
"it doesn't matter.
just- when I tell you to,

1152
00:59:33,855 --> 00:59:37,070
just take the plug
and unplug it-

1153
00:59:37,105 --> 00:59:40,251
in and out-
on the machine."

1154
00:59:40,286 --> 00:59:42,886
he called up
"rolling stone" offices,

1155
00:59:42,921 --> 00:59:45,486
"well, it doesn't seem
to be working."

1156
00:59:45,521 --> 00:59:48,752
the entire place is
shut down

1157
00:59:48,787 --> 00:59:51,720
because everything has been
done except these four pages

1158
00:59:51,755 --> 00:59:54,653
- you've been holding for hunter.
- I was usually the guy,

1159
00:59:54,688 --> 00:59:55,918
at 2:00 or 3:00
in the morning,

1160
00:59:55,953 --> 00:59:58,585
who had to be there to get
the feed from hunter.

1161
00:59:58,620 --> 01:00:02,453
he took the fax machine, held the
phone like this and destroyed it.

1162
01:00:02,488 --> 01:00:04,254
and then he went
into this rave

1163
01:00:04,289 --> 01:00:05,985
about some editor
on the other end,

1164
01:00:06,020 --> 01:00:07,453
then hung the phone up
and went to the bar.

1165
01:00:09,187 --> 01:00:11,953
perry: jann was generally so
happy with the kind of stuff

1166
01:00:11,988 --> 01:00:14,270
that hunter was turning in
that it didn't matter.

1167
01:00:14,305 --> 01:00:16,553
it was just merely
a damn inconvenience for us.

1168
01:00:16,588 --> 01:00:18,685
young wenner:
the editor's note says

1169
01:00:18,720 --> 01:00:21,553
"after long, heavy and
occasionally brutal negotiations,

1170
01:00:21,588 --> 01:00:23,520
dr. thompson is
back on the payroll.

1171
01:00:23,555 --> 01:00:25,418
his gibberish will
appear regularly

1172
01:00:25,453 --> 01:00:27,987
in an unpredictable length on a
wide variety of subject matter.

1173
01:00:28,022 --> 01:00:30,653
we have total confidence
in him, for good or ill."

1174
01:00:30,688 --> 01:00:33,971
wenner: after "vegas," it was clear

1175
01:00:34,006 --> 01:00:37,219
what an enormous talent
hunter was,

1176
01:00:37,254 --> 01:00:39,219
and, with the energy
and the reporting level,

1177
01:00:39,254 --> 01:00:43,020
he was going to be better than
anybody else at "rolling stone."

1178
01:00:43,055 --> 01:00:44,787
would you have any other
place to publish your stuff

1179
01:00:44,822 --> 01:00:46,553
if it wasn't
for "rolling stone"?

1180
01:00:50,520 --> 01:00:52,920
wenner: so it was always
looking for what would be next.

1181
01:00:52,955 --> 01:00:54,351
what would be
the next assignment?

1182
01:00:54,386 --> 01:00:55,985
what's the biggest thing
we could think of?

1183
01:00:56,020 --> 01:00:57,820
I came up with the idea that
he should move to washington,

1184
01:00:57,855 --> 01:01:00,286
become the full-time
correspondent

1185
01:01:00,321 --> 01:01:02,318
for the mcgovern campaign.

1186
01:01:02,353 --> 01:01:04,752
two of the classical works
of american politics

1187
01:01:04,787 --> 01:01:07,787
came out of that campaign and out of
that assignment for "rolling stone."

1188
01:01:07,822 --> 01:01:10,187
one is "fear and loathing: on
the campaign trail" by hunter;

1189
01:01:10,222 --> 01:01:12,654
and "boys on the bus"
by tim crouse,

1190
01:01:12,689 --> 01:01:15,052
who was one
of our little junior stars.

1191
01:01:15,087 --> 01:01:17,119
but he wanted to be up there
and cover the campaign,

1192
01:01:17,154 --> 01:01:20,120
so I said, "sure. go right ahead. you
can help hunter while you're at it."

1193
01:01:20,155 --> 01:01:22,154
part of the reason
I was there

1194
01:01:22,189 --> 01:01:24,937
was to take care of him.

1195
01:01:24,972 --> 01:01:27,651
and what I felt from him

1196
01:01:27,686 --> 01:01:30,820
from the very beginning was
a sense of protection.

1197
01:01:30,855 --> 01:01:34,785
and we became
a very good team that way.

1198
01:01:34,820 --> 01:01:36,353
young wenner: if you were really
interested in what was happening

1199
01:01:36,388 --> 01:01:38,152
on the mcgovern campaign,
the election,

1200
01:01:38,187 --> 01:01:39,952
you would've also- although
it was not as widely known-

1201
01:01:39,987 --> 01:01:41,920
turned to "rolling stone" to
find out really what was going on.

1202
01:01:41,955 --> 01:01:43,637
hunter's coverage
and record of it-

1203
01:01:43,672 --> 01:01:45,463
his coverage was
just brilliant.

1204
01:02:00,087 --> 01:02:03,319
pat caddell: when he showed up at
the campaign, no one knew who he was.

1205
01:02:03,354 --> 01:02:05,653
but I’m still in college,
so I read "rolling stone,"

1206
01:02:05,688 --> 01:02:07,887
so I knew who he was.
nobody else knew.

1207
01:02:07,922 --> 01:02:09,418
that was
his great advantage-

1208
01:02:09,453 --> 01:02:11,220
nobody was paying
attention to him...

1209
01:02:11,255 --> 01:02:13,304
until he started publishing,

1210
01:02:13,339 --> 01:02:15,318
then all hell broke loose.

1211
01:02:16,464 --> 01:02:19,010
depp: "so this is more of
a jangled campaign diary

1212
01:02:19,011 --> 01:02:20,705
than a record
or reasoned analysis

1213
01:02:20,710 --> 01:02:22,958
of the '72
presidential campaign

1214
01:02:23,253 --> 01:02:25,882
from december '71
to january '73

1215
01:02:25,917 --> 01:02:28,148
in airport bars,
all-night coffee shops

1216
01:02:28,183 --> 01:02:30,333
and dreary hotel rooms
all over the country.

1217
01:02:30,368 --> 01:02:32,449
there is hardly
a paragraph in this saga

1218
01:02:32,484 --> 01:02:35,250
that wasn't produced in a
last-minute teeth-grinding frenzy.

1219
01:02:37,884 --> 01:02:39,948
every deadline was
a crisis

1220
01:02:39,983 --> 01:02:42,183
when I was cranking it
out of the typewriter

1221
01:02:42,218 --> 01:02:44,248
one page at a time
and feeding it

1222
01:02:44,283 --> 01:02:46,650
Into the plastic maw of
that goddamn mojo wire...

1223
01:02:46,685 --> 01:02:48,615
...to some hash-addled freak
of an editor

1224
01:02:48,650 --> 01:02:51,849
at the 'rolling stone'
news desk in san francisco."

1225
01:02:51,884 --> 01:02:55,717
there. chew on that gibberish
for a while, you heartless scum.

1226
01:02:58,016 --> 01:03:00,217
you pushed me too far.

1227
01:03:11,851 --> 01:03:14,600
mcgovern: I couldn't read
that book, "fear and loathing,"

1228
01:03:14,635 --> 01:03:17,350
without being in a place
where I could laugh out loud

1229
01:03:17,385 --> 01:03:19,615
from time to time.

1230
01:03:19,650 --> 01:03:21,649
it was a hilarious book.

1231
01:03:21,684 --> 01:03:24,115
I have been quoted many times
and I’ll say it again-

1232
01:03:24,150 --> 01:03:28,684
it was the most accurate and least
factual account of that campaign.

1233
01:03:30,717 --> 01:03:32,348
mcgovern:
I’ll say one other thing:

1234
01:03:32,383 --> 01:03:35,350
that book was written
for "rolling stone"

1235
01:03:35,385 --> 01:03:38,482
as the campaign progressed.

1236
01:03:38,517 --> 01:03:41,617
it wasn't something written
from the hindsight

1237
01:03:41,652 --> 01:03:45,467
of the campaign.
those chapters rolled off

1238
01:03:45,502 --> 01:03:49,283
of his typewriter
as the campaign moved along.

1239
01:03:52,750 --> 01:03:54,382
perry:
it was a journalistic risk.

1240
01:03:54,417 --> 01:03:57,250
he had covered
political campaigns before

1241
01:03:57,285 --> 01:03:59,482
he was just sick
of the conventions,

1242
01:03:59,517 --> 01:04:01,849
sitting around
and reporting the speeches.

1243
01:04:01,884 --> 01:04:05,917
and the speeches were all written
for reporters to write about.

1244
01:04:05,952 --> 01:04:07,916
depp:
"as far as I was concerned,

1245
01:04:07,951 --> 01:04:10,283
there was no such thing
as 'off the record.'

1246
01:04:10,318 --> 01:04:12,415
unlike most
other correspondents

1247
01:04:12,450 --> 01:04:14,317
I could afford to burn
all my bridges behind me,

1248
01:04:14,352 --> 01:04:16,351
'cause I was only there
for a year.

1249
01:04:16,386 --> 01:04:18,315
and the last thing
I cared about

1250
01:04:18,350 --> 01:04:21,884
was establishing long-term
connections on capitol hill."

1251
01:04:21,919 --> 01:04:24,048
he wanted
to stir things up.

1252
01:04:24,083 --> 01:04:26,517
buchanan: there was no
one quite like hunter.

1253
01:04:26,552 --> 01:04:29,183
he was on the edge
and beyond the edge,

1254
01:04:29,218 --> 01:04:30,782
and it was very funny.

1255
01:04:30,817 --> 01:04:33,816
I remember he wrote
that hubert humphrey,

1256
01:04:33,851 --> 01:04:35,682
the great father
of the civil rights movement-

1257
01:04:35,717 --> 01:04:40,016
he said, "they ought to stuff
hubert in a goddamn bottle

1258
01:04:40,051 --> 01:04:41,882
and send him out
with the japanese current."

1259
01:04:41,917 --> 01:04:45,233
depp: "there is no way to grasp
what a shallow, contemptible

1260
01:04:45,268 --> 01:04:48,515
and hopelessly dishonest old
hack hubert humphrey really is

1261
01:04:48,550 --> 01:04:51,484
until you've followed him around
for a while on the campaign trail.

1262
01:04:51,519 --> 01:04:54,417
hubert humphrey is
a treacherous,

1263
01:04:54,452 --> 01:04:56,582
gutless old ward-heeler."

1264
01:04:56,617 --> 01:04:59,684
buchanan: he had a view of
the ridiculousness of it all...

1265
01:04:59,719 --> 01:05:01,415
thank you.
shalom shalom.

1266
01:05:01,450 --> 01:05:04,016
...and hunter did some of
his best work on the liberals.

1267
01:05:04,051 --> 01:05:08,150
mcgovern: he was particularly
hostile to hubert,

1268
01:05:08,185 --> 01:05:10,482
but he certainly
loathed richard nixon.

1269
01:05:10,517 --> 01:05:14,517
depp: "our barbie doll president
with his barbie doll wife

1270
01:05:14,552 --> 01:05:16,449
and his boxful
of barbie doll children

1271
01:05:16,484 --> 01:05:20,450
is also america's answer
to the monstrous mr. hyde.

1272
01:05:20,485 --> 01:05:23,048
he speaks
to the werewolf in us

1273
01:05:23,083 --> 01:05:26,315
on nights when the moon
comes too close."

1274
01:05:26,350 --> 01:05:29,684
nixon represents everything
that's wrong with this country...

1275
01:05:29,719 --> 01:05:31,851
down the line.

1276
01:05:33,650 --> 01:05:35,649
buchanan: well, he first
came into our consciousness

1277
01:05:35,684 --> 01:05:39,115
in the beginning of 1968. he was
writing for "pageant" magazine.

1278
01:05:39,150 --> 01:05:42,833
he came up to cover us. I was with
nixon in the new hampshire primary

1279
01:05:42,868 --> 01:05:46,517
and hunter would importune me to
get some time with the candidate.

1280
01:05:46,552 --> 01:05:49,267
so we got hunter-
as I recall it-

1281
01:05:49,302 --> 01:05:51,983
we put him
in the car with nixon

1282
01:05:52,018 --> 01:05:53,582
in the backseat
of the limo

1283
01:05:53,617 --> 01:05:56,048
when nixon was going
to manchester airport.

1284
01:05:56,083 --> 01:05:58,950
man: wasn't it in 1968
you tried to interview nixon?

1285
01:05:58,985 --> 01:06:01,817
hunter: no, I did it. I had
a wonderful talk with him.

