American Pimp: The Review Directed By: Allen and Albert Hughes
Starring: Well, American Pimps...

American Pimps falls into the category of car crash documentary filmmaking. There are no camera tricks, there are no over the top attempts at eye candy and none of this is needed simply because the subject matter is one you can't help but look at, feel your jaw drop and wish you could wipe some of it from memory.

The Hughes Brothers (Albert and Allen), the men who brought us Dead Presidents and Menace II Society have gone into the seedy, garish world of prostitution and brought back a unique look at the industry. Not the sad tales of junkies and hookers and cops etc, but of (obviously) The American Pimp.

The Hughes Bros. made American Pimp for a hundred grand of their own cash When the film first debuted back in 1999 at Sundance it immediately came under fire. Go figure, it takes a pretty open look at this world and may seem to glamourize it, which was the charge levelled at The Hughes Brothers. I never truly felt that watching it, though I did feel as if some of these men only knew how to end a sentence with the word 'bitch'. Another year would pass before American Pimp saw a mass release.

What does come across from these men is over inflated self worth, self righteousness and a whole whack of derogatory behaviour towards women, though never once does an American Pimp take a whack at any of the women in the film...they don't deny they do it, but only when push comes to shove...as if this makes it any better.

These are men with names like Gorgeous Dre, Fillmore Slim (easily in his Sixties, a career pimp), and Bishop Don Magic Juan (who proudly displays photographs he took with Donald Trump and Marion Barry and more). IN fact, the Bishop shares part of the interview with his mother who doesn't seem phased at all by what her son does...since she is so well taken care of and the girls do not seem to mind. It's a weird world man.

The interviews between The Hughes Bros. and The Pimps is often cut between such great blaxploitation flicks of the 70's like The Mack and Willie Dynamite (See our blaxploitation page for more on these titles). The interesting part is all the goofy Huggie bear type sterotypes that are dismissed at the films start are immediately reenforced upon viewing this film. This documentary is a time capsule of garrishness. The next time I shake my head at the portrayal of a pimp on TV or in Film I may have to think twice.

This film is definitely worth the watch if you can stomach it. No viewpoints, just a bunch of pimps spewing dialogue you would never find yourself saying, and their unique idealogies may make one wince but sometimes it comes with a dark laugh or two as well.

Copyright© DVDwolf.com
Copyright© Staffwriter: Rob Paul

DVD Information: Special Features: Interactive Menus, Interview with the Hughes Bros., Scene Access Video Format: Widescreen (no A.R. specified) Add'l Features: Enhanced for 16x9 TVs Subtitles: French, Spanish Audio Tracks: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround: English Dolby Digital Stereo: Spanish Running time of 87 minutes Closed Captioned. Coding: Regionally Coded for Region 1.

The DVD Scoop:

Not a whole lot in the world of extras on this disc but there is a small interview featurette with The Hughes Bros. discussing their work. So, unless you are a devotee or really love this documentary (which I can see achieving a cult status with frat boys) it is not the first documentary I would recommend.

Rated R for pervasive sexual content including dialogue, strong language and some drug related material.