American: The Bill Hicks Story

POVZETEK

Scabrous American comedian Bill Hicks died of cancer in 1994 at the age of just 32. He was lauded in the UK but never managed to gain the same kind of success in his own country before his untimely demise. Given that the idiocies and hypocrisies of his home country formed the bulk of his often expletive-laden repertoire, that's understandable. This somewhat unenlightening documentary traces his development from a strict southern Baptist upbringing - guaranteed to produce more than the occasional rebel - through his burgeoning international success. But details about his personal life and what drove him professionally are lacking - maybe the result of the film requiring the co-operation of Hicks's family. Perhaps in the end there wasn't much more to him than his jokes, and those, as the archive footage amply attests, remain as pungently well-observed today as they were 20 years ago.