Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb Review

Charting the inevitable madness of Hunter S. Thompson’s decision to run on the ballot for Sheriff of Aspen would be a remarkably tough task to document. Engaging with the build-up, close calls and what it did for the future of the author’s work is intense. Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb gives it a fair crack, though. Freak Power lives on through this Ajax Phillips and Daniel Joseph Watkins documentary piece, displaying that the push Thompson strived for in his campaign touched on an angry, bubbling America. Vietnam War woes, a fractured sense of state and a new movement that showed the generational divide grow larger and larger. Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb is a hell of a time for those with an interest in what and how Thompson used his public figure to fight for a new era.

Key to fleshing out the campaign run are the people that were impacted by it. Those that defined themselves as hippies and a great collection of stills and footage from the time. How much of the war between stuffy suits and freewheeling spirits wages on is unknowable, but Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb goes wider than that, greater than that. Phillips and Watkins make no mistake and take no time in changing pace from a sheriff campaign to a horror collection of American politics in the 1960s. Radicalisation is common when hope is assassinated and brutality rages on. Key it is to tie that into Thompson’s career and eventual decision to run, Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb has no trouble doing so.

Keeping in touch with the varied political landscape of the time is key to understanding Thompson and his own campaign. It was a time for rattling the cage and pushing back, as it still is. There is a modernism to this campaign that reaches out as a strong rallying cry. Considering the work Thompson did and his influences elsewhere, it is reassuring to see Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb understands that distinctly. In understanding that comes a certainty about Thompson and the people that rallied around them. Not just a movement but an implication of shifting power that would not come to America for some while after Thompson had not just ran a campaign for sheriff, but hit the campaign trail with doomed Democrat George McGovern.

An absolute delight not just for Thompson fans but for those interested in the political change that struck America in the 1960s and 70s, this Phillips and Watkins piece is a tremendous gem. Political documentaries are only as fun as their subject, and looking at the collective energy used to take control of a political environment, win or loss, is as intense as it sounds. Smart tactics and a real strive for political office despite not having the know how. That hasn’t stopped anyone before, as Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb is keen to disclose. An especially straightforward piece of quality documentarianism shows a return to the roots of what makes the genre so engaging. Simple flowing facts through meticulous research and editing of footage from the time. Nothing but quality.