American - The Bill Hicks Story

Synopsis - "American" is details the life of legendary stand-up comedian Bill Hicks, known for his forthright style and his rage at the American "Dream", Hicks is one of the best loved stand-ups of all time, achieving great success in a life cut tragically short by pancreatic cancer.



The Review
I first heard Bill Hicks’ comedy when I was about 14 or 15, and my reaction was the same as my reaction to many of the other introductions to great comedy that I’ve experienced, “Why did nobody tell me this existed?” I spent my meagre savings on Hicks’ “Salvation” album, having almost randomly chosen the album among many others like the better known (though not to me) “Arizona Bay” or “Sane Man”. At a time when mainstream stand-up was all that was available to a kid living in sub-urban Warwickshire, and this was populated by poor satirical stand-ups and was being dominated by Peter Kay, Hicks’ loftier ambitions and finer craft were like a bolt of lightning to me, and perhaps as one loves the “Doctor Who” of their generation, I still believe that “Salvation” recording in Oxford to be Hicks at his best. I listened to the album repeatedly learnt it by word and wanted to learn more of the man behind the laughter. I learnt of the substance abuse, growing up in Texas, his feud with Dennis Leary, his being dropped from the David Letterman show, and of course of his untimely and tragic death.

“American” gives the audience an interesting insight into Hicks and his roots, friends and families, it almost takes it as red that the audience have some knowledge of Hicks. It is notable that outside of the clips of Hicks’ performing (much of which to me as a Hicks fan was new) we do not hear much of Hicks talking about himself, instead we are shown Hicks through his friends and family. We aren’t subjected to the fawning adulation of other stand-ups who Hicks influenced, instead we hear from the other comedians who were close to him and who performed with him.

The film-makers have unearthed some fantastic archive footage of Hick performing at a very young age, as well as a lot of photographs of Hicks. The photos are animated in a very interesting way, which has some similarities with the great “The Kid Stays in the Picture”, bringing movement and dynamism to static photos, while Hicks’ friends and family talk about him in voice-over, it isn’t until far later in the film that we see these people as they are today, discussing Hicks with the film-makers, instead we see them in photographs as they were and as Hicks knew them.

The film was made by two English fans of Hicks and they provided a new perspective on Hicks, from that in other documentaries made about Hicks, which often fail to reflect that Hicks gained his greatest adulation, not in his native America, but on the other side of the Atlantic. The film strikes a good balance between stand-up clips and interviews with those who knew him best, this stems from a good understanding that the main audience for this documentary is fans of Hicks who have seen almost all of the footage of him performing, and those that haven’t will be inspired by the segments which do feature to seek out more of Hicks.

It is incredible to see the subjects Bill talks about and how much of it has not lost its relevance, his main philosophy on the power of love over fear, feels particularly poignant when one thinks of the events in the world in the years since Bill’s death.

The film is possibly a little too light on some detail, his feud with Dennis Leary isn't mentioned at all, I can understand why the film-makers preferred to focus on the positives of Bill, and not on the stodgy allegations that Leary plagiarised some of Bill's material and the persona of Hicks, however a friend I had gone to see the film with (who wasn't familiar with Hicks' work) remarked to me that he seems very similar to Leary, I worry that in the years since Hicks' death that some viewers will not be as knowledgeable of Hicks' career as the film-makers clearly are.

The film has had a very limited release, being shown for only one night in Lincoln and this only coming almost two months after its initial release, where I was one of fewer than twenty viewers enjoying the film, which is a tremendous pity as the film cleverly shows Hicks through his friends, providing the audience with a new outlook on Hicks, which has been missing in other documentaries which focus on his style and his legacy, while not providing viewers with information on what Hicks was like as a person, away from stand-up.

If there was ever a time when Hicks’ viewpoint and outlook on life was required it is now, at a time when this enjoyable and informative documentary on his life has been crowded out of the cinema by the likes of the rampantly materialistic Sex and the City 2, it is clear we need Bill now more than ever.