1286
01:06:01,852 --> 01:06:03,348
what did you talk about?

1287
01:06:03,383 --> 01:06:05,884
football. I was the only
person in the press corps

1288
01:06:05,919 --> 01:06:07,115
who could talk
about football.

1289
01:06:07,150 --> 01:06:08,917
is this a need that
occurs to him during-

1290
01:06:08,952 --> 01:06:10,649
oh, yeah. he's a
complete football freak.

1291
01:06:10,684 --> 01:06:13,951
and I said, "no, of course. I’m
a freak. I know all about it."

1292
01:06:13,986 --> 01:06:16,368
he said, "but you-
you're the one who wants

1293
01:06:16,403 --> 01:06:18,715
to talk about vietnam
and that kind of thing."

1294
01:06:18,750 --> 01:06:20,900
I said, "no, I’ll talk
about football. don't worry."

1295
01:06:20,935 --> 01:06:23,050
he said, "okay, if you
promise, then you can ride

1296
01:06:23,085 --> 01:06:24,917
in the car with him
back to the airport."

1297
01:06:24,952 --> 01:06:26,434
it's about an hour
and a half ride,

1298
01:06:26,469 --> 01:06:27,917
just me a nixon
in the backseat.

1299
01:06:27,952 --> 01:06:29,782
was he
an amiable fellow?

1300
01:06:29,817 --> 01:06:32,584
oh, absolutely. yeah. it was
kind of pleasant. it was weird.

1301
01:06:32,619 --> 01:06:36,884
four more
years, four more years...

1302
01:06:38,350 --> 01:06:43,182
tonight I again proudly
accept that nomination

1303
01:06:43,217 --> 01:06:45,517
for president of the united states.

1304
01:06:49,584 --> 01:06:53,782
hunter: richard nixon
represents everything that i...

1305
01:06:53,817 --> 01:06:56,450
not only have contempt for but dislike
and think should be stomped out.

1306
01:06:56,485 --> 01:06:59,684
depp: "he was a cheap crook
and a merciless war criminal

1307
01:06:59,719 --> 01:07:02,884
who bombed more people
to death in laos and cambodia

1308
01:07:02,919 --> 01:07:05,884
than the u.s. army lost
in all of world war ii.

1309
01:07:05,919 --> 01:07:08,951
when students
at kent state university

1310
01:07:08,986 --> 01:07:10,749
in ohio protested
the bombing,

1311
01:07:10,784 --> 01:07:13,282
he connived to have them
attacked and slain

1312
01:07:13,317 --> 01:07:17,148
by troops from the national guard."

1313
01:07:17,183 --> 01:07:20,283
"some people will say that
words like 'scum' and 'rotten'

1314
01:07:20,318 --> 01:07:22,700
are wrong
for objective journalism,

1315
01:07:22,735 --> 01:07:25,083
which is true.
but they miss the point.

1316
01:07:25,118 --> 01:07:26,901
it was
the built-in blind spots

1317
01:07:26,936 --> 01:07:28,659
of the objective
rules and dogma

1318
01:07:28,694 --> 01:07:30,348
that allowed
nixon to slither

1319
01:07:30,383 --> 01:07:32,283
into the white house
in the first place.

1320
01:07:32,318 --> 01:07:34,315
he seemed
so all-american."

1321
01:07:34,350 --> 01:07:41,050
* and the skies are
not cloudy all day. *

1322
01:07:43,016 --> 01:07:45,183
depp: "you had to get
subjective to see nixon clearly.

1323
01:07:45,218 --> 01:07:48,182
he was so crooked
that he needed servants

1324
01:07:48,217 --> 01:07:51,649
to help him screw
on his pants every morning."

1325
01:07:51,684 --> 01:07:55,150
I am filling with hate and rage
right now just thinking about it.

1326
01:07:59,784 --> 01:08:02,717
gary hart: I had never
tried to psychoanalyze hunter

1327
01:08:02,752 --> 01:08:04,115
in mood swings
and so on,

1328
01:08:04,150 --> 01:08:07,217
but I think in his bad
moments or worse moments

1329
01:08:07,252 --> 01:08:09,834
he thought it was
all fear and loathing.

1330
01:08:09,869 --> 01:08:12,759
crouse: "fear and loathing in las vegas"

1331
01:08:12,794 --> 01:08:15,650
is ostensibly
about a man in search

1332
01:08:15,685 --> 01:08:17,449
of the american dream.

1333
01:08:17,484 --> 01:08:20,950
and "fear and loathing:
on the campaign trail"

1334
01:08:20,985 --> 01:08:24,684
is about a man in search
of an honest politician.

1335
01:08:24,719 --> 01:08:28,348
and the only one in sight
who even vaguely qualified

1336
01:08:28,383 --> 01:08:31,851
- was george mcgovern. - when
you support george mcgovern-

1337
01:08:31,886 --> 01:08:34,784
at the position
I am in the polls,

1338
01:08:34,819 --> 01:08:36,849
that's an act of courage.

1339
01:08:36,884 --> 01:08:39,617
depp: "george mcgovern
- the only candidate

1340
01:08:39,652 --> 01:08:41,301
in either party
worth voting for

1341
01:08:41,336 --> 01:08:42,916
is hung
in a frustrated limbo

1342
01:08:42,951 --> 01:08:44,684
created mainly
by the gross cynicism

1343
01:08:44,719 --> 01:08:46,148
of the washington
press corps.

1344
01:08:46,183 --> 01:08:48,700
'he'd be a fine president,'
they say,

1345
01:08:48,735 --> 01:08:51,293
'but of course
he can't possibly win.'

1346
01:08:51,328 --> 01:08:53,755
- why not?"
- I just wanted to say hello.

1347
01:08:53,790 --> 01:08:56,183
I’m senator mcgovern, folks.
nice to see you.

1348
01:08:56,218 --> 01:08:58,981
yes, you too.

1349
01:08:59,016 --> 01:09:01,650
you fellas know
I’m running for president?

1350
01:09:01,685 --> 01:09:03,484
I hope you'll help me out.

1351
01:09:08,150 --> 01:09:10,582
crouse:
mcgovern's program was

1352
01:09:10,617 --> 01:09:13,283
immediate withdrawal
from vietnam...

1353
01:09:16,150 --> 01:09:18,467
mcgovern:
even if we stayed there

1354
01:09:18,502 --> 01:09:20,749
and bombed
for the next five years

1355
01:09:20,784 --> 01:09:23,650
and americans continue to
die, five years from now

1356
01:09:23,685 --> 01:09:25,751
we're going to be right
where we are now.

1357
01:09:25,786 --> 01:09:27,817
so let's recognize
that we made a mistake.

1358
01:09:27,852 --> 01:09:29,849
let's bring
this war to an end.

1359
01:09:29,884 --> 01:09:33,484
...amnesty for draft dodgers
and deserters,

1360
01:09:33,519 --> 01:09:35,081
equal rights for women

1361
01:09:35,116 --> 01:09:40,383
and- and a cut
in the defense budget.

1362
01:09:40,418 --> 01:09:42,784
well, good luck.

1363
01:09:47,917 --> 01:09:52,317
mcgovern: the transcendent
issue of '72 was vietnam,

1364
01:09:52,352 --> 01:09:55,217
and I desperately wanted
to win that election

1365
01:09:55,252 --> 01:09:58,415
to put an end
to that senseless war.

1366
01:09:58,450 --> 01:10:02,083
I’m sick and tired
of old men sitting around

1367
01:10:02,118 --> 01:10:06,267
in air-conditioned rooms
here in washington

1368
01:10:06,302 --> 01:10:09,809
dreaming up wars
for young men to die in.

1369
01:10:09,844 --> 01:10:13,317
mcgovern: it is a tide
that would sweep away

1370
01:10:13,352 --> 01:10:15,282
the barbarism of war

1371
01:10:15,317 --> 01:10:18,484
and end the folly
of vietnam once and for all.

1372
01:10:19,951 --> 01:10:21,983
depp: "mcgovern is the
only major candidate

1373
01:10:22,018 --> 01:10:24,048
who lines out
the painful truth,

1374
01:10:24,083 --> 01:10:26,248
and his reward has been
just about the same

1375
01:10:26,283 --> 01:10:29,517
as that of any other politician
who insists on telling the truth:

1376
01:10:29,552 --> 01:10:31,782
he is mocked, vilified,

1377
01:10:31,817 --> 01:10:35,217
ignored and abandoned
as a hopeless loser."

1378
01:10:35,252 --> 01:10:37,582
the president
is attacking...

1379
01:10:37,617 --> 01:10:40,317
hart: hunter never trusted
anybody who was elected.

1380
01:10:42,383 --> 01:10:44,282
that was the irony,

1381
01:10:44,317 --> 01:10:48,917
because to be estimable
in his judgment

1382
01:10:48,952 --> 01:10:51,417
you had to be
a loser, in effect.

1383
01:10:51,452 --> 01:10:53,016
a noble loser.

1384
01:10:56,383 --> 01:10:58,517
brinkley: what was bold
about hunter with mcgovern

1385
01:10:58,552 --> 01:11:00,248
is he wasn't
being objective.

1386
01:11:00,283 --> 01:11:02,817
he was saying "this is the
guy I want to see as president.

1387
01:11:02,852 --> 01:11:04,417
I’m gonna try to help
make him president."

1388
01:11:07,750 --> 01:11:11,817
mcgovern: leaving out
george wallace, who was shot,

1389
01:11:11,852 --> 01:11:14,983
the two strongest
democratic contenders

1390
01:11:15,018 --> 01:11:17,251
were muskie and humphrey.

1391
01:11:17,286 --> 01:11:19,818
therefore,
hunter saw them

1392
01:11:19,853 --> 01:11:22,315
as a threat
to be unmasked,

1393
01:11:22,350 --> 01:11:26,951
because by then I think he was
pretty strongly committed to me.

1394
01:11:28,784 --> 01:11:33,150
crouse: hunter's pieces
were a very particular hybrid

1395
01:11:33,185 --> 01:11:35,981
of very clear-minded,

1396
01:11:36,016 --> 01:11:38,315
accurate
straight reportage

1397
01:11:38,350 --> 01:11:42,083
and then sometimes
flat-out fantasy.

1398
01:11:42,118 --> 01:11:44,315
it was all run together,

1399
01:11:44,350 --> 01:11:48,048
and some people
found it hard

1400
01:11:48,083 --> 01:11:51,382
to tell the fantasy
from the other stuff.

1401
01:11:51,417 --> 01:11:53,817
it occurred to me about
halfway during the campaign

1402
01:11:53,852 --> 01:11:56,682
that people
actually believed

1403
01:11:56,717 --> 01:11:59,250
a lot of the things
I was writing about-

1404
01:11:59,285 --> 01:12:01,784
muskie eating
this strange brazilian drug.

1405
01:12:01,819 --> 01:12:04,151
hunter had it in for muskie

1406
01:12:04,186 --> 01:12:06,449
like you couldn't believe.

1407
01:12:06,484 --> 01:12:09,517
hunter just could not
lay off of muskie.

1408
01:12:09,552 --> 01:12:12,715
what did you do
to ed muskie?

1409
01:12:12,750 --> 01:12:15,817
nothing. ed muskie did it to himself.

1410
01:12:15,852 --> 01:12:17,484
I just helped him along.

1411
01:12:20,684 --> 01:12:23,350
depp: "not much has been
written about the ibogaine effect

1412
01:12:23,385 --> 01:12:26,084
as a serious factor
in the presidential campaign,

1413
01:12:26,119 --> 01:12:28,784
but toward the end
of the wisconsin primary race,

1414
01:12:28,819 --> 01:12:30,749
about a week
before the vote,

1415
01:12:30,784 --> 01:12:33,884
word leaked out that some
of muskie's top advisors

1416
01:12:33,919 --> 01:12:35,315
had called in
a brazilian doctor

1417
01:12:35,350 --> 01:12:36,884
who was said to be
treating the candidate

1418
01:12:36,919 --> 01:12:38,917
with 'some kind of
strange drug.'"

1419
01:12:44,083 --> 01:12:46,150
what was the drug
that you said he was on?

1420
01:12:46,185 --> 01:12:48,649
- ibogaine.
- ibogaine.

1421
01:12:48,684 --> 01:12:51,717
perry: first we saw his work,
then we had to look it up

1422
01:12:51,752 --> 01:12:53,148
and then
we started wondering

1423
01:12:53,183 --> 01:12:55,316
whether somebody
could sue us about this.

1424
01:12:55,351 --> 01:12:57,450
then we realized
how silly that would be,

1425
01:12:57,485 --> 01:12:59,215
so we went ahead with it.

