Stephen Alfieri I remember seeing Bill Hicks perform on various HBO specials in the early - mid '80's. I'd seen him a couple of times on Letterman, and didn't think any more about him, until I had heard that he died at the age of 32 from pancreatic cancer.I'll admit, I was never a big fan of his. I thought that other comedians were doing somewhat similar material, and doing it better. So I watched this "documentary" to see if I could learn what I was missing or not "getting" about Hicks.I'm not sure I was missing anything. This documentary does a fine job of telling you about his origins, and his life and the people he knew. But it does not inform you as to what he believed drove his comedy. It also doesn't discuss the inner demons that he fought or explain why, after working so many years to build a career, he would just walk away from it, just because his act was edited.His "rants" were not the stuff of Lenny Bruce or George Carlin. His talk of drugs was not as clever as Robin Williams or Sam Kinison. So the viewer is left still not able to understand why people love his comedy.The film is told thru stop action animation, which is clever at first, but gets old real fast. It is hard to understand who is doing the talking, because actual live faces or names are rarely flashed on the screen.On the whole, I'm glad I saw the film, but very disappointed with not having any greater insight to the man after having viewed it.6 out of 10

sponge3 This documentary is very in depth but it's focus on still photography/animation left me wanting more. The story of Bill's life is definitely covered very thoroughly but I almost felt like this could have been an audio book. I enjoyed it but would have liked to (visually) see more interviews, Bill's comic sets and video of real life people that would get you to know Bill.I just felt it could have been done better but you do get to know "the guy". IMDb requires ten lines of text for a review so I will have to fluff this review with garbage in order to have this review be approved. Are we there yet?

Craig Holmes I am an enormous Bill Hicks fan. Obsessively so. I think I have all the bootlegged concerts on my computer, and a DVD of rariety camcorder shows as well as enough official CDs and DVDs that I have basically all his material available in one form or another. I also have about three books - two biographies and a book of transcripts and scripts and other writings. So that's the background I took into this documentary.First of all, it's a beautiful film to look at. There's the usual audio history going on in the background, but what the directors have done is taken still photographs and created pseudo-animated sequences to support the narrative. It's odd at first, but very quickly you stop even noticing that the still faces aren't moving in their animated environment. Very clever.Secondly, where has all this new footage come from? There are several camcorder recordings which must go back as far as the early 1980s that I have never seen before. There's some bits (about his father) which I'd never heard before which were used to accompany the section on his early shows. I don't think they are quite as old as that (he looks a bit older than 16) but it's not far off. Some of these early clips also show later material in an earlier form - like the fantasy about the grotesque death of woman that broke his heart seeing him on the Tonight Show as she breathed her last.The best thing about the film, however, is they way everything is brought back to the comedy. With enough reading, you'd already know about the drug stories and the depths of his alcohol abuse and his tragic early death from pancreatic cancer. While all of these are important parts of the story, no-one dwells on the more sensational details, but instead uses them in partnership with recordings to show how they motivated what he was doing on stage. There's clips to show him drinking excessively on stage, clips about his growing dislike of governments (including from Hicks and Kevin Booth's trip to Waco in 1993), clips contrasting his rapturous reception in the UK (the huge rock and roll entrance of the Revelations show at the Dominion theatre) adjacent to the small audiences ("staring blankly back at me like a dog that had been shown a card trick") of a backwater comedy club in the US South. I like this because it feels like the best use of the documentary medium, and gives fresh insight into a topic I (and many other fans) already know well. I mean, I can read and re-read an autobiography of his life but only in a film can I really see the effect on his work. Very much recommended, for disciples and neophytes alike.

web-accs *...Who knows?.. I'm sure he would appreciate the fact that it is, at least, the truth.If anyone has not yet experienced any of Mr. Hick's incredibly funny, artistic and sometimes groundbreaking performances, expressing his ideas, opinions and beliefs through the medium of Stand Up comedy then (unless you are from another planet...) I would have to ask; "where have you been and what exactly have you been doing with your life??.."Although this was pretty well made and mostly interesting it is more a homage by his family and closest friends about his upbringing and his life from their point of view, not a detailed dissection of all his work and media appearances. It is also, perhaps, just a final gesture to the many fans to maybe set the record straight on a couple of minor details and to publicize his life again for a new generation of fans... Which, in an age of misinformation, illegal wars and rapid global change is, I think personally, very very important.It fails miserably however to really express just how great this man is and why he is revered by many as a genius and by most, not least his peers, as one of 'the' (sadly)rare and truly important artists in the relatively short history of the form. To be this is really a companion piece to the live recordings and the various other media floating around in the virtual ether.I gave it 8 out of ten just for the possibility that it will encourage some new fans to watch his stand up, learn about him and hopefully, more about the world around them in a humorous way.To me he still is a truly genuine human being in a world full of fake, fallacy and fear.An inspiration to anyone who believes in logic, reason, individuality, equality, the freedom to choose and that love is about the human race as one.Enjoy... :)