American: The Bill Hicks Story (2009)

:cheers:

All i said that he was a decent comic=)

  On 10/1/2010 at 10:53 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

Anyone in the same ball park as Hicks I would never go in to a thread and say eh he wasn't this and he was a poor mans Bill Hicks... Okay yeah maybe I would I like to talk shit just like everyone else and you know what they say about opinions but I try very hard not to be an unnecessarily pessimistic critic.

Are we talking about the same man here? He built a career out of criticising people and his legacy is a bunch of comedians that love to stand in jusdgement over people they see as intellectual pygmies. Surely if someone wants to be an agent of change they need to be inclusive in the hope that educating will lead to a better society, not just call them cross eyed hicks. But then that would really work with the jokes, would it?

No that wouldn't be really that funny, the thing is Bill Hicks wasn't dumb, he realized in the end of things telling a bunch of rednecks he can teach them how to read and will help build them a school would have less impact on the world than what he did imho. His stand up has helped me (and I think a lot a lot of other people) think differently, to enjoy the ride, to try to not be an idiot, to laugh at the things that would drive me insane otherwise, to not choose fear as my compass etc. etc. and his stand up is still so relevant today for so many more reasons.

BILL HICKS WAS ONLY 32 WHEN HE DIED if he was around for longer I am sure he would have experimented with different approaches to trying to help humanity. He was way fucking young in the end of things, I can't say he should have done much differently, he just should have lived longer and we would have seen him naturally progress into someone I guarantee would have tried to do a lot of things to help people differently.

He was only 32.......

Thats fair, Stewart Lee didnt lose his bloody minded arrogance until his mid 30s.

I love Bill Hicks but thought this film was kinda crap, the production and style was repetitive and annoying and I didn't really learn anything about him that I didn't already know.

Still, dude was funny as hell.

They went into much much more detail about the specifics of his life, his friends, how he must have felt during certain periods, the story was told in a much cohesive chronological timing of how it went down than any other one piece about Bill Hicks. I didn't learn much that surprised surprised me, I knew of most of things they discussed but it was much more elaborately told than before. I thought the production style was incredibly repetitive as well but it still remained slightly charming throughout the entire film for me. I think they did the best that they could with how little source material they had.

9/10 for me

i honestly can't believe how much you guys worship this frustrated liberal douche

He was pretty much Jesus. Very worship-worthy.

yeah, drink the kool-aid, buddy

We didn't use Kool-Aid at Waco, that was Jim.

david cross is funnier even though he stole his act

*whew* there I said it. Had to get it off my chest. Now let's get the flame war rollin'

This thread kind of died like bill. I had such hope for the future

  On 10/2/2010 at 8:21 AM, dr lopez said:

old david cross is funny even though he stole his act

I also love Doug Stanhope.

I like Bill Hicks.

Bought film yesterday expecting something good.

Watched with another Hicks appreciator last night.

Very disappointed. Big shame.

Hoping the extras on the DVD are of some merit!

I'm really pained to say it wasn't very good but it just seemed like a missed opportunity.

"Totally Bill Hicks - It's Just A Ride" from my old VHS collection is better I reckon.

Seems cheesy and inflated to me... Would Bill have liked it? ... Probably not

I understand the criticism's but I think they did a pretty good job with what they had. It was a most welcome free reminder of why I love Bill Hicks so much and very inspirational for me.

you're all pussies, come on, i'll take you all on

The stuff Hicks said wasn't/isn't really that revolutionary to anyone with a half a brain who has experimented with psychedelics. His sort of comedy resonated with the gen X crowd, right message at the right time and place sort of thing, which probably helped him get this popularity to this day.

I started getting into Hicks pretty much right at the same time I started getting into psychedelics coincidentally. Yeah there was old buggers way back in the day that said a lot of the same stuff Bill Hicks did way before him... but they didn't say it the same way he did and they couldn't keep my attention half as much Hicks could when I was a 17 year old idiot.

  On 10/2/2010 at 1:05 PM, Funktion said:

you're all pussies, come on, i'll take you all on

  On 10/2/2010 at 1:43 PM, azatoth said:

The brilliance Hicks said is as philosophically relevant as Nietzsche. His social commentary resonates, the only truly timeless comedy, which helped him become iconic.