(1999) 3 Brian J. Dillard In this era of hip-hop ubiquity and voracious recycling of the past, blaxploitation chic has so permeated music, TV, films, and fashion that pimp mythology is sometimes difficult to put aside. In their first documentary foray, however, Menace II Society filmmakers Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes use this pop-culture lens as a point of departure, contrasting their outrageous collection of interview subjects with historical footage and Hollywood clips. The result is a film as disturbing and thought-provoking as it is humorous and wildly entertaining. Like many documentaries about controversial topics, American Pimp walks a fine line between presenting its subjects unflinchingly and glorifying their sometimes despicable actions and beliefs. In fact, given the self-aggrandizing fashions and mannerisms adopted by both the media's imagined, archetypal pimps and their real-life counterparts, it would be difficult to make a film about the subject that couldn't be accused of promoting the lifestyle. Yet the contradictions in the pimps' own stories provide a subtle layer of subtext, lacing the men's breezy narratives of money, power, and respect with an undercurrent of self-delusion and at least a modicum of gender equity. One pimp ends up in prison; another marries his final whore and becomes a suburban telemarketing manager. The notion that pimping is just a mirror image of American capitalism is carried out in the men's hunger for money and their constant allusions to "the game." Some of the film's plentiful laughs are the result of ironic cross-cutting, but most come from the "I can't believe he just said that" school. When one pimp, discussing his code of ethics, declares proudly that he's never stolen anything "but a bitch's mind," the line is as likely to provoke disgust as it is laughter. Unfortunately, though, actual women are in short supply in American Pimp, and interviews with prostitutes few and far between. For a movie that raises such interesting questions about representations of black men in the American media, the film could have used a few more conversations with real-life women. As is, however, American Pimp sheds light on an aspect of our culture so pervasive yet hidden that it's worth seeing just for the chance to hear these men speak out. As with most documentaries, the film itself is only the beginning of the conversation.

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American Pimp (1999)

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American Pimp

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Sexual Situations

genres

Culture & Society

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category

Documentary

directed by

countries

USA

release date

June 9, 2000 (USA - Limited)

run time

86 min.

produced by

Underworld Entertainment

released by

Seventh Art Releasing

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by Mark Deming synopsis

Allen Hughes and Albert Hughes made their debut as documentary filmmakers in this examination of a previously unexplored side of the American sex industry. As its title suggests, American Pimp offers a look at American pimps -- who they are, what they do, and why they do it. A number of real-life pimps (with names like Filmore Slim, C-Note, and Gorgeous Dre) explain the financial and psychological relationships between pimps and prostitutes, while clips from classic blaxploitation films of the '70s (including The Mack and Willie Dynamite) contrast the Hollywood perception of African-American pimps with the flashy but somewhat different reality of the Hughes brothers' subjects. American Pimp allows these denizens of the sexual underworld to speak for themselves, mostly without editorial judgment from the filmmakers. The film premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.

characteristics

- Prostitute/prostitution

- Power

- Prostitutes

- Streetwalker

- Whore

- Pimp

- Lifestyle

- Call-girl

- Courtesan

- Hooker

- Inner City Blues

- African-American

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