Overview: 'Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride: Hunter S. Thompson On Film' is a personal, intimate look at Thompson with a special emphasis on his Hollywood relationships. It captures the legacy and "gonzo" spirit of one of this century's most notorious figures - a man whose life and work regularly intersected with some of the biggest names in the world of film, politics, journalism and sports.

Verdict: 'Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride: Hunter S. Thompson On Film' was directed by Tom Thurman and has been lovingly produced by the Starz Entertainment Group. The original documentary features interviews with Hunter’s inner circle of family and friends, but the thrust of the documentary is focused on the manner in which his life often overlapped with numerous Hollywood celebrities who became his close friends, such as Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Bill Murray, Sean Penn, John Cusack, Hunter’s wife Anita, son Juan, former Senators George McGovern and Gary Hart, Tom Wolfe, William F. Buckley, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton, Ralph Steadman and many, many others.

And the joyous fact is, 'Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride' is actually the first significant film biography of one of the 20th century's finest satirists since his death. Aside from three uneven print biographies, and our pal Wayne Ewing's cinéma vérité masterpiece, "Breakfast With Hunter", it is the only complete overview of Thompson's life and legacy to date. In addition, using the STARZ "movie channel" theme, the dcoumentary also doubles as a study in Thompson's impact on Hollywood and popular culture through a study of the two film adaptations of his work, "Where The Buffalo Roam" and "Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas".

'Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride' covers all the key characters in the Hunter Thompson saga, including childhood friends and his widow, Anita, and all of the author's major achievements are also discussed. Filmmaker Tom Thurman has done his research masterfully, and like every worthy documentarian, he knows where to sniff out the grit. Therein, 'Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride' is a brilliant film about a brilliant writer and an excellent primer into the life and times and art of Hunter S. Thompson. It is required viewing, trust me on this.