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Released by: BBC
Released on: 6/7/2011
Director: Matt Harlock
Cast: Bill Hicks
Year: 2010
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The Movie:
Bill Hicks is one of those odd cases of the posthumous rising star. Before he died at the way too young age of thirty-two in 1994, he had met with considerable success in Europe but never quite got to be as big as he deserved to be in his homeland of America. Hicks started in stand-up comedy young, hitting stages in and around Texas in his mid-teens against his parents' wishes and rising to some local prominence before splitting to Los Angeles to try and make it to the big time.
When that didn't happen Hicks returned to his home state of Texas, albeit now with a much stronger penchant for drugs and alcohol and a fairly obvious disdain for the mainstream American way of thinking. Hicks' material was getting progressively darker to the point where audiences were sometimes leaving offended rather than entertained - but at the heart of this nasty streak was a man who was obviously trying something that most stand-up comics would never dream of trying, and that was to get his audience to think for themselves about the state of the world and the state of their country.
As Hicks seemed to have been at his most popular in the early nineties in England, it's fitting then that director Matt Harlock would make such an excellent documentary about his life and career for the BBC. With unprecedented input into the minds and memories of Hicks' family and closest friends, Harlock has crafted an interesting film not just because of its subject but also because of its approach. With Hicks having passed away more than a decade ago, obviously he's represented here only by video clips and photographs but by putting those photographs into subtle digital animation at times the film takes on an almost live action feel. Of course, interviews with Hicks' partners in crime and fellow performers help to flesh out the story behind the man, as does input from his mother, and we in turn learn what made the man famous for his often times self righteous tirades against things he saw as unjust into the enigma that he was.
The film does tend to lean more towards focusing on Hicks' political sides and Libertarian style anti-government material and barely touches on some of his more risqué blue comedy, but there's probably a reason for that: it just isn't quite as interesting. What set Hicks apart from countless other stand-up comics wasn't his dirty sense of humor it was his ability to poke around in the brains of his audience members until he found something that sparked, and so because of this his political side is where the filmmakers take us.
As we follow Hicks through his all too short stay on this Earth we watch him transform from a fairly meek Baptist kid into a budding but very clean cut comic into the ranting and raging and periodically brilliant socio-political observer he would be remembered as. As we see him transform we start to notice that he cared less and less for mainstream success and how instead he seemed more interested in the fine art of provocation. We also see how, once diagnosed with terminal cancer, his outlook obviously changed and he in turn began to recognize and value the family that was at one point the butt of many of his jokes.
The film is well paced, done with an appropriate sense of humor and doesn't ever candy coat its subject to the point of hero worship. Instead it remains insightful and interesting throughout and turns out to be a refreshing fascinating biography of a troubled man who, as the documentary reassures us, was patriotic enough to try and change, in his own way, what he felt was wrong about his homeland.
Video/Audio/Extras:
BBC's AVC encoded 1.78.1 widescreen 1080i high definition transfer looks pretty good when you take into account the fact that much of the archival footage has been taken from rough VHS sources. The newer animated bits look excellent, the archived bits do not, but overall this is all very watchable.
More impressive is the English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track which uses the surround channels surprisingly well to spread the score and some interesting sound effects are to good effect. Again, the archived clips show their roots and sound like the old tapes that they were taken from but you can't really fault the disc for that.
Extras are ridiculously plentiful and spread across the two discs in the set as follows:
DISC ONE:
Extended Interviews Part One: (58:57) Bill's Early Life / Creating Characters / The Comedy Begins
Featurettes: Austin Panel At SxSW (10:21) / Dominion Tour (7:44)
DISC TWO:
Extended Interviews Part Two: (2:01:19) Early Annex Years / Heading To L.A. / Back In Houston / With the outlaw comics / The Dark Years / Going Sober / Performing In The U.K. / Diagnosis / Bill Tells His Friends / Love, Laughter And Truth
Featurettes: Festivals In U.K. And U.S.A. With The Hicks' (14:56) / Hicks At Abbey Road Studios (4:29) / Kevin Shoots His Film In L.A. (3:52) / 15th Anniversary Tribute (8:02) / Comedy School (19:01) / Dwight In London (5:46) / Making Of Arizona Bay (7:23) / The Ranch (7:51) / Deleted Scenes (seven scenes in total) / Early Scene (four scenes in total)
Rare Clips: Annex - Girls / Annex - Eating / Annex - Mom Comes To Town / Funny Bone - UFO / Indianapolis 1 - Dad's A Goober / Indianapolis 2 - Jaws Killed My Lord / Outlaws Get Religion - Jesus Is pissed / Outlaws Get Religion - School Rivalry / Sacramento - Housekeeping! / Sane Man - Bill You Don't Fit In / Sane Man - Non-Smokers / Spellbinders - In hospital / West Palm Beach - Childbirth / West Palm Beach - Did God Make A Mistake / Bill And Dwight - Bat And Ball / Bill At Waco
Rounding out the second disc's contents are a Ninja Bachelor Party trailer, a collection of Bill Hicks' own personal audio journal clips and an amusing Audience Reaction Trailer for the movie that starts off by talking to people who have never heard of Bill Hicks. Animated menus and chapter stops are included on both discs and inside the keepcase is a full color booklet containing some notes on the feature and the extras.
There's an insane amount of extra content here, and almost all of it is worth watching if you enjoyed the feature. The extended and deleted interview bits are the best parts, as they lend even more insight into Hicks' mind and personal life, while the featurettes give us a look into what went into making the project, the involvement of Hicks' family and how the film was promoted and received. It's tempting to say that a director commentary would have been welcome but there's already so much good extra material here that it seems ridiculous to expect even more - but if there's one area that the extras do fall short in it's in directorial intent. Aside from that very minor complaint, this is an impressive package.
The Final Word:
You don't have to be a fan of Bill Hicks to appreciate this film, you just need to appreciate interesting life stories. Hicks' appeal may have been lost on the American mainstream in his day but his influence on modern comedy both in his homeland and abroad is undeniable. The BBC's outstanding two-disc Blu-ray set does an excellent job of uncovering and explaining his appeal and documenting the up's and down's of his life and on top of that it includes hours and hours of bonus material, all of which is interesting and relevant. A truly excellent release overall.
Click on the images below for full size Blu-ray screen caps!
I liked how this film really plotted out his development w/o feeling like they were overtly glorifying the guy. His approach to everything seemed pretty "eye-level" and the film keeps it that way. It's interesting to watch Sane Man after watching this film as it lends a tremendous amount of insight into his brave, raw genius.