Gonzo Doc Not So Hot
Free Lisl: Fear and Loathing in Denver
Movie Review by Spyder Darling
Free
Lisl: Fear & Loathing in Denver is a sincere,
but disjointed
and ultimately disappointing documentary chronicling
the late gonzo journalist
Hunter S. Thompson's last crusade, no not to return to Vegas for one
more acid,
ether and
Wild Turkey soaked search for the American Dream. That
would have been too easy. Instead
for what would be
Thompson’s final defense of the the individual against an
unjust judicial system, Hunter set out to free Lisl Auman, a
Colorado woman he
was convinced had been wrongly sentenced to life without parole at age
21 for
the murder of Bruce
VanderJagt, a Denver police officer who was killed while
Auman was handcuffed in the back of a police car.
Much like director Wayne Ewing’s 2004’s HST documentary Breakfast
With
Hunter, Free
Lisl is an earnest and well
intentioned effort, but lacking
in focus, a coherent timeline and in the Free
Lisl’s case, there just ain’t enough footage
of Thompson, especially for a
film meant as a thank you note to the “Good Doctor” for his efforts in
stating
her case to
the nation in "Lynching in Denver" an article for Vanity Fair and
mentions in his column “Hey Rube” for ESPN.com.
He
also rallied the immeasurable assistance of the National Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers and staged a
rally on the steps of the
still be in prison. Though for CO's state
prosecutors, that would have
been just fine. But more about that later.
courthouse steps performance of “Lawyers, Guns and
Money” by Thompson’s friend, the now late singer songwriter
Warren Zevon is
hauntingly effective. Zevon also gets
off one of the few great lines in the film when pleading Lisl’s
case and the
importance of forgiveness, Zevon, who had been diagnosed with terminal
cancer,
doesn’t want to go before
his lord and be asked “What part of merciful didn’t
you understand?”
The
bulk of Free Lisl however,
is a random series of clips of Lisl, her family and attorneys and
handful of supporters
gradually revealing the circumstances of her arrest, conviction and
eventual
release. As for her case, while it is
clear
hers was not the finger that pulled the trigger that ended officer
VanderJagt's life, Ms. Auman had indeed set into
motion the misguided series of
events that lead to officer VanderJagt’s murder.
It seems Ms. Auman had assembled a
less than elite team
of local skinheads and methamphetamine enthusiasts to
help recover some of her possessions
from the creepy barn like residence of her estranged boyfriend. As is likely to
happen after a few drinks to
get loose for the action to come, events did not go as planned and the
police
were called
in. Cut to the high speed
chase with, 25-year old skinhead Matthaeus Jaehnig shooting from a
stolen red
Trans Am
while Lisl steers and the bad craziness really begins.
Eventually Lisl surrenders in a Denver
apartment complex but
after the smoke from Jaehnig’s Chinese assault rifle
clears, officer VanderJagt has been shot 10 times, killed and
Jaehnig has shot
and killed himself, leaving Auman to be charged with “felony murder” a
Colorado
law that states
when death occurs during the commission of certain felonies all
accomplices are guilty, regardless of weather or not
they committed the actual
murder. A tough law, to be sure, but
perhaps
not altogether unjust considering VanderJagt’s
widow Anna and daughter Hayley paid
a mile high price for Lisl to get a few things back.
and Loathing in
20 years probation. As for VanderJagt’s
wife
Anna who will never again kiss her husband goodbye in the morning,
after learning
how the jury had been improperly instructed and the police had added
damaging
remarks to their official
statements, even she isn’t sure how she feels about
the justice of Lisl’s sentence of life without parole.
And the fact
that Lisl did serve nearly a decade in
prison hopefully provides some sense of justice.
material. Obviously it’s much easier to build sympathy for Lisl
and the film by
depersonalizing an unknown cop than a
human being with an actual identity. In
death, even Robert Paulson, an anonymous
“space monkey” of Chuck
Palahniuk’s “Fight Club” had a name. Pity Free
Lisl’s literature couldn’t be as generous.
instead of taking the law into her own less than capable hands,
especially
since neither Hunter S. Thompson, having
committed suicide just weeks prior to
Lisl’s release, nor Warren Zevon are with us any longer to muster high
profile
support on her behalf.
forgiveness and an award
winning film-maker could be so tedious that it took at least five
sittings to get through, mostly
because
Hunter S. Thompson doesn’t appear at length till the film is nearly
over, by which point
most viewers will have
tuned out, turned off or fallen asleep, possibly all
three. Maybe for director
around to see this poorly
written thank you note. Otherwise the
Good Doctor may have regretted not doing Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas Pt. 2
as his last battle with “the man” after all.
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