American Meth
February. 26,2008Actor Val Kilmer narrates this powerful film exploring the methamphetamine epidemic that's ravaged blue-collar America. Putting a human face on the problem, filmmaker Justin Hunt reveals the damage being done by this rural drug of choice, as well as the steps being taken by communities across the nation to wipe out the scourge. From Wyoming to New Mexico, Montana and Oregon, American Meth paints a picture of both devastation and hope.
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Reviews
Simply A Masterpiece
Nice effects though.
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
This documentary is pretty bad . It does not appear to have a point other than to get a cop, a counselor, politicians some junkies on tape. The more f-ed up the junkies and the more abusive they are to the poor children they have the better . did anyone on the crew ever think of calling child services , or getting these people into rehab or something ? hell no , they were white trash gold ! i do see the merit of an attempt to show how this stuff affect families , but allowing these people to continue living like animals than people of the 21st century , all this while letting their naked children eat garbage and play outside in winter without shirts or pants, tends to turn this already shaky and irrelevant piece of documentary filmmaking into a sort of shock film that is useless to anyone except those who have a hard on for tragedy . i'm in no way saying that a filmmaker should narc on his subjects , but i do see the perversity of pointing out what is basically child abuse , while sitting in that house and drinking your latte. 2 out of 10 because it could have been much better but not much worse
The problem with this documentary is it shows things from the POV of a cop on his beat rather than a sociological wide view of the issue. The conclusions it makes are due to this narrow scope. The fact is if law enforcement decriminalized this disease, all profit motive woukd be taken away from all the pushers in Mexico looking to expand their drug and crime related enterprises. You realky have to wonder where the line between law enforcement and criminality exists, if it does at all. If the law enforcement managers and top officers had the best interests of a community at heart, they would decriminalize this as well as the more profitable drug, cocaine. I understand why dumb beat cops will never see it this way, their perspective is to close to the problem at hand. However, when the ivy league educated managers of the law enforcement system continue the prohibition of illegal substances, with the knowledge of what prohibitions means for the black market businesses across the border, you have to wonder if at least these officers are making decisions to benefit their industry and employees over the interests of the innocent community members they police, if not out right collusion with black market business and their many employees both in Mexico and across the border. You really have to wonder who the police are for, themselves or the communities they happen to police. Increasingly, e police force is becoming more and more separate from the locality it serves, with specialized pros being bused in from other regions. It seems that the national police force is taking cues from China and other despotic countries, which find it easy to coerce police into oppressing citizens due to the targeted recruitment rural bumpkins to police urban areas like Beijing or city dweller to police rural areas. The way Tianemien Square worked was because the army used to quash the democratic urban dwellers was composed of uneducated rural farm boys who had no literacy let alone a college degree, As long as we the tax payers stay out of our community police forces' business, they will continue to increasing detach themselves and eventually become more similar to an hired security force rather than an integral part of a communities health and well being- which is what they used to be-remember being a police officer used to he something that. Was respected!!!
What was billed as a chilling portrait into a lethal drug instead shows us a novice filmmaker who is addicted to cross dissolves. This movie is poorly conceived, poorly shot, and edited like a first year student project. The subject matter deserves much, much better. Pacing is dreadfully slow, editing is alternately clunky and sometimes nonexistent to the point that it feels like the movie forgets anyone is trying to watch it. Long, unedited interview clips try your patience as shot after shot just dissolve into the next. No artistry. No sense of storytelling. Some absolutely ridiculous ECU framing on interview subjects. Rookie mistakes, like poorly placed microphones picking up shirt noise and staging interviews next to what sound like busy highways. No connective logic between segments. The filmmaker also unnecessarily inserts himself into the project on numerous occasions, which only serves to provide the viewer with a face to blame.I'm an avid documentary watcher and believe that the meth epidemic in this country needs to be addressed. This is well intentioned but poorly executed, and I'm not sorry to say that I turned it off after 45 minutes.
I am not a big fan of traditional documentaries; they need something unique besides content to keep my interest. American Meth has little of that in it's rambling production from users to law enforcement officials to politicians to an intimate inside look at an American Meth family. But that that said, the locations are not what u expect - small town working class America where one would expect a rosy Palin story instead of one of ex-Christians hooked and trying to raise kids. The inside story of the trailer park family is touching, and seems real and telling of a society crumbling, without saying it's crumbling. But as mentioned in another review, the trailer park sequence is just too long...you forget the rest of the drama while stuck in the inside drama of trailer trash.