1426
01:12:59,250 --> 01:13:01,348
caddell:
"rolling stone" reports

1427
01:13:01,383 --> 01:13:03,749
democratic presidential
candidate edmund muskie

1428
01:13:03,784 --> 01:13:06,617
is in fact addicted. it ended up
on the wires as a straight story.

1429
01:13:06,652 --> 01:13:08,549
it caused
a major sensation.

1430
01:13:08,584 --> 01:13:10,933
it was just this magical
lyrical moment of hunter's.

1431
01:13:10,968 --> 01:13:13,248
depp: "it had been common
knowledge for many weeks

1432
01:13:13,283 --> 01:13:16,951
that humphrey was using an exotic
brand of speed known as 'wallot.'

1433
01:13:16,986 --> 01:13:18,282
and it had
long been whispered

1434
01:13:18,317 --> 01:13:20,449
that muskie was
into something very heavy,

1435
01:13:20,484 --> 01:13:23,617
but it was hard to take the talk seriously
until I heard about the appearance

1436
01:13:23,652 --> 01:13:26,684
of a mysterious brazilian
doctor. that was the key."

1437
01:13:47,684 --> 01:13:51,750
by attacking me, he's proved
himself to be a gutless coward.

1438
01:13:51,785 --> 01:13:54,116
depp: "I immediately
recognized the ibogaine effect

1439
01:13:54,151 --> 01:13:55,682
from muskie's
tearful breakdown

1440
01:13:55,717 --> 01:13:57,750
on the flatbed truck
in new hampshire..."

1441
01:13:59,417 --> 01:14:01,417
perry: he said,
"well, look at the way

1442
01:14:01,452 --> 01:14:03,367
the guy gives
his speeches.

1443
01:14:03,402 --> 01:14:05,248
it exactly fits
the symptoms

1444
01:14:05,283 --> 01:14:08,081
of somebody
who's stoned on ibogaine."

1445
01:14:08,116 --> 01:14:11,382
and the charge was
so bizarre, so off-the-wall,

1446
01:14:11,417 --> 01:14:13,417
it really brought a lot of
attention to hunter's reporting.

1447
01:14:13,452 --> 01:14:15,816
do you mind
if I state my view?

1448
01:14:15,851 --> 01:14:17,600
depp: "...to the delusions
and altered thinking

1449
01:14:17,635 --> 01:14:19,793
that characterized
his campaign in wisconsin,

1450
01:14:19,828 --> 01:14:21,951
and finally the condition
of 'total rage'

1451
01:14:21,986 --> 01:14:23,948
that gripped him
in florida."

1452
01:14:23,983 --> 01:14:27,717
but I am speaking to these people
who are willing to listen to me!

1453
01:14:27,752 --> 01:14:29,882
man: the rumor began
to spread everywhere

1454
01:14:29,917 --> 01:14:32,383
among all the people who
were covering the campaign

1455
01:14:32,418 --> 01:14:35,015
that muskie was in fact
on this bizarre drug.

1456
01:14:35,050 --> 01:14:38,016
- you finally said you made it all up.
- I had to.

1457
01:14:38,051 --> 01:14:40,834
I couldn't believe people
took this stuff seriously.

1458
01:14:40,869 --> 01:14:43,582
people really believed that
muskie was eating ibogaine.

1459
01:14:43,617 --> 01:14:48,050
I never said he was. I said there was
a rumor in milwaukee that he was...

1460
01:14:48,085 --> 01:14:50,081
which was true. I started
the rumor in milwaukee.

1461
01:14:50,116 --> 01:14:52,817
yeah, if you're really careful-

1462
01:14:52,852 --> 01:14:54,484
I’m a very accurate
journalist.

1463
01:14:59,550 --> 01:15:01,333
depp: "muskie's always taken pride

1464
01:15:01,368 --> 01:15:03,116
in his ability
to deal with hecklers.

1465
01:15:03,151 --> 01:15:04,816
he's frequently
challenged them,

1466
01:15:04,851 --> 01:15:06,981
calling them up to the stage
in front of big crowds

1467
01:15:07,016 --> 01:15:10,584
and the forcing the poor bastards to
debate with him in a blaze of tv lights.

1468
01:15:10,619 --> 01:15:13,184
but there was none
of that in florida.

1469
01:15:13,219 --> 01:15:15,750
when the boohoo began
grabbing at his legs

1470
01:15:15,785 --> 01:15:17,517
and screaming
for more gin,

1471
01:15:17,552 --> 01:15:19,215
big ed went
all to pieces,

1472
01:15:19,250 --> 01:15:21,933
which gave rise to
speculation among reporters

1473
01:15:21,968 --> 01:15:24,617
familiar with his campaign
style in '68 and '70

1474
01:15:24,652 --> 01:15:26,715
that muskie
was not himself."

1475
01:15:26,750 --> 01:15:30,050
...shredded, torn,
battered and beaten

1476
01:15:30,085 --> 01:15:32,015
beyond all recognition.

1477
01:15:32,050 --> 01:15:33,549
depp:
"in retrospect, however,

1478
01:15:33,584 --> 01:15:35,649
it is easy to see
why muskie fell apart

1479
01:15:35,684 --> 01:15:38,217
on that caboose platform
in the miamI train station.

1480
01:15:38,252 --> 01:15:40,015
it is entirely conceivable,

1481
01:15:40,050 --> 01:15:42,016
given the known effects
of ibogaine,

1482
01:15:42,051 --> 01:15:43,983
that muskie's brain was
almost paralyzed

1483
01:15:44,018 --> 01:15:45,834
by hallucinations
at the time,

1484
01:15:45,869 --> 01:15:47,615
that he looked out
at the crowd

1485
01:15:47,650 --> 01:15:49,750
and saw gila monsters
instead of people.

1486
01:15:51,584 --> 01:15:53,549
that his mind
snapped completely

1487
01:15:53,584 --> 01:15:56,150
when he felt something large
and apparently vicious

1488
01:15:56,185 --> 01:15:58,317
clawing at his legs."

1489
01:16:00,851 --> 01:16:02,882
that's crazy stuff.

1490
01:16:02,917 --> 01:16:04,282
nobody was
writing like that.

1491
01:16:04,317 --> 01:16:07,317
I mean, in the serious world
of political journalism

1492
01:16:07,352 --> 01:16:09,884
they thought
that way of hunter,

1493
01:16:09,919 --> 01:16:12,382
that he was
getting away with stuff

1494
01:16:12,417 --> 01:16:14,700
that they couldn't
in what they were doing.

1495
01:16:14,735 --> 01:16:17,442
and they all lived
vicariously through him.

1496
01:16:17,477 --> 01:16:20,463
crouse: the social scene of the press-

1497
01:16:20,498 --> 01:16:23,415
in those days it was
almost all males

1498
01:16:23,450 --> 01:16:27,383
and they almost
all drank pretty seriously.

1499
01:16:27,418 --> 01:16:31,317
and hunter, he was
kind of impervious man

1500
01:16:31,352 --> 01:16:35,217
when it came
to drugs and to liquor.

1501
01:16:35,252 --> 01:16:37,649
you saw
that stuff go in

1502
01:16:37,684 --> 01:16:40,617
and there was
no discernable effect

1503
01:16:40,652 --> 01:16:42,682
in his behavior.

1504
01:16:42,717 --> 01:16:44,933
and that left
an impression

1505
01:16:44,968 --> 01:16:47,150
on the people
he was with.

1506
01:16:48,951 --> 01:16:51,067
hunter couldn't
resist, ever,

1507
01:16:51,102 --> 01:16:53,109
trying to shock
the squares.

1508
01:16:53,144 --> 01:16:55,081
hunter would turn
to me and say,

1509
01:16:55,116 --> 01:16:57,917
"maybe at the next stop
we can shoot up,"

1510
01:16:57,952 --> 01:17:00,517
or "hey, if they have
a men's room,

1511
01:17:00,552 --> 01:17:03,083
it would be good
to eat some acid."

1512
01:17:03,118 --> 01:17:05,615
and hunter,
in this sense,

1513
01:17:05,650 --> 01:17:09,917
almost had the attributes
of an action hero.

1514
01:17:17,917 --> 01:17:20,048
mcgovern:
I got a call from hunter.

1515
01:17:20,083 --> 01:17:22,750
he invited eleanor and me
to meet him for dinner.

1516
01:17:22,785 --> 01:17:26,517
when we got there,
the waitress materialized

1517
01:17:26,552 --> 01:17:30,550
and he said,
"bring me three margaritas

1518
01:17:30,585 --> 01:17:33,916
and six beers,"

1519
01:17:33,951 --> 01:17:35,482
and the girl laughed.

1520
01:17:35,517 --> 01:17:39,633
she said, "are you expecting
some other people, sir?"

1521
01:17:39,668 --> 01:17:43,750
he said, "no. find out
what these two folks want,

1522
01:17:43,785 --> 01:17:46,184
but bring me
three margaritas

1523
01:17:46,219 --> 01:17:48,584
and six beers."

1524
01:17:50,917 --> 01:17:54,016
hart: I don't think hunter ever
thought mcgovern was gonna win.

1525
01:17:54,051 --> 01:17:56,449
I think he was along
for the ride.

1526
01:17:56,484 --> 01:17:58,684
this thing picks up
speed fast, doesn't it?

1527
01:17:58,719 --> 01:18:01,951
man: oh yeah, so is your campaign.

1528
01:18:01,986 --> 01:18:03,582
hart:
and all of a sudden,

1529
01:18:03,617 --> 01:18:05,948
this thing begins
to be serious.

1530
01:18:05,983 --> 01:18:07,415
man: of the six democratic candidates,

1531
01:18:07,450 --> 01:18:09,517
which one are you
supporting in the primary?

1532
01:18:09,552 --> 01:18:11,315
- mcgovern?
- why?

1533
01:18:11,350 --> 01:18:15,684
because I think that he's the only
man that can unite the country.

1534
01:18:15,719 --> 01:18:17,882
- george mcgovern.
- man: why?

1535
01:18:17,917 --> 01:18:20,250
because I think
he's the people's man.

1536
01:18:20,285 --> 01:18:22,649
uh, what's his name?

1537
01:18:22,684 --> 01:18:25,250
- man: wallace?
- no no no. no.

1538
01:18:25,285 --> 01:18:26,751
- lindsay?
- no.

1539
01:18:26,786 --> 01:18:28,368
- humphrey?
- no.

1540
01:18:28,403 --> 01:18:29,916
- muskie?
- no.

1541
01:18:29,951 --> 01:18:32,217
- mcgovern?
- yes, you've got it right there.

1542
01:18:32,252 --> 01:18:34,484
I think you're coming
on good to labor people.

1543
01:18:34,519 --> 01:18:37,182
- yeah.
- hart: I think hunter realized

1544
01:18:37,217 --> 01:18:40,183
that the man he was following
might actually have a chance.

1545
01:18:40,218 --> 01:18:44,750
man: muskie, jackson,
lindsay trail badly.

1546
01:18:44,785 --> 01:18:47,150
what the hell
have you been doing?

1547
01:18:47,185 --> 01:18:48,916
we won by a landslide.

1548
01:18:48,951 --> 01:18:50,749
the press coverage is
unbelievable.

1549
01:18:50,784 --> 01:18:52,183
he's gonna be
on the cover of "newsweek,"

1550
01:18:52,218 --> 01:18:54,081
probably the cover
of "time,"

1551
01:18:54,116 --> 01:18:55,550
and they're calling him
the frontrunner

1552
01:18:55,585 --> 01:18:56,983
for the democratic
nomination.

1553
01:18:57,018 --> 01:18:58,350
now we've got to worry.

1554
01:19:07,183 --> 01:19:09,017
man:
senator george mcgovern,

1555
01:19:09,052 --> 01:19:10,816
having received
the majority vote

1556
01:19:10,851 --> 01:19:12,817
of this convention
of certified delegates,

1557
01:19:12,852 --> 01:19:15,048
is hereby declared

1558
01:19:15,083 --> 01:19:17,615
the 1972 democratic nominee

1559
01:19:17,650 --> 01:19:19,884
for president
of the united states.

1560
01:19:24,450 --> 01:19:26,684
depp: "mcgovern appeared
to have a sure lock

1561
01:19:26,719 --> 01:19:28,215
on the white house
when the sun came up

1562
01:19:28,250 --> 01:19:32,317
on miamI beach on the morning
of thursday, july 13th.

1563
01:19:32,352 --> 01:19:34,782
since then he has
crippled himself

1564
01:19:34,817 --> 01:19:37,784
with a series of almost
unbelievable blunders."

1565
01:19:39,917 --> 01:19:41,683
hart: the polls going into that weekend

1566
01:19:41,718 --> 01:19:43,415
showed mcgovern
with a chance to win.

