Outlaw Comic: The Censoring of Bill Hicks

June. 15,2003      
Rating:
7.8
Trailer Synopsis Cast

A biographical documentary on the late great comedian Bill Hicks and his career; in particular the censorship by Letterman that scarred it.

Bill Hicks as  Self (archive footage)
Janeane Garofalo as  Self - Host

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Reviews

Lawbolisted
2003/06/15

Powerful

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Sameer Callahan
2003/06/16

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

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Gary
2003/06/17

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

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Cristal
2003/06/18

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

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justin-h
2003/06/19

This DVD/documentary is a rare insight into the battle against censorship that the great Bill Hicks waged against corporate America and it's mainstream media for the better part of 15 years.Hosted by Janeane Garofalo, it documents Bill's transition from a non-drinking, non- smoking, straight laced funny man, to a hard drinking, hard smoking, drug taking angry ranter, to the happy and finally, peaceful and insightful man of much wisdom.After 11 successful appearances on The Tonight Show with David Lettermen, the 'powers that be' axed Bill's final performance from the show.4 months later, Bill would tragically die from prostate cancer at the age of 32.This DVD/documentary is a must for all true Hicks fans, and for anyone wanting to learn more about Bill's career, and his battle with our individual freedom.The only gripe i have with it, and as stated by another user, is that this documentary, is itself, censored, which, considering the content of this film, is not only ironic, but disrespectful.All things considered, I highly recommend it.

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dogpound_dogsofwar
2003/06/20

I agree. If they we're going to tackle Bill Hicks, why didn't they go hog wild?! Shock value, especially pertaining to everything Bill said, is necessary! Any attempt to censor, much less divert away from his opinions concerning taboo topics (abortion, government, religion and sex, to name a few), hinders the chance of the viewer wanting to dig deeper into this visionary! Overall, the documentary was done well. But Trio should have stayed true to the theme.

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justinc79
2003/06/21

I must say, this documentary was very well made. It featured footage of the late, great Bill Hicks I had never seen before and told details of his life I had never known about. In fact, there's only one problem about the documentary: it was presented on basic cable.Trio! aired this during their "Uncensored Comedy" month. The really great thing is, get this, everything aired during the month was completely edited. Do you realize how hypocritical it is to release a documentary on why it was wrong to censor a genius like Bill Hicks, only to censor him once again post-mortem? Comedy Central has gotten away with airing severely offensive material, such as South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, without any problems. If Trio was planning on censoring this, they should have never claimed it was uncensored.The best example of this occurs during the end credit. Footage of Hicks flipping off the crowd is shown with his middle fingers obscured by large bars reading "CENSORED", while Trio's UNCENSORED Comedy month logo gleams in the lower right corner.Great idea, great documentary, but full of bad choices of editing. Maybe in the future, a truly uncensored version of this documentary will be seen.

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