| | |
Features: DVD
Urban auteur filmmakers, the Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society, Dead Presidents) hit the mean streets with an "incredibly entertaining and charismatic" (Shout) expose on real-life pimps. A "snappy, stylish documentary" (The New York Post) containing "blunt, raw power and stylistic energy" (The Hollywood Reporter), American Pimp is "a primer on pimp craft and culture" (Shout) that takes you into the shadowy world of prostitution, "putting on the screen everything you ever wanted to know about pimps" (Nuart).Cutting straight to the heart of the world's oldest profession, this intimate portrait of infamous "mack-daddies" like Filmore Slim, C-Note, Gorgeous Dre and Rosebudd is eye-opening and shocking. From the dirty streets of New York, L.A. and San Francisco to the "Players Ball" in Milwaukee, you'll walk the boulevard of broken dreams and hear every heart-wrenching story and hilarious anecdote. It's an exclusive ride you've never experienced - and won't soon forget.System Requirements:Directed By: The Hughes Brothers. Running Time: 87 Min., Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2001 MGM Studios.Format: DVD MOVIE
"Outrageously entertaining!" Entertainment Weekly
Editor's Note
Allen and Albert Hughes, best known for their work as feature-film directors (MENACE II SOCIETY, DEAD PRESIDENTS), present this revealing documentary that focuses on the myths and realities associated with the black urban pimp. Featuring rare, candid interviews with actual pimps, the film contains a brutal honesty that makes for quite an enlightening viewing experience. As they have done with their previous work, the Hughes brothers pull no punches in bringing their subject matter to the screen. AMERICAN PIMP is at once an important historical document and an entertaining documentary.
Plot Summary
After their mainstream commercial successes (MENACE II SOCIETY, DEAD PRESIDENTS), this documentary from twin brothers Allen and Albert Hughes feels like a labor of love. The subjects are pimps, and they don't mind the attention. In fact, it's not long before the jewelry, cars, clothes, and even women take a backseat to the barrage of explanations, instructions, and anecdotes unleashed by macks and players from all over the United States. That they are exploiting women--as evidenced by the testimony of white "squares" at the beginning of the film--is rationalized by the almost-all-black pimps, who live by their own code of ethics on the margins of a society that they claim needs them. Men with names such as Gorgeous Dre, Fillmore Slim, and Bishop Don Magic Juan (who proudly displays photographs he took with Donald Trump and Marion Barry) take the viewer through the origins of pimping, pimp style, and the ups and downs of dealing with the prostitutes--who don't even get a cut. Through it all, the Hughes brothers intercut the blaxploitation films that not only popularized pimps in the public imagination but were based on the culture of real pimps and in turn inspired a new generation to become pimps themselves.
| Features | Spanish Subtitles | | English Audio | | Spanish Audio | | Widescreen Version | | Enhanced For 16X9 TV | | French Subtitles | | Interactive Menus | | Interviews | | Scene Access |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: MGM |
| Release Date: 7/30/2002 |
| Running Time: 87 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1999 | | Catalog ID: 1001189 | | UPC: 00027616854803 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Sundance Film Festival (1999) | | | Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes, Nominee, Grand Jury Prize |
|
| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"...A terse, skillfully edited documentary..." 06/12/2000 p.E17Entertainment Weekly
"...An eye-opening documentary exposé....Supple and engrossing..." -- Rating:B 06/16/2000 p.60 Box Office
"...Stylishly made..." 04/01/1999 p.229 Los Angeles Times
"...A documentary as revealing as it is disturbing, one that engrosses as it at times repulses, a film that shifts from one moment to the next from the outrageously funny to the just plain outrageous..." 06/09/2000 p.C14 L.A. Times 8 of 10
...as effective for what it doesn't say as for what it does, inviting the audience to draw its own conclusions... as revealing as it is disturbing, one that engrosses as it at times repulses, a film that shifts from one moment to the next from the outrageously funny to the just plain outrageous. - Kevin Thomas
San Francisco Chronicle 7 of 10
..a sassy, raunchy, ultimately sad view of the pimp ...lushly entertaining, and its subjects are terrific storytellers with style to burn... - Edward Guthmann
|
| |
|
|
|