1567
01:19:43,450 --> 01:19:45,417
now it's very difficult
to defeat an incumbent,

1568
01:19:45,452 --> 01:19:47,449
particularly at war time,

1569
01:19:47,484 --> 01:19:49,783
so you had to have
everything go right.

1570
01:19:49,818 --> 01:19:52,048
you could not have
one thing go wrong.

1571
01:19:52,083 --> 01:19:55,550
and of course we had a huge
major thing go wrong within hours.

1572
01:19:55,585 --> 01:19:58,048
there was this disaster

1573
01:19:58,083 --> 01:20:00,700
with the choice
for the vice president-

1574
01:20:00,735 --> 01:20:03,282
thomas eagleton,
senator from missouri.

1575
01:20:03,317 --> 01:20:05,649
frank mankiewicz:
he meets the main requirements

1576
01:20:05,684 --> 01:20:08,484
senator mcgovern set down when
he began his consideration,

1577
01:20:08,519 --> 01:20:10,484
which is a man
in whom he would have

1578
01:20:10,519 --> 01:20:12,415
absolute
and complete confidence

1579
01:20:12,450 --> 01:20:15,050
and in whom he believes the american
people would have complete confidence

1580
01:20:15,085 --> 01:20:17,983
to become president of the united
states should an occasion arise.

1581
01:20:18,018 --> 01:20:19,948
I think it was
mankiewicz who asked him

1582
01:20:19,983 --> 01:20:23,116
if he had any skeletons
in his closet and he said no.

1583
01:20:25,050 --> 01:20:27,550
tom said he couldn't
think of anything

1584
01:20:27,585 --> 01:20:30,050
and then the clock
started to tick.

1585
01:20:33,383 --> 01:20:36,366
hart: the weekend after
the convention in miami

1586
01:20:36,401 --> 01:20:39,350
we had gotten an anonymous
call at headquarters

1587
01:20:39,385 --> 01:20:42,784
saying that
senator eagleton had had...

1588
01:20:42,819 --> 01:20:46,148
shock therapy,
which we had not known.

1589
01:20:46,183 --> 01:20:51,517
* well, I think I’m going out of my head *

1590
01:20:51,552 --> 01:20:55,951
* yes, I think
I’m going out of my head *

1591
01:20:55,986 --> 01:20:59,449
* over you...

1592
01:20:59,484 --> 01:21:01,816
on three occasions
in my life,

1593
01:21:01,851 --> 01:21:04,715
I have voluntarily gone
into hospitals

1594
01:21:04,750 --> 01:21:08,048
as a result of nervous
exhaustion and fatigue.

1595
01:21:08,083 --> 01:21:10,417
buchanan: i'd been in st. louis.
i'd heard about the eagleton stuff,

1596
01:21:10,452 --> 01:21:12,115
even before-
when they nominated him.

1597
01:21:12,150 --> 01:21:14,583
it would surprise me
when they nominated him.

1598
01:21:14,618 --> 01:21:17,016
when that hit,
that was the coup de grace.

1599
01:21:17,051 --> 01:21:18,981
I was in nixon's office

1600
01:21:19,016 --> 01:21:22,116
and there was what I would
say was considerable merriment.

1601
01:21:22,151 --> 01:21:24,750
nixon said, "well, pat
told us, didn't he, chuck?"

1602
01:21:29,717 --> 01:21:32,717
depp: "tom eagleton was
exactly the kind of vp candidate

1603
01:21:32,752 --> 01:21:34,917
that muskie or humphrey
would have chosen-

1604
01:21:34,952 --> 01:21:37,083
a peace offering
to the old politics gang,

1605
01:21:37,118 --> 01:21:38,667
because mcgovern
thought he needed

1606
01:21:38,702 --> 01:21:40,217
those bastards
to beat nixon."

1607
01:21:41,750 --> 01:21:44,250
is it your intention then
to remain on the ticket?

1608
01:21:44,285 --> 01:21:46,750
- categorically, yes.
- depp: "it's hard to see

1609
01:21:46,785 --> 01:21:48,148
how george could have
done any worse,

1610
01:21:48,183 --> 01:21:50,948
even with charles manson
for a running mate."

1611
01:21:50,983 --> 01:21:54,750
hart: all of a sudden, hunter
jumps on that critical bandwagon.

1612
01:21:54,785 --> 01:21:57,983
his whole critique of mcgovern
in the fall campaign was

1613
01:21:58,018 --> 01:22:00,782
"sellout, compromiser."

1614
01:22:00,817 --> 01:22:03,250
but you can't be serious
about american politics

1615
01:22:03,285 --> 01:22:05,551
and be infantile about it.

1616
01:22:05,586 --> 01:22:07,782
and there was
an infantile-

1617
01:22:07,817 --> 01:22:11,684
I say this with all
respect to my late friend-

1618
01:22:11,719 --> 01:22:13,634
an infantile aspect
to hunter.

1619
01:22:13,669 --> 01:22:15,515
he wanted
it all to be fun,

1620
01:22:15,550 --> 01:22:18,517
all to be amusing,
all to be good and evil,

1621
01:22:18,552 --> 01:22:21,484
and "we're the good guys,
they're the bad guys

1622
01:22:21,519 --> 01:22:23,150
and we're gonna
crush 'em,"

1623
01:22:23,185 --> 01:22:24,715
and overdramatizing

1624
01:22:24,750 --> 01:22:27,851
what is really some
of the toughest things

1625
01:22:27,886 --> 01:22:29,482
human beings have to do,

1626
01:22:29,517 --> 01:22:31,450
and that is to try
to govern a democracy.

1627
01:22:33,183 --> 01:22:36,150
mcgovern: the public
debate of senator eagleton's

1628
01:22:36,185 --> 01:22:37,816
past medical history

1629
01:22:37,851 --> 01:22:40,050
continues
to divert attention

1630
01:22:40,085 --> 01:22:42,367
from the great
national issues

1631
01:22:42,402 --> 01:22:44,615
that need
to be discussed.

1632
01:22:44,650 --> 01:22:47,749
therefore we have
jointly agreed

1633
01:22:47,784 --> 01:22:50,617
that the best course is
for senator eagleton

1634
01:22:50,652 --> 01:22:52,549
to step aside.

1635
01:22:52,584 --> 01:22:54,283
crouse: when mcgovern
finally had to give in,

1636
01:22:54,318 --> 01:22:56,700
it made mcgovern
look like a liar,

1637
01:22:56,735 --> 01:22:59,048
it made him look
like a waffler.

1638
01:22:59,083 --> 01:23:01,584
it was a blow
from which the campaign

1639
01:23:01,619 --> 01:23:03,048
never really covered.

1640
01:23:03,083 --> 01:23:05,115
wish I wore
my drip-dry suit.

1641
01:23:05,150 --> 01:23:09,150
mcgovern: the national press wasn't
very responsible at that time.

1642
01:23:09,185 --> 01:23:11,415
I don't condemn
the press.

1643
01:23:11,450 --> 01:23:13,550
they were doing what
they thought was right,

1644
01:23:13,585 --> 01:23:16,768
but they spent far more ink

1645
01:23:16,803 --> 01:23:19,916
dwelling
on my mishandling

1646
01:23:19,951 --> 01:23:22,148
of the vice-presidential
selection

1647
01:23:22,183 --> 01:23:26,348
than was ever devoted
to the watergate break-in

1648
01:23:26,383 --> 01:23:29,417
on the part of the nixon
people during the campaign.

1649
01:23:29,452 --> 01:23:31,250
it was hard to get
them interested in that.

1650
01:23:34,717 --> 01:23:37,750
depp: "at the stroke of
midnight in washington

1651
01:23:37,785 --> 01:23:40,784
a drooling red-eyed beast
with the legs of a man

1652
01:23:40,819 --> 01:23:42,885
and the head
of a giant hyena

1653
01:23:42,920 --> 01:23:44,868
crawls out
of its bedroom window

1654
01:23:44,903 --> 01:23:46,817
in the south wing
of the white house

1655
01:23:46,852 --> 01:23:49,649
and leaps 50'
down to the lawn,

1656
01:23:49,684 --> 01:23:52,617
pauses briefly to strangle
the chow watchdog,

1657
01:23:52,652 --> 01:23:55,248
then races off
into the darkness

1658
01:23:55,283 --> 01:23:58,482
towards the watergate,
snarling with lust,

1659
01:23:58,517 --> 01:24:01,684
loping through the alleys
behind pennsylvania avenue

1660
01:24:01,719 --> 01:24:03,081
and trying desperately
to remember

1661
01:24:03,116 --> 01:24:05,515
which one of those
400 identical balconies

1662
01:24:05,550 --> 01:24:08,750
is the one outside
martha mitchell's apartment."

1663
01:24:15,350 --> 01:24:18,183
depp: "due to circumstances
beyond my control,

1664
01:24:18,218 --> 01:24:20,148
I would rather
not write anything

1665
01:24:20,183 --> 01:24:23,617
about the 1972 presidential
campaign at this time.

1666
01:24:23,652 --> 01:24:25,782
on tuesday,
november 7th,

1667
01:24:25,817 --> 01:24:27,767
I will get out
of bed long enough

1668
01:24:27,802 --> 01:24:30,042
to go down
to the polling place

1669
01:24:30,077 --> 01:24:32,248
and vote
for george mcgovern.

1670
01:24:32,283 --> 01:24:36,150
afterwards, I will
drive back to the house,

1671
01:24:36,185 --> 01:24:39,348
lock the front door,
get back in bed

1672
01:24:39,383 --> 01:24:42,782
and watch television
as long as necessary.

1673
01:24:42,817 --> 01:24:46,817
it will probably be a while
before the angst lifts.

1674
01:24:46,852 --> 01:24:49,201
but whenever it happens,

1675
01:24:49,236 --> 01:24:51,515
I will get out
of bed again

1676
01:24:51,550 --> 01:24:55,584
and start writing the mean,
cold-blooded bummer

1677
01:24:55,619 --> 01:24:58,617
that I was not
quite ready for today."

1678
01:25:01,417 --> 01:25:03,817
crouse: he was the right
man in the right place

1679
01:25:03,852 --> 01:25:06,034
and he was equipped
to capture

1680
01:25:06,069 --> 01:25:08,182
a certain moment
in history

1681
01:25:08,217 --> 01:25:10,717
as nobody else was
equipped to do.

1682
01:25:15,383 --> 01:25:17,549
in his best pages,

1683
01:25:17,584 --> 01:25:19,917
I think he captured
certain truths

1684
01:25:19,952 --> 01:25:21,315
about human perversity

1685
01:25:21,350 --> 01:25:24,283
that will never lose
their sting.

1686
01:25:26,817 --> 01:25:30,567
and I don't think that
anybody can be too surprised

1687
01:25:30,602 --> 01:25:34,317
that we find ourselves in
the nightmare we're in today

1688
01:25:34,352 --> 01:25:36,415
because it's
essentially the same

1689
01:25:36,450 --> 01:25:39,167
as the nightmare
he described back then.

1690
01:25:39,202 --> 01:25:42,876
and I think
it will always be salubrious

1691
01:25:42,911 --> 01:25:46,550
and cleansing
to have someone express

1692
01:25:46,585 --> 01:25:48,684
the mockery
and the rage

1693
01:25:48,719 --> 01:25:51,434
and finally the despair

1694
01:25:51,469 --> 01:25:54,115
that are the only reaction

1695
01:25:54,150 --> 01:25:57,083
of a real human
to that nightmare.

1696
01:25:57,465 --> 01:26:00,349
reporter:
massachusetts has gone

1697
01:26:00,384 --> 01:26:03,198
for the democratic candidate-

1698
01:26:03,233 --> 01:26:05,931
the only state
going for mcgovern.

1699
01:26:05,966 --> 01:26:07,932
reporter #2: we project
that president nixon

1700
01:26:07,967 --> 01:26:09,931
will come out
of this the winner.

1701
01:26:09,966 --> 01:26:12,824
with about 60% of the popular vote.

1702
01:26:12,826 --> 01:26:15,691
i've never known
a national election

1703
01:26:15,726 --> 01:26:18,092
when I would be able to go
to bed earlier than tonight.

1704
01:26:19,859 --> 01:26:24,190
* put a candle
in the window... *

1705
01:26:24,225 --> 01:26:26,158
crouse: "this may be the
year when we finally come

1706
01:26:26,193 --> 01:26:28,109
face to face
with ourselves,

1707
01:26:28,144 --> 01:26:30,234
finally just lay back
and say

1708
01:26:30,269 --> 01:26:32,864
that we are
really just a nation

1709
01:26:32,899 --> 01:26:35,424
of 220 million
used-car salesmen

1710
01:26:35,459 --> 01:26:37,290
with all the money
we need to buy guns

1711
01:26:37,325 --> 01:26:40,292
and no qualms at all about
killing anybody else in the world

1712
01:26:40,327 --> 01:26:42,092
who tries to make us
uncomfortable."

