THE RUM DIARY

US, 2011, 120 minutes, Colour.
Johnny Depp, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Rispoli, Amber Heard, Richard Jenkins, Giovanni Ribisi, Marshall Bell, Bill Smitrovich.
Directed by Bruce Robinson.

In 1998, Johnny Depp played the journalist, Hunter S. Thompson, in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thompson began his journalistic career in the 1960s, investigative journalism that pulled no punches. It got the nickname, Gonzo journalism. Thompson also lived a fairly reckless life, not without a significant amount of drugs. He shot himself in 2005.

The Rum Diary was a Thompson novel about a young writer in Puerto Rico in 1960, trying to establish himself, despite a capacity for hard drinking, his rum diary. Without quite realising it, he allows himself to be swayed by a wheeler-dealer to write articles favaourable to a tourist development on the site of an American arms-testing base. He also becomes infatuated with the smooth-talking but ruthless agent’s girl-friend. The entanglement does him no good, except to test his integrity. At the same time, his newspaper is collapsing, the editor doing a run, the staff on strike.

This is the core of The Rum Diary, a thinly disguised autobiographical novel by Thompson.

It offers an opportunity to see Johnny Depp doing some serious acting, forgetting his outings as Captain Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka and The Mad Hatter which are definitely a matter of taste.

Aaron Eckhart has no trouble in being the wheeler dealer, a smoothly nasty piece of work. Richard Jenkins is the harassed editor and Giovanni Ribisi is eccentricity personified as a drug-addled fellow journalist. Some of the scenes are stolen by Michael Rispoli as the newspaper’s photographer who gets caught up in all these adventures (and the rum).

The film was written and directed by Bruce Robinson who was one of the up and coming film-makers of the 1980s, especially with his ironic comedy, Withnail and I. However, Robinson them embarked on his own rum and drugs diary and it has taken two decades for him to move back into film-making.

The film suddenly stops and tells us that this was the beginning of a Gonzo journalistic life. We know the sequel already.

1. Journalism in the 20th century? Gonzo journalism and its origins? Hunter Thompson?

2. Hunter S. Thompson and his life, career, reputation, work, death?

3. The 1960s, the look, the world background, the music, songs?

4. The opening image, the plane, the advertisement for Union Carbide? Flying over Puerto Rico? Industries and companies in the 1950s? The influence of the United States?

5. The introduction to Paul, his waking, bleary-eyed, the mini bar overturned, dressing, in San Juan, going to the paper? The meeting with Lotterman, the warning not to mention his wig? His reaction? His meeting Bobby Sala? The interview, his job, obituaries and tourism? The seedy existence?

6. The paper, in decline, circulation, Lotterman, his relationship with his staff, on the phone, discussions with Paul? His plans?

7. Bobby, his life, photographer, grubby, the connection with Paul? Boarding with Moberg? In the city, drinking, cockfights, life and style? Work?

8. The introduction of Sanderson, smooth, the invitation for Paul? Paul meeting with Chenault? The attraction? Going to the boat, seeing Sanderson and Chenault and the sexual encounter, the meeting? The introduction to Mr Zimburger? The attitudes of the 1960s, the American right wing, anticommunist, racist, greedy? The bank manager, the managers of the new hotels, the architects? The hotel and tourism plan? The use of Puerto Rican land?

9. Paul at the meeting, listening to the plan, the invitation for him to write articles promoting the project, it being confidential, signing the document? His being bought?

10. Bobby and Paul driving, the car, wanting the meal, the refusal to serve them a meal, Bobby and his hostility, seeing the men that Sanderson had warned off the beach? The car chase? The violence? The arrest, jail?

11. The court, the prisoner vomiting, their fears, the judge, their being chained to the felon, the sentence? Sanderson’s arrival, offering bail? Further hold over Paul? Their going back to the car, it being stripped? Paul driving while sitting on Bobby’s lap?

12. The visit to the island, Paul taking Bobby, the party, the clashes, Sanderson angry with Bobby’s presence, Paul being sacked? Going out, Chenault and her dancing, drinking? Sanderson’s anger?

13. Lotterman, his packing and leaving, the staff and their discussions, Paul and his plan?

14. The character of Moburg, his looking haunted, his words, interests, Nazis? His help? The cockfight and his taking them to the woman who put curses on people? The blessing of the cock?

15. The cockfight, the staff gone, Moburg the only one? The choices for Paul?

16. The ending of one story, the beginning of another? Hunter S. Thompson’s career?