American: The Bill Hicks Story

POSTED BY: piratenews
UPDATED: Friday, May 14, 2010 13:26
VIEWED: 3777
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PIRATENEWS

Friday, May 14, 2010 3:47 AM

Most comedy is about taking our minds off our problems. Hicks didn’t want anyone distracted, he wanted us to fight back. “The American dream is a crock,” he told me back in 1991. “Stop wanting everything. Everyone should wear jeans and have three T-shirts, eat rice and beans. Don’t eat McDonalds. Don’t buy suits. F--- ’em, OK?”

His message comes across in American: The Bill Hicks Story, but the film serves up Hicks the comedian at the expense of the man. A huge hole in the story is the absence of his manager and fiancée, Colleen McGarr. Maybe she’ll surface in the Hicks biopic Russell Crowe is developing, but her input might have softened the documentary’s dark, intense image of Hicks. There was certainly a softer side to his nature, if not his comedy.

Hicks’ misanthropy had a heart: redemption is yours if you open your eyes and use your freedom of speech. No other comedian demanded that right to free speech – and a platform on which to preach it – as brilliantly as Bill Hicks.

American: The Bill Hicks Story is released on Friday

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/comedy/7690991/Bill-Hicks-t
he-man-who-said-the-unsayable.html

ECGORDON

Friday, May 14, 2010 11:22 AM

I never thought I would say this, but thank you PirateNews for this post.

Bill Hicks was a brilliant comedian, gone too soon. We need more like him.

KWICKO

Friday, May 14, 2010 11:45 AM

Y'know, I could see Russell Crowe playing Bill.

I look forward to seeing this movie, AND the one Crowe is developing.

More Bill Hicks is a good thing.

DMI

Friday, May 14, 2010 1:26 PM

My favorite comedian of all time. I had no idea any movies were being made. Hope I get a chance to see them in this ton of megaplexes that only cater to the asleep, serving up blockbuster after blockbuster.

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I pray for one last landing,
on the globe that gave me birth.
Let me rest my eyes on the fleecy skies
and the cool, green hills of Earth.

http://www.blogiversity.org/blogs/dmi/default.aspx