1713
01:26:44,926 --> 01:26:47,324
mcgovern:
never again will we send

1714
01:26:47,359 --> 01:26:49,759
the precious young blood
of this country

1715
01:26:49,794 --> 01:26:51,591
to die trying
to prop up

1716
01:26:51,626 --> 01:26:54,893
a corrupt military
dictatorship abroad.

1717
01:26:56,893 --> 01:26:59,626
"the tragedy of all this is
that george mcgovern,

1718
01:26:59,661 --> 01:27:01,290
for all his mistakes

1719
01:27:01,325 --> 01:27:05,893
and all his imprecise talk
about new politics

1720
01:27:05,928 --> 01:27:07,424
and honesty
in government,

1721
01:27:07,459 --> 01:27:10,359
is one of the few men
who would run for president

1722
01:27:10,394 --> 01:27:12,290
of the united states
in this century

1723
01:27:12,325 --> 01:27:15,259
who really understands
what a fantastic monument

1724
01:27:15,294 --> 01:27:17,357
this country
might have been

1725
01:27:17,392 --> 01:27:19,357
if we could've kept it
out of the hands

1726
01:27:19,392 --> 01:27:22,342
of greedy little hustlers
like richard nixon."

1727
01:27:22,377 --> 01:27:25,292
* guess i've got
that old traveling bone *

1728
01:27:28,692 --> 01:27:31,390
* gonna feel
really alone... *

1729
01:27:31,425 --> 01:27:33,759
...whether or not
their president is a crook.

1730
01:27:33,794 --> 01:27:36,524
well, I’m not a crook.

1731
01:27:36,559 --> 01:27:41,859
* but I won't- I won't be
losing my way, no no... *

1732
01:27:45,158 --> 01:27:47,675
crouse: "mcgovern made
some stupid mistakes,

1733
01:27:47,710 --> 01:27:50,034
but, in context,
they seem almost frivolous

1734
01:27:50,069 --> 01:27:52,359
compared to the things
richard nixon does

1735
01:27:52,394 --> 01:27:54,292
every day of his life
on purpose

1736
01:27:54,327 --> 01:27:56,190
as a matter of policy

1737
01:27:56,225 --> 01:27:59,675
and a perfect expression
of everything he stands for.

1738
01:27:59,710 --> 01:28:03,125
jesus, where will it end?
how low do you have to stoop

1739
01:28:03,160 --> 01:28:06,343
in this country
to be president?"

1740
01:28:06,378 --> 01:28:09,526
* put a candle
in the window *

1741
01:28:13,692 --> 01:28:16,675
* though I’m going,
going *

1742
01:28:16,710 --> 01:28:19,659
* I’ll be
coming home soon *

1743
01:28:21,392 --> 01:28:25,192
* long as I can see
the light... *

1744
01:28:26,692 --> 01:28:28,092
whew.

1745
01:28:29,626 --> 01:28:32,425
wenner: as much as he
was reviled and revulsed

1746
01:28:32,460 --> 01:28:34,057
by nixon,
he identified with him.

1747
01:28:34,092 --> 01:28:36,258
he understood that darkness
of the american spirit.

1748
01:28:36,293 --> 01:28:38,390
you know, hunter was
deeply invested in america.

1749
01:28:38,425 --> 01:28:41,425
whether you call it the american
dream or american politics,

1750
01:28:41,460 --> 01:28:43,257
all the things
he wrote about

1751
01:28:43,292 --> 01:28:47,092
were always looking at the
dark side as well as the hope.

1752
01:28:47,127 --> 01:28:50,010
but during his lifetime
it kept looking like,

1753
01:28:50,045 --> 01:28:52,893
once again, the evil,
the darkness would triumph.

1754
01:28:54,459 --> 01:28:58,726
crouse: in 1972, he began
to feel disillusioned.

1755
01:28:58,761 --> 01:29:00,976
and with jimmy carter,
he was trying

1756
01:29:01,011 --> 01:29:03,068
to give politics
one last chance.

1757
01:29:08,392 --> 01:29:10,459
depp: "I have heard hundreds
of speeches

1758
01:29:10,494 --> 01:29:12,793
by all kinds of candidates
and politicians,

1759
01:29:12,828 --> 01:29:15,093
but I have never heard
a sustained piece

1760
01:29:15,128 --> 01:29:17,427
of political oratory
that impressed me more

1761
01:29:17,462 --> 01:29:19,726
than the speech jimmy
carter made on law day

1762
01:29:19,761 --> 01:29:21,524
at the university
of georgia

1763
01:29:21,559 --> 01:29:24,509
one saturday afternoon
in may, 1974.

1764
01:29:24,544 --> 01:29:27,424
it was a king hell bastard
of a speech.

1765
01:29:27,459 --> 01:29:31,509
by the time it was over, it had
rung every bell in the room."

1766
01:29:32,962 --> 01:29:36,000
carter: senator kennedy and
distinguished fellow georgians,

1767
01:29:36,012 --> 01:29:37,235
friends of the law school
of georgia and-

1768
01:29:37,270 --> 01:29:38,459
hunter: I was
the only reporter there

1769
01:29:38,494 --> 01:29:40,357
and I was with kennedy.

1770
01:29:40,392 --> 01:29:42,457
I had no interest
in carter

1771
01:29:42,492 --> 01:29:45,158
and no intention
of either listening to him

1772
01:29:45,193 --> 01:29:46,757
or reporting
anything he said.

1773
01:29:46,792 --> 01:29:48,642
carter: not paying any attention to me,

1774
01:29:48,677 --> 01:29:50,457
he was going outside
every now and then

1775
01:29:50,492 --> 01:29:53,792
to replenish his glass of
what was apparently ice tea

1776
01:29:53,827 --> 01:29:56,426
but was really
wild turkey whiskey.

1777
01:29:56,461 --> 01:29:59,025
I started speaking
from my heart

1778
01:29:59,060 --> 01:30:01,290
about the defects

1779
01:30:01,325 --> 01:30:04,125
in the american
judicial system.

1780
01:30:21,359 --> 01:30:23,609
depp: "but what sent
me back out to the trunk

1781
01:30:23,644 --> 01:30:25,859
to get my tape recorder
instead of another drink

1782
01:30:25,894 --> 01:30:28,826
was the spectacle
of a southern politician

1783
01:30:28,861 --> 01:30:30,893
telling a crowd
of judges and lawyers

1784
01:30:30,928 --> 01:30:32,891
that 'the source
of my understanding

1785
01:30:32,926 --> 01:30:34,826
about what's right
and wrong in this society

1786
01:30:34,861 --> 01:30:36,591
is from a friend
of mine-

1787
01:30:36,626 --> 01:30:39,692
a great poet
named bob dylan.'"

1788
01:30:51,459 --> 01:30:55,726
* I ain't gonna work on
maggie's farm no more... *

1789
01:31:09,893 --> 01:31:11,926
carter: she said...

1790
01:31:14,125 --> 01:31:17,158
hunter: "at this point,
carter was attacked

1791
01:31:17,193 --> 01:31:20,192
by what was later identified
as a 48 lb slope."

1792
01:31:27,592 --> 01:31:29,859
carter: I was speaking
to a bunch of lawyers

1793
01:31:29,894 --> 01:31:31,859
and the reaction
among them was one

1794
01:31:31,894 --> 01:31:34,425
of stunned silence.

1795
01:31:54,792 --> 01:31:56,292
"...he was greeted
with horror.

1796
01:31:56,327 --> 01:31:58,059
still, once that
change was made-

1797
01:31:58,094 --> 01:31:59,757
a very simple,
difficult change-

1798
01:31:59,792 --> 01:32:02,058
no one in his right mind
would want to go back

1799
01:32:02,093 --> 01:32:04,524
to circumstances prior
to that juncture

1800
01:32:04,559 --> 01:32:06,626
in the development
of our nation's society."

1801
01:32:06,661 --> 01:32:08,390
it changed my life.

1802
01:32:08,425 --> 01:32:11,542
of course, hunter is the person
that found jimmy carter.

1803
01:32:11,577 --> 01:32:14,659
hunter would go around the
country and play it for people.

1804
01:32:14,694 --> 01:32:17,826
brinkley: his cover
story on "rolling stone"

1805
01:32:17,861 --> 01:32:19,927
that hunter wrote
endorsing carter

1806
01:32:19,962 --> 01:32:21,958
helped jimmy carter
win that election.

1807
01:32:21,993 --> 01:32:25,457
he was the most popular writer
in the united states.

1808
01:32:25,492 --> 01:32:30,225
my next guest is one of the most
controversial writers in america

1809
01:32:30,260 --> 01:32:32,224
and the inventor
of gonzo journalism.

1810
01:32:32,259 --> 01:32:34,125
we're delighted that
he could be with us tonight.

1811
01:32:34,160 --> 01:32:36,424
welcome, please,
dr. hunter thompson.

1812
01:32:36,459 --> 01:32:39,826
- brinkley: he had just
delivered "hell's angels"

1813
01:32:39,861 --> 01:32:41,791
"vegas,"
"campaign trail,"

1814
01:32:41,826 --> 01:32:44,524
and all those great
"rolling stone" pieces.

1815
01:32:44,559 --> 01:32:47,591
people didn't know where this
guy was gonna stop at that point.

1816
01:32:47,626 --> 01:32:51,025
you didn't know whether he would have
30 years of this kind of productivity.

1817
01:32:51,060 --> 01:32:53,491
he was-
he was so hot.

1818
01:32:53,526 --> 01:32:56,524
he'd give a speech
at a college

1819
01:32:56,559 --> 01:33:00,092
and 20 women wanted to
party with him all night.

1820
01:33:00,127 --> 01:33:02,425
classic rock 'n' roll
attitude.

1821
01:33:02,460 --> 01:33:04,257
and hunter saw
rock stars,

1822
01:33:04,292 --> 01:33:07,992
and he thought, "why shouldn't
a writer be a rock star?"

1823
01:33:08,027 --> 01:33:11,692
he became that rock 'n' roll
- trash the hotel room,

1824
01:33:11,727 --> 01:33:13,776
throw the typewriter
out the window,

1825
01:33:13,811 --> 01:33:15,791
let the women in,
too much drugs-

1826
01:33:15,826 --> 01:33:18,158
meanwhile, there was
this other side of him.

1827
01:33:18,193 --> 01:33:20,726
he was the squire
of woody creek,

1828
01:33:20,761 --> 01:33:22,743
who had
a wife and a kid.

1829
01:33:29,359 --> 01:33:31,824
* devil or angel

1830
01:33:31,859 --> 01:33:35,492
* I can't make up
my mind *

1831
01:33:35,527 --> 01:33:38,290
* which one you are

1832
01:33:38,325 --> 01:33:42,158
* i'd like
to wake up and find *

1833
01:33:42,193 --> 01:33:45,190
* devil or angel

1834
01:33:45,225 --> 01:33:48,157
* dear, wherever you are

1835
01:33:48,192 --> 01:33:51,359
* I miss you,
I miss you... *

1836
01:33:53,158 --> 01:33:55,225
wright:
here was all this fame,

1837
01:33:55,260 --> 01:33:57,559
all these famous people,

1838
01:33:57,594 --> 01:33:59,824
all these
hanger-on girls

1839
01:33:59,859 --> 01:34:01,826
and people coming
into my kitchen

1840
01:34:01,861 --> 01:34:03,290
with heels like this.

1841
01:34:03,325 --> 01:34:06,475
we lived out
in woody creek-

1842
01:34:06,510 --> 01:34:09,626
and in tight jeans
and stilettos

1843
01:34:09,661 --> 01:34:11,524
and everything gorgeous.

1844
01:34:11,559 --> 01:34:14,442
and I said,
"who are these people?

1845
01:34:14,477 --> 01:34:17,325
and what are they doing
in my world?"

1846
01:34:20,325 --> 01:34:23,290
juan: you don't think how
it should be different.

1847
01:34:23,325 --> 01:34:27,292
you just accept that my dad
gets up at 5:00 in the afternoon

1848
01:34:27,327 --> 01:34:29,891
for the 5:00 news.

1849
01:34:29,926 --> 01:34:31,959
he eats breakfast,
I eat dinner.

1850
01:34:31,994 --> 01:34:33,993
it's a shame
he wasn't around more,

1851
01:34:34,028 --> 01:34:35,592
but that's who he was.

