I've read several definitions and some contradict each other. But, basically, that's it!

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I understood the term to have been lifted from Hunter S. Thompson's "gonzo" journalism where he became an active participant in the story and not just an observer.

So when I think of gonzo, I think of Buttman, Joey Silvera or Rocco (sometimes, sometimes not) where they don't just passively tell a story, they are involved themselves and actually push events along, whether in the sex, or actively directing it in a way that the viewer is aware of (rather than anonymously in the conventional movie sense) or even John Leslie's the Voyeur, where he is involved as the peeping tom even if he is not in the sex himself. This is rather than merely being a camera man whose view is our view into the movie, and who doesn't actually exist in our awareness of events. OK, now I am getting pretentious. But I guess there is some relation in it to "reality," or at least making it look that way, rather than telling a fictional tale, and also maybe making it look like it all happens spontaneously, off the cuff so to speak.

Also, think of Down The Hatch, as has been mentioned, or Perverted Point of View.

I would be interested in other reflections on what makes a genuine gonzo movie, rather than just a plotless sex scene for example!

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