Whoever decided to let Hunter S. Thompson to do a commentary track is an absolute genius! Obviously he’s the last person you’d expect to do a DVD commentary track and there are some clear reasons why he shouldn’t be doing it, but screw it, it’s probably one of the most unique commentary tracks I’ve heard. For example, this is the first time I’d ever heard a commentarian stop numerous times to scream, cackle, howl and screech intermittently throughout a film without any explanation. Keep in mind, these outbursts (and there are many) last about 7-22 seconds each which is unnerving at first but then become pretty great. You can never quite tell if Hunter actually likes the movie, though Anita (his live in paramour) says he watches the movie once a month and whoops and hollers at the TV while watching it. But knowing his disposition, I imagine he’d do the same if he were watching an episode of Sesame Street. Anyway, you're unsure about what he really thinks about the film and Terry Gilliam (The Director) because he call him, “A limey fag cartoonist” who tried to put an overt homosexual slant on the film, but in the same breath he says that Gilliam “doesn’t suck as a director” and that he is definitely a better kisser than Don Johnson (but that’s a whole other story). I don’t think we’ll ever know how he really feels but it can all been summed up when Hunter says he’s got nothing but “Hurt and love for Terry”.
Listening to Hunter watch the film and react to scenes, characters, and locations is the best part of the commentary. His analysis of Tobey Maguire as a “homo Brazilian…who looks like some kind of wax doll” is hysterical. He is so obsessed with Maguire that he talks about his appearance for a long time and you later learn that he has paused the film on his end so he can really get a good look at this “Freak... Rubber Doll”. During the film he also finds time to call Benicio Del Toro and Johnny Depp on the phone. Neither are home but he leaves them scathing messages, both are some of the funniest parts of the commentary. He threatens Benicio and calls Depp a “Jack Ass Bastard, Nazi Pig, Yellow Belly Coward” and then abruptly hangs up.
The second half of the commentary becomes tedious because the sycophantic producer of the film who does commentary with Hunter decides to start asking him these pointed academic questions like, “Why is youth attracted to this novel and to you” and “What does the future hold for America; is there any hope?” This produces one of the most boring Q&A’s since the cast of that Jesus play came to your junior high school. Hunter is incapable of answering a question in less than ten minutes and even then he never quite gets to the point. The best parts about this section are when Hunter goes of on tangents and starts talking all crazy. Especially interesting is the segment about Timothy Leary “a lying, fraudulent vicious lying asshole, who put a dangerous blade in the back of a generation” and J. Edgar Hoover “A Bull Fruit pervert.” He refers to both as "Two American Shitheads”. Overall this Commentary is really packed with great information. It’s like a history lesson from an insane man- the points come but you have to find them.
Even though the last 30 minutes have some pretty definite ups and downs it’s still worth listening too, for things like this:
“The idea of one God is a scheme created by the Catholic Priests to shame neighborhoods and fuck fat choirboys.”
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