1852
01:34:37,259 --> 01:34:39,092
I met hunter in john
belushi's dressing room

1853
01:34:39,127 --> 01:34:41,092
at "saturday night live."

1854
01:34:41,127 --> 01:34:43,326
he was
the ultimate bad boy,

1855
01:34:43,361 --> 01:34:45,491
but we became
fantastic friends.

1856
01:34:45,526 --> 01:34:48,791
and one night
he was talking to someone

1857
01:34:48,826 --> 01:34:50,659
and I guess by the way
he was talking to them-

1858
01:34:50,694 --> 01:34:52,492
when he hung up I said,
"oh, who was that?"

1859
01:34:52,527 --> 01:34:54,557
and he said,
"well, that's sondi."

1860
01:34:54,592 --> 01:34:57,125
I said, "well, who's sondi?"
he said, "my wife,"

1861
01:34:57,160 --> 01:34:58,692
and I said,
"your wife?"

1862
01:35:00,359 --> 01:35:03,392
brinkley: meanwhile, his
marriage was getting very rocky,

1863
01:35:03,427 --> 01:35:05,893
he was starting to drink
and do too many drugs

1864
01:35:05,928 --> 01:35:08,424
and fell into fame.

1865
01:35:08,459 --> 01:35:11,459
caddell: what had
given him his strength-

1866
01:35:11,494 --> 01:35:13,123
his anonymity- was gone.

1867
01:35:13,158 --> 01:35:16,025
by writing and becoming
the political reporter he was,

1868
01:35:16,060 --> 01:35:18,893
he had lost that anonymity
that had been his cloak.

1869
01:35:18,928 --> 01:35:20,624
so now he was the story.

1870
01:35:20,659 --> 01:35:22,725
I used to be able
to stand in the back

1871
01:35:22,760 --> 01:35:25,143
and observe stories
and absorb them.

1872
01:35:25,178 --> 01:35:27,526
now the minute
I appear at a story,

1873
01:35:27,561 --> 01:35:29,257
then I become
part of it.

1874
01:35:29,292 --> 01:35:31,726
first time I went to a press
conference with jimmy carter

1875
01:35:31,761 --> 01:35:33,692
I had to sign more
autographs than carter signed.

1876
01:35:35,359 --> 01:35:37,058
and the secret service had
no idea who I was.

1877
01:35:37,093 --> 01:35:38,325
they thought I was
an astronaut.

1878
01:35:39,792 --> 01:35:41,792
wenner: at that point,
you know, it was hard.

1879
01:35:41,827 --> 01:35:43,457
how do you find stuff
for hunter to do?

1880
01:35:43,492 --> 01:35:45,158
you're always looking
for a story that somehow

1881
01:35:45,193 --> 01:35:47,276
can top the campaign story
or vegas,

1882
01:35:47,311 --> 01:35:49,359
something big enough
for his talent.

1883
01:35:51,325 --> 01:35:53,926
going to zaire seemed like a
natural assignment for hunter,

1884
01:35:53,961 --> 01:35:56,457
a big spectacle,
heavyweight fight;

1885
01:35:56,492 --> 01:35:58,893
ali, whom he knew
or had written about before.

1886
01:35:58,928 --> 01:36:02,324
he went. steadman came down from london.

1887
01:36:02,359 --> 01:36:05,192
I’m gonna retire the heavyweight
champion of the world!

1888
01:36:05,227 --> 01:36:08,359
september the 25th,
the world will be stunned!

1889
01:36:10,025 --> 01:36:12,859
brinkley: his hero, number
one, was muhammad ali.

1890
01:36:12,894 --> 01:36:14,859
he used to always say
that he was related

1891
01:36:14,894 --> 01:36:17,459
to cassius clay
in the bloodline.

1892
01:36:17,494 --> 01:36:19,990
i've never
fully believed it-

1893
01:36:20,025 --> 01:36:22,724
it could be true-
but he loved to say

1894
01:36:22,759 --> 01:36:25,459
that he was blood-related
to muhammad ali.

1895
01:36:25,494 --> 01:36:27,657
hah! sucker,
you ain't nothing.

1896
01:36:27,692 --> 01:36:30,825
you're too ugly to represent
us colored folks.

1897
01:36:30,860 --> 01:36:33,959
brinkley: and remember
again, muhammad alI is

1898
01:36:33,994 --> 01:36:35,557
this touchstone
for hunter,

1899
01:36:35,592 --> 01:36:38,691
that the kentucky boys
are making it big.

1900
01:36:38,726 --> 01:36:42,324
you out, sucker.

1901
01:36:42,359 --> 01:36:45,459
wolfe: he went to zaire to
cover the rumble in the jungle.

1902
01:36:45,494 --> 01:36:47,424
it was
the foregone conclusion

1903
01:36:47,459 --> 01:36:49,993
that george foreman was going
to knock out muhammad ali.

1904
01:36:50,028 --> 01:36:51,524
there seemed to be no way

1905
01:36:51,559 --> 01:36:53,392
that alI could survive
that fight.

1906
01:37:25,859 --> 01:37:28,592
he stops, and he looks up at
the drug dealer and he says...

1907
01:37:36,792 --> 01:37:39,893
you know, and it got worse
and worse and worse and worse.

1908
01:37:41,893 --> 01:37:45,325
this was when hunter gave
our tickets away.

1909
01:37:45,360 --> 01:37:47,424
I can't remember
what I did.

1910
01:37:47,459 --> 01:37:50,025
I just think I tried to watch
it on television or something

1911
01:37:50,060 --> 01:37:51,691
so I would get
some idea of it,

1912
01:37:51,726 --> 01:37:54,759
but hunter had gone
down to the pool

1913
01:37:54,794 --> 01:37:56,860
with a bucket of ice

1914
01:37:56,895 --> 01:37:58,891
and a bottle of whiskey,

1915
01:37:58,926 --> 01:38:00,893
drinking and smokes-
his dunhills.

1916
01:38:00,928 --> 01:38:03,176
and hunter decided to...

1917
01:38:03,211 --> 01:38:05,390
take a dip in the pool,

1918
01:38:05,425 --> 01:38:07,542
float in the pool
at the hotel

1919
01:38:07,577 --> 01:38:09,659
throughout
the entire fight.

1920
01:38:12,225 --> 01:38:14,659
announcer: 30 seconds
left in round eight.

1921
01:38:15,926 --> 01:38:19,659
as it turned out,
it was one of the...

1922
01:38:19,694 --> 01:38:21,591
classic fights
of all time.

1923
01:38:21,626 --> 01:38:23,509
announcer:
another sneaky right hand.

1924
01:38:23,544 --> 01:38:25,392
this time he worked
over his shoulder.

1925
01:38:25,427 --> 01:38:27,676
unbelievable!

1926
01:38:32,325 --> 01:38:36,225
referee:
four, five, six, seven-

1927
01:38:49,893 --> 01:38:52,692
this was called the biggest
fucked-up journalistic story

1928
01:38:52,727 --> 01:38:54,491
in the history
of journalism-

1929
01:38:54,526 --> 01:38:56,524
that we really didn't
get a story.

1930
01:38:56,559 --> 01:39:00,325
wenner: zaire was hunter's first
big failure as an assignment.

1931
01:39:00,360 --> 01:39:02,559
there was a big expense bill-
which I paid for-

1932
01:39:02,594 --> 01:39:04,290
and didn't do the piece,

1933
01:39:04,325 --> 01:39:05,657
and that was disappointing
to us all.

1934
01:39:05,692 --> 01:39:08,390
I think hunter felt
a strong sense of failure.

1935
01:39:08,425 --> 01:39:12,292
that was kind of the beginning
of a period of decline there.

1936
01:39:12,327 --> 01:39:15,591
he, as a writer,
a journalist and a person,

1937
01:39:15,626 --> 01:39:18,559
ran up against some wall
there or a period there,

1938
01:39:18,594 --> 01:39:20,357
whether it was
coming from exhaustion

1939
01:39:20,392 --> 01:39:24,826
or something going on with his marriage
- somewhere he just lost it.

1940
01:39:26,325 --> 01:39:29,058
wright: hunter came back from africa,

1941
01:39:29,093 --> 01:39:32,142
he didn't wake up
for a day and a half.

1942
01:39:32,177 --> 01:39:35,192
and all of a sudden
he just couldn't write.

1943
01:39:35,227 --> 01:39:37,142
he couldn't piece
it together.

1944
01:39:37,177 --> 01:39:39,023
his life really changed
after that

1945
01:39:39,058 --> 01:39:42,626
and he knew that he wasn't the
writer that he wanted to be.

1946
01:39:42,661 --> 01:39:44,559
* man...

1947
01:39:48,425 --> 01:39:50,657
* you know
I done enjoyed things *

1948
01:39:50,692 --> 01:39:53,757
* that kings and queens
will never have... *

1949
01:39:53,792 --> 01:39:56,092
wenner: he stopped writing
full-time in the mid-'70s,

1950
01:39:56,127 --> 01:39:57,793
then he'd just do
the articles.

1951
01:39:57,828 --> 01:39:59,424
part of what happened
was I think

1952
01:39:59,459 --> 01:40:01,225
there were so many people
hanging around woody creek,

1953
01:40:01,260 --> 01:40:03,158
and he was very welcoming
and enjoyed it all,

1954
01:40:03,193 --> 01:40:05,225
but it really made it
difficult to work.

1955
01:40:05,260 --> 01:40:08,225
"...safe for my young son."

1956
01:40:10,359 --> 01:40:13,290
"but the front doors are
a different matter."

1957
01:40:13,325 --> 01:40:16,759
brinkley: I was a bit of a straight
man entering his carnival life.

1958
01:40:16,794 --> 01:40:20,492
he used to call himself a
drug-addled compound junkie.

1959
01:40:20,527 --> 01:40:25,893
* and good times, mmm

1960
01:40:27,893 --> 01:40:30,526
* I have had my fun...

1961
01:40:34,025 --> 01:40:36,175
stranahan: i'd go around
to take care of hunter.

1962
01:40:36,210 --> 01:40:38,325
if he can toss the heineken
bottle and catch it,

1963
01:40:38,360 --> 01:40:39,959
he hasn't had
too much to drink.

1964
01:40:41,692 --> 01:40:44,626
and he began to retreat
to owl farm more and more.

1965
01:40:48,158 --> 01:40:50,492
juan: then eventually he
didn't really go out at all.

1966
01:40:50,527 --> 01:40:52,158
I guess people
came to him.

1967
01:40:54,058 --> 01:40:55,624
wenner: he was writing
occasional columns

1968
01:40:55,659 --> 01:40:57,626
for the "examiner"
and he did that "lono" book.

1969
01:40:57,661 --> 01:41:00,224
they were all right.

1970
01:41:00,259 --> 01:41:02,224
but he wrote
three pieces,

1971
01:41:02,259 --> 01:41:05,257
just- they were
just brilliant.

1972
01:41:05,292 --> 01:41:08,990
elko, pulitzer, "polo"-
those are beautiful,

1973
01:41:09,025 --> 01:41:11,659
but his work never got
quite back to those levels.

1974
01:41:11,694 --> 01:41:14,476
it was
all just repetitive,

1975
01:41:14,511 --> 01:41:16,885
not funny
goofball stuff.

1976
01:41:16,920 --> 01:41:19,224
hunter wanted a persona,

1977
01:41:19,259 --> 01:41:21,959
but he became a hostage
to that persona

1978
01:41:21,994 --> 01:41:23,691
as he got older and older

1979
01:41:23,726 --> 01:41:26,993
and he was being ridiculed
as a comic-book character.

1980
01:41:28,492 --> 01:41:30,526
when garry trudeau
first made duke

1981
01:41:30,561 --> 01:41:32,277
a character
in doonesbury

1982
01:41:32,312 --> 01:41:33,958
it was absolutely,
literally,

1983
01:41:33,993 --> 01:41:36,025
the raoul duke character
that hunter invented.

1984
01:41:36,060 --> 01:41:37,624
it was hunter's
literary property.

1985
01:41:37,659 --> 01:41:40,358
so I think he should've-
he could have and-

1986
01:41:40,393 --> 01:41:43,058
in retrospect-
should have stopped that.

1987
01:41:48,492 --> 01:41:50,457
but then he said,
"what can I do?

1988
01:41:50,492 --> 01:41:53,759
I decided to own it.
they want to see uncle duke?

1989
01:41:53,794 --> 01:41:56,158
I’ll give 'em uncle duke
times five."

1990
01:42:04,492 --> 01:42:06,491
- wow.
- man: you see what I mean?

1991
01:42:06,526 --> 01:42:08,959
caddell: he hated "doonesbury."
he hated being a caricature.

