Movie Details
| Title: | American: The Bill Hicks Story | |
| Director: | Matt Harlock & Paul Thomas | |
| Year: | 2010 | |
| Genre: | Biography | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 03.12.10 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 03.12.10 | ACC | This Screening is part of event: SXSW 2010 After Red Chapel, I went back to the hall where we got our badges so that I could pick up the pocket guide I should have grabbed the first time around. Then I grabbed a hotdog for dinner and headed back to the G-Spot theater to line up for a Bill Hicks doc. SXSW Summary:Much more than a comedian, Bill Hicks was and still is an inspiration to millions. His timeless comedy tackled the contradictions of America and modern life head on, as he skewered organized religion, railed against the hypocrisies of his government and exposed the collusion of the mainstream media, earning him censorship in the USA, but whose messages continue to resonate with subsequent generations. He also had some excellent dick jokes. Pushing documentary storytelling in a new direction, 'AMERICAN' uses a stunning new animation technique to bring the tale of one of modern culture's most iconic heroes to the big screen. While we were lined up, people came around and asked each of us if we were in marketing or advertising. If we said no (which I found out was the right answer to Hicks), we got a free sticker. Just like Bill Hicks would have wanted. I'm a huge Carlin fan but realized today how little I knew about Bill Hicks. Of all the performances they showed, all were new to me except for the scene where he deals with a heckler, which I've seen on youtube before. I also realized that I'd gotten Hicks and Kinison mixed up in my head. Other than knowing that he was an "angry comedian" who had a drug problem, I knew very little about Hicks. And, as it turns out, that description isn't really all that accurate. The first half of the movie is told almost entirely through dubbed voices overlaying a stylized presentation of family photos. The technique is interesting, but it wore thin after a half hour or so. It would have been nice to see who was talking. There were several moments where I did not know who the owner of the voice I was hearing was. Eventually, once we get to a part in Bill's life where he was being filmed, we began to see more footage. But almost all of the footage we saw was him doing standup. There was no off-stage footage of him. So even then we dealt with a lot of stylized photos. Luckily, the underlying story itself is interesting enough that the presentation didn't ruin things. I would have liked to see footage from other comedians talking about Bill's legacy, but that wasn't the story the filmmakers were telling. Instead, it was just about the triumphs and struggles in Bill's life. Which, again, is a damn interesting story, and one that I wasn't familiar with. I was incredibly impressed with how driven Hicks was to become a professional comedian, and with how funny his work actually was. The filmmakers did an excellent job laying out the narrative and with picking appropriate stand-up footage to accompany each leg of the story. I get the feeling that there's not a lot of Hicks material out there for me to discover (they mentioned a few TV specials, a handful of late-night appearances, and two posthumous CDs), and that the legend Hicks has today, for the most part, comes from comedians and writers who actually saw him live. |