1992
01:42:08,994 --> 01:42:10,924
he also loved
being a star,

1993
01:42:10,959 --> 01:42:13,459
but also it interfered
with him being a reporter,

1994
01:42:13,494 --> 01:42:15,524
which is what
he wanted to be.

1995
01:42:15,559 --> 01:42:17,158
hunter: if you want to be
a famous american writer,

1996
01:42:17,193 --> 01:42:19,526
you don't really think of...

1997
01:42:19,561 --> 01:42:21,824
being in the comic strips,

1998
01:42:21,859 --> 01:42:23,392
you know, being-

1999
01:42:23,427 --> 01:42:24,926
oh, are we doing things
like that?

2000
01:42:24,961 --> 01:42:26,491
yes, in front of the camera

2001
01:42:26,526 --> 01:42:28,958
and it will be on film,
won't it? mmm.

2002
01:42:28,993 --> 01:42:31,526
hunter did become, in a way,
a prisoner of his own fame.

2003
01:42:34,492 --> 01:42:37,692
wright: I was getting more
distraught with his fame.

2004
01:42:37,727 --> 01:42:41,109
it was total chaos
in the house.

2005
01:42:41,144 --> 01:42:44,751
just thoughts
of booze, drugs,

2006
01:42:44,786 --> 01:42:48,324
staying up for days
and parties.

2007
01:42:48,359 --> 01:42:51,392
and little did I know he was
having affairs all over the place.

2008
01:42:51,427 --> 01:42:55,392
it was unhealthy for me,
it was unhealthy for my son.

2009
01:42:55,427 --> 01:42:58,792
brinkley: eventually
sondI uncovered a tape

2010
01:42:58,827 --> 01:43:00,324
of a woman
that he was with.

2011
01:43:00,359 --> 01:43:04,242
woman: I’m gonna burn up
with unfulfilled desire

2012
01:43:04,277 --> 01:43:08,125
if I have to stay here
one more minute alone.

2013
01:43:11,559 --> 01:43:15,058
no, I don't want the
delivery boy. I want you.

2014
01:43:18,993 --> 01:43:20,626
wright: so I remember
sitting on the phone,

2015
01:43:20,661 --> 01:43:22,793
I looked up at him
and I said,

2016
01:43:22,828 --> 01:43:25,476
"you know I can't
do this anymore.

2017
01:43:25,511 --> 01:43:28,125
I’m gonna have to
have a divorce."

2018
01:43:28,160 --> 01:43:29,958
well...

2019
01:43:29,993 --> 01:43:33,626
he just blew up
and then I got scared

2020
01:43:33,661 --> 01:43:37,224
and I ended up
calling the sheriff.

2021
01:43:37,259 --> 01:43:39,659
and a sheriff's deputy
comes out to the house.

2022
01:43:39,694 --> 01:43:42,224
the guys says...

2023
01:43:42,259 --> 01:43:44,724
"um, does he have
any guns?"

2024
01:43:44,759 --> 01:43:46,993
and I said,
"'does he have any guns?'

2025
01:43:47,028 --> 01:43:49,057
he has 22 guns

2026
01:43:49,092 --> 01:43:51,292
and every one
is loaded."

2027
01:43:52,492 --> 01:43:54,692
woman: hey!

2028
01:43:56,359 --> 01:43:58,626
brinkley: it was not an
easy divorce for hunter.

2029
01:43:58,661 --> 01:44:02,157
he refused
to leave owl farm.

2030
01:44:02,192 --> 01:44:05,158
sandy said, "the only thing
he owns is this land.

2031
01:44:05,193 --> 01:44:07,592
I have to have half
of what hunter owns,

2032
01:44:07,627 --> 01:44:09,990
'cause I’m divorcing him.

2033
01:44:10,025 --> 01:44:11,457
and I don't want
half the land

2034
01:44:11,492 --> 01:44:13,359
because I have to live
next to the son of a bitch."

2035
01:44:13,394 --> 01:44:16,543
so I got to buy
my land back.

2036
01:44:16,578 --> 01:44:19,657
well, i'd given it
to hunter.

2037
01:44:19,692 --> 01:44:22,826
so then I ended up making payments
to sondI for the next 15 years.

2038
01:44:22,861 --> 01:44:24,943
buzz off!
I’m going to florida.

2039
01:44:24,978 --> 01:44:27,185
brinkley:
he couldn't write.

2040
01:44:27,220 --> 01:44:29,357
he was
completely shattered

2041
01:44:29,392 --> 01:44:31,826
and jimmy buffet came
to his rescue

2042
01:44:31,861 --> 01:44:33,958
and allowed him
to come down

2043
01:44:33,993 --> 01:44:36,325
and stay at his house
in key west free of charge.

2044
01:44:36,360 --> 01:44:40,492
* wasting away again
in margaritaville... *

2045
01:44:40,527 --> 01:44:43,491
that's where we are.

2046
01:44:43,526 --> 01:44:47,357
* searching for my
lost sugar and salt... *

2047
01:44:47,392 --> 01:44:49,792
hunter: you have never seen
people drive so fucking slowly.

2048
01:44:49,827 --> 01:44:52,324
it's incredible.
you dirty sons of bitches.

2049
01:44:52,359 --> 01:44:54,792
move over. go get in the
fast lane, you cocksuckers.

2050
01:44:58,959 --> 01:45:00,524
buffet:
the first thing I see is

2051
01:45:00,559 --> 01:45:02,675
"gonzo journalist
comes to key west,"

2052
01:45:02,710 --> 01:45:04,934
front page,
fucking "miamI herald."

2053
01:45:04,969 --> 01:45:07,123
hunter's stretched out
in my apartment.

2054
01:45:07,158 --> 01:45:09,359
and then all of a sudden, i
got a call from my accountant.

2055
01:45:09,394 --> 01:45:11,324
he said, "what's this

2056
01:45:11,359 --> 01:45:14,357
$9,000 telephone bill?"
and I went...

2057
01:45:14,392 --> 01:45:17,459
"oh my god, hunter's down
there and I left the phone on."

2058
01:45:17,494 --> 01:45:19,524
and like always...

2059
01:45:19,559 --> 01:45:23,424
then he got a boat
and I thought, "oh, jesus."

2060
01:45:23,459 --> 01:45:27,859
you know, I expected to read
the obituary during those days.

2061
01:45:27,894 --> 01:45:32,659
* if I had a boat,
i'd go out on the ocean *

2062
01:45:32,694 --> 01:45:34,824
* and if I had a pony

2063
01:45:34,859 --> 01:45:37,508
* i'd ride him
on my boat *

2064
01:45:37,543 --> 01:45:40,158
* and we could
all together *

2065
01:45:40,193 --> 01:45:42,858
* go out on the ocean

2066
01:45:42,893 --> 01:45:47,292
* I said me upon my pony
on my boat *

2067
01:45:47,327 --> 01:45:50,792
* I said
me upon my pony *

2068
01:45:50,827 --> 01:45:55,023
* on my boat.

2069
01:45:55,058 --> 01:45:58,025
anita on tape: say hello to
the dolphins. well, hello.

2070
01:45:59,460 --> 01:46:00,657
okay.

2071
01:46:00,692 --> 01:46:02,891
anita: well, the first
time I met hunter,

2072
01:46:02,926 --> 01:46:06,659
it was just kind of a big writer
that I was curious about.

2073
01:46:06,694 --> 01:46:10,110
when we got married,
he promised me 10 years.

2074
01:46:10,145 --> 01:46:13,526
I just figured he was
such a powerful force

2075
01:46:13,561 --> 01:46:15,123
that he would know.

2076
01:46:15,158 --> 01:46:18,357
if he said 10 years,
that meant 10 years.

2077
01:46:18,392 --> 01:46:21,726
he had talked about suicide
a lot since i've known him,

2078
01:46:21,761 --> 01:46:24,591
and now I know,
talking to his former wife

2079
01:46:24,626 --> 01:46:27,192
and other girlfriends, that he
had talked about it all the time.

2080
01:46:29,359 --> 01:46:31,126
depp:
"trouble can come at you

2081
01:46:31,161 --> 01:46:32,858
from any direction
these days,

2082
01:46:32,893 --> 01:46:35,259
like being chased through
a crowded parking lot

2083
01:46:35,294 --> 01:46:37,190
by a pack
of vicious stray dogs.

2084
01:46:37,225 --> 01:46:40,859
the world's situation has
become so nervous and wrong

2085
01:46:40,894 --> 01:46:44,193
that disasters that
would've been inconceivable

2086
01:46:44,228 --> 01:46:47,492
two years ago are
almost commonplace today."

2087
01:46:47,527 --> 01:46:49,492
anita: I did start to worry about him

2088
01:46:49,527 --> 01:46:51,559
right after
the bush election.

2089
01:46:51,594 --> 01:46:53,557
that I think
was the trigger.

2090
01:46:53,592 --> 01:46:55,625
he didn't get angry,
he just got depressed.

2091
01:46:55,660 --> 01:46:57,659
you know, I could handle
when he was angry,

2092
01:46:57,694 --> 01:47:00,157
feisty or sulky-

2093
01:47:00,192 --> 01:47:03,058
anything but depressed
or something I wasn't used to.

2094
01:47:03,093 --> 01:47:06,891
* goodbye,
norma jean... *

2095
01:47:06,926 --> 01:47:11,058
there are certain moments that
I’m really glad I had the camera.

2096
01:47:11,093 --> 01:47:14,257
there's a moment
I walk out onto the balcony-

2097
01:47:14,292 --> 01:47:17,826
he had been listening to "candle
in the wind" over and over and over.

2098
01:47:17,861 --> 01:47:19,693
there was a look
of a grin,

2099
01:47:19,728 --> 01:47:21,491
like a roguish eye
in his eye

2100
01:47:21,526 --> 01:47:23,526
when he was
about to have some fun.

2101
01:47:23,561 --> 01:47:25,659
whoo-hoo-hoo.

2102
01:47:27,058 --> 01:47:29,357
anita: seeing him look at the keys-

2103
01:47:29,392 --> 01:47:31,390
especially to music-
when he was having fun,

2104
01:47:31,425 --> 01:47:34,092
you could see it in his
face and also on the page.

2105
01:47:34,127 --> 01:47:36,292
* I would have liked
to have known you *

2106
01:47:36,327 --> 01:47:40,390
* oh, but I was
just a kid *

2107
01:47:40,425 --> 01:47:43,092
* your candle burned out
long before... *

2108
01:47:46,225 --> 01:47:50,592
- * your legend ever did.
- I feel wet.

2109
01:47:52,125 --> 01:47:54,224
anita on tape:
uh-oh. good.

2110
01:47:54,259 --> 01:47:58,158
when he did die, his words
took on a new sparkle,

2111
01:47:58,193 --> 01:48:01,125
maybe because
they are finite now.

2112
01:48:01,160 --> 01:48:03,390
we have a finite amount.

2113
01:48:03,425 --> 01:48:07,893
and just the fact that we have
the words is a lucky thing.

2114
01:48:07,928 --> 01:48:09,726
I mean, imagine in
a twisted universe

2115
01:48:09,761 --> 01:48:12,060
when he died
if somehow he took

2116
01:48:12,095 --> 01:48:14,359
his words with him,
his work.

2117
01:48:17,025 --> 01:48:19,275
anita: oh, come on, hunter.

2118
01:48:19,310 --> 01:48:21,526
- that was not cool at all.
- I was tossing it to you.

2119
01:48:21,561 --> 01:48:23,691
- no, you weren't.
- what are you talking about?

2120
01:48:23,726 --> 01:48:26,425
- I didn't hit him in the head like that.
- anita: that's enough.

2121
01:48:26,460 --> 01:48:29,726
wolfe: to feel compelled
to be gonzo all the time

2122
01:48:29,761 --> 01:48:32,557
must have been a burden
on his poor mind.

2123
01:48:32,592 --> 01:48:36,058
he was so identified
with the life he's described,

2124
01:48:36,093 --> 01:48:39,476
it was hard for him
not to be in costume,

2125
01:48:39,511 --> 01:48:42,824
not to be the actor
that was required.

2126
01:48:42,859 --> 01:48:46,359
hunter must have felt trapped
- trapped in gonzo.

2127
01:48:50,959 --> 01:48:53,158
hunter: so, I’m really
in the way as a person.

2128
01:48:53,193 --> 01:48:55,390
the myth has taken over

2129
01:48:55,425 --> 01:48:58,192
and I find myself,
you know, an appendage.

2130
01:48:58,227 --> 01:48:59,392
I’m...

2131
01:49:00,959 --> 01:49:04,158
I’m no longer necessary.
I’m in the way.

2132
01:49:04,193 --> 01:49:06,090
it'd be much better
if I died,

2133
01:49:06,125 --> 01:49:08,826
then people could take
the myth and make films.

2134
01:49:58,792 --> 01:50:00,190
like, when I go out to-

2135
01:50:00,225 --> 01:50:02,475
when I got invited to speak
at, say, universities,

2136
01:50:02,510 --> 01:50:04,726
I’m not sure if you're
inviting duke or thompson.

2137
01:50:04,761 --> 01:50:06,660
so I’m not sure
who to be-

2138
01:50:06,695 --> 01:50:08,524
so I’m not sure who to be.

2139
01:50:08,559 --> 01:50:11,192
I suppose that my plans are to
figure out some new identity.

2140
01:50:11,227 --> 01:50:13,826
you know, I have to kill off
one life and start another one-

2141
01:50:13,861 --> 01:50:15,559
kill off one life
and start another one.

2142
01:50:20,792 --> 01:50:25,659
* hey, mr. tambourine man,
play a song for me *

2143
01:50:25,694 --> 01:50:28,593
* I’m not sleepy... *

2144
01:50:28,628 --> 01:50:31,492
* and there is
no place I’m going to... *

2145
01:50:31,527 --> 01:50:33,643
juan:
it was no secret that

2146
01:50:33,678 --> 01:50:35,724
that's the way
he would die.

2147
01:50:35,759 --> 01:50:38,475
he'd made that clear
many years before,

2148
01:50:38,510 --> 01:50:41,192
that when the time came,
he was gonna-

2149
01:50:41,227 --> 01:50:42,976
he was gonna
take himself out

2150
01:50:43,011 --> 01:50:45,584
and it would be
with a gun.

2151
01:50:45,619 --> 01:50:48,123
so that-
that was no surprise.

2152
01:50:48,158 --> 01:50:51,826
but it's one thing
to know that at some point,

2153
01:50:51,861 --> 01:50:53,657
you know,
he was gonna kill himself

2154
01:50:53,692 --> 01:50:56,125
and it's another
when it actually happens.

2155
01:50:56,160 --> 01:50:58,459
it was important to him

2156
01:50:58,494 --> 01:51:00,724
that we were there.

2157
01:51:00,759 --> 01:51:03,059
it was a sunny afternoon
in the winter

2158
01:51:03,094 --> 01:51:05,510
and it was just
a very peaceful time.

2159
01:51:05,545 --> 01:51:07,891
his family was there
and he decided

2160
01:51:07,926 --> 01:51:10,492
"all right, this is
a good time to go out."

2161
01:51:10,527 --> 01:51:11,858
it sounds kind of sappy,

2162
01:51:11,893 --> 01:51:14,926
but it was
a warm family moment.

2163
01:51:14,961 --> 01:51:17,776
* I’m ready
to go anywhere *

2164
01:51:17,811 --> 01:51:20,557
* I’m ready for to fade... *

2165
01:51:20,592 --> 01:51:23,392
steadman: when he did it,
juan was in the next room

2166
01:51:23,427 --> 01:51:25,843
and he said,
"when it happened

2167
01:51:25,878 --> 01:51:28,259
I thought
I heard a book drop."

2168
01:51:29,928 --> 01:51:31,457
it went like that.

2169
01:51:31,492 --> 01:51:34,390
juan went outside
with a gun

2170
01:51:34,425 --> 01:51:36,792
and shot three times
into the air.

2171
01:51:39,492 --> 01:51:41,025
steadman: it was a kind of salute to him

2172
01:51:41,060 --> 01:51:43,359
as much as anything-
or shock.

2173
01:51:45,659 --> 01:51:49,158
wright: hunter was very much
about preserving a legacy,

2174
01:51:49,193 --> 01:51:51,409
and this was perfect.

2175
01:51:51,444 --> 01:51:53,591
this was romantic.

2176
01:51:53,626 --> 01:51:56,457
and in a lot
of people's minds,

2177
01:51:56,492 --> 01:51:59,725
it was a very strong act.
it was a noble act.

2178
01:51:59,760 --> 01:52:02,959
"go out when you're on
top." he wasn't on top.

2179
01:52:02,994 --> 01:52:05,743
he was nowhere
near on top.

2180
01:52:05,778 --> 01:52:08,457
but some people
thought that,

2181
01:52:08,492 --> 01:52:12,058
and some people thought
it was a very courageous act.

2182
01:52:12,093 --> 01:52:14,592
I think
just the opposite.

2183
01:52:14,627 --> 01:52:17,023
I think this is a time

2184
01:52:17,058 --> 01:52:19,457
when a together
hunter thompson

2185
01:52:19,492 --> 01:52:23,259
could make a difference
in this country.

2186
01:52:23,294 --> 01:52:25,657
* I wouldn't
pay it any mind *

2187
01:52:25,692 --> 01:52:27,926
* it's just a shadow
you're seeing *

2188
01:52:27,961 --> 01:52:29,891
* that he's chasing... *

2189
01:52:29,926 --> 01:52:32,893
buffet: it's a tragic mistake.
I wish he was still here.

2190
01:52:32,928 --> 01:52:35,759
I wish there was still
a hunter around to talk to.

2191
01:52:35,794 --> 01:52:38,891
it's an amazing thing.
you think on one side

2192
01:52:38,926 --> 01:52:42,075
it's fun to reminisce,
but its sad that he's gone.

2193
01:52:42,110 --> 01:52:45,225
we could have used
a few more years of hunter.

2194
01:52:45,260 --> 01:52:48,726
he could wield
a pretty effective sword

2195
01:52:48,761 --> 01:52:51,377
against what's
going on right now.

2196
01:52:51,412 --> 01:52:53,993
* I’ll come
followin' you... *

2197
01:52:59,592 --> 01:53:01,692
you know, just all of it.

2198
01:53:01,727 --> 01:53:03,259
just all of it.

2199
01:53:06,893 --> 01:53:09,624
hunter, no!
you bastard!

2200
01:53:09,659 --> 01:53:12,442
fuckhead!

2201
01:53:12,477 --> 01:53:15,225
- oh shit.
- hunter: you're okay.

2202
01:53:18,225 --> 01:53:20,025
I can't talk about it.

2203
01:53:23,192 --> 01:53:25,509
buchanan:
he flamed out too quickly,

2204
01:53:25,544 --> 01:53:27,826
because of the way
he lived his life

2205
01:53:27,861 --> 01:53:29,691
and chose
to live his life.

2206
01:53:29,726 --> 01:53:32,659
so in my view it was-
it was self-indulgent.

2207
01:53:32,694 --> 01:53:34,624
maybe that's what
he wanted to do,

2208
01:53:34,659 --> 01:53:38,058
but he had so much more
he could give his readers

2209
01:53:38,093 --> 01:53:40,509
and his people...
and himself.

2210
01:53:46,692 --> 01:53:48,657
that's fitting.
that's fitting.

2211
01:53:48,692 --> 01:53:51,626
- man: that's fitting for hunter.
- a motorcycle...

2212
01:53:51,661 --> 01:53:54,759
...roars off.

2213
01:53:56,158 --> 01:53:57,959
okay.

2214
01:54:00,092 --> 01:54:02,158
steadman: it seems we're
here today to discuss

2215
01:54:02,193 --> 01:54:04,157
some kind idea
for a monument.

2216
01:54:04,192 --> 01:54:06,125
if I show you this-
this is the basic idea,

2217
01:54:06,160 --> 01:54:08,058
but actually, hunter
hasn't approved it yet.

2218
01:54:08,093 --> 01:54:09,959
it's just
a thought, yeah.

2219
01:54:09,994 --> 01:54:12,357
he lives in aspen

2220
01:54:12,392 --> 01:54:15,092
- in colorado.
- man: that is different.

2221
01:54:15,127 --> 01:54:17,676
is this something
that you would want to do

2222
01:54:17,711 --> 01:54:20,190
- in the near future?
- hunter: he's written-

2223
01:54:20,225 --> 01:54:23,592
- I’m not sure.
- I mean you're talking about something

2224
01:54:23,627 --> 01:54:25,624
that maybe you want
to do after you die.

2225
01:54:25,659 --> 01:54:28,724
oh, yeah, it's in the
will. it's all described.

2226
01:54:28,759 --> 01:54:32,309
it's gonna be a little hard to
do, particularly with me gone.

2227
01:54:32,344 --> 01:54:35,351
this rim of mountains is a
giant valley 20 miles across.

2228
01:54:35,386 --> 01:54:38,359
- is this property that you own now?
- hunter: yeah.

2229
01:54:38,394 --> 01:54:39,990
the property goes back
over the cliffs,

2230
01:54:40,025 --> 01:54:42,425
so I can do whatever-
if I wanted to build a...

2231
01:54:44,125 --> 01:54:46,125
mcdonald's,
I could do it back there.

2232
01:54:59,192 --> 01:55:01,893
hunter: it's gonna be a pile
of rocks about 100' tall.

2233
01:55:01,928 --> 01:55:05,058
* when I die
and they lay me to rest... *

2234
01:55:05,093 --> 01:55:06,924
a giant cone- conical.

2235
01:55:06,959 --> 01:55:08,958
going around and
tapering down to the top.

2236
01:55:08,993 --> 01:55:11,542
about every two years, the
doctor tells me I’m gonna die.

2237
01:55:11,577 --> 01:55:14,057
for all I know, somehow i
might live for 10 more years.

2238
01:55:14,092 --> 01:55:17,392
well, that's something
- none of us know how long we're gonna live.

2239
01:55:20,392 --> 01:55:21,924
on top of the big arm,

2240
01:55:21,959 --> 01:55:24,692
a double- a fist with
double thumbs- the symbol.

2241
01:55:24,727 --> 01:55:26,609
i've told you
1,000 times for 10 years-

2242
01:55:26,644 --> 01:55:28,457
you've got to put
two thumbs on the fist.

2243
01:55:28,492 --> 01:55:31,559
steadman: it's better than no
thumb, which is what you had.

2244
01:55:31,594 --> 01:55:35,192
* so you know
that when you die *

2245
01:55:35,227 --> 01:55:37,309
* he's gonna recommend you *

2246
01:55:37,344 --> 01:55:39,357
* to the spirit
in the sky *

2247
01:55:39,392 --> 01:55:43,475
* gonna recommend you
to the spirit in the sky *

2248
01:55:43,510 --> 01:55:46,851
* that's where you're
gonna go when you die *

2249
01:55:46,886 --> 01:55:50,157
* when you die and they
lay you to rest... *

2250
01:55:50,192 --> 01:55:53,325
hunter: after the cremation,
they put the ashes in a canister

2251
01:55:53,360 --> 01:55:56,459
and shoot it out of the top
of the fist over the valley.

2252
01:55:56,494 --> 01:55:59,090
say 500' up, it explodes

2253
01:55:59,125 --> 01:56:00,824
and the ashes drift out
all over there.

2254
01:56:00,859 --> 01:56:04,059
that I do know about. we
place ashes in different areas.

2255
01:56:04,094 --> 01:56:07,259
I’m a firm believer in "ashes
to ashes, and dust to dust."

2256
01:56:30,959 --> 01:56:34,125
and that's it.
that's my funeral.

2257
01:56:45,058 --> 01:56:47,990
man:
one, two, three, four!

2258
01:57:02,726 --> 01:57:05,459
* I went home
with the waitress *

2259
01:57:08,292 --> 01:57:10,826
* the way I always do

2260
01:57:12,993 --> 01:57:16,058
* how was I to know

2261
01:57:17,759 --> 01:57:21,058
* she was
with the russians too? *

2262
01:57:30,359 --> 01:57:33,292
* I was gambling
in havana *

2263
01:57:35,859 --> 01:57:38,592
* I took
a little risk *

2264
01:57:40,759 --> 01:57:43,692
* send lawyers,
guns and money *

2265
01:57:45,592 --> 01:57:48,425
* dad, get me out of this

2266
01:57:48,460 --> 01:57:50,158
* hah!

2267
01:57:59,926 --> 01:58:03,158
* I’m the innocent bystander *

2268
01:58:05,225 --> 01:58:08,125
* somehow I got stuck

2269
01:58:10,459 --> 01:58:13,592
* between the rock
and the hard place *

2270
01:58:13,627 --> 01:58:16,792
* and I’m down
on my luck *

2271
01:58:18,826 --> 01:58:22,158
* yes, I’m down
on my luck *

2272
01:58:23,993 --> 01:58:26,926
* well, I’m down
on my luck *

2273
01:58:29,292 --> 01:58:32,192
* and I’m hiding
in honduras *

2274
01:58:34,559 --> 01:58:36,926
* I’m a desperate man *

2275
01:58:39,259 --> 01:58:42,459
* send lawyers,
guns and money *