"Pussy is gonna sell when cotton and corn don't!" - Fillmore, a 70 year old pimp in "American Pimp."

This one is impossible to talk about. This documentary by brothers Allen and Albert Hughes about pimps is one of the most vile, repulsive, degrading, inhuman and suspect films I have ever seen. Only listening to the directors in a Q&A after the film did I begin to see some light through the darkness. And I think that means the film is flawed. Because at the end of it, I was more angry and disgusted by a film than I had been in a long time.

Yes, this film interviews honest-to-God pimps. And many of them look like the stereotypical pimp. In photographs and modern day interviews, we see these abominable creatures as we expect to see them. The 70's photographs look like the Costume Designers stills from a film make by Jack Hill. The modern day images are those of rapper wannabees. It's no surprise when images from 70's films like "The Mack" or "Willie Dynamite" pop up on the screen. And no stereotypical notion about these characters is ever dispelled.

What is so distasteful about "American Pimp" is hearing the subjects talk to women and about women. They seem to take gleeful delight in subjugating them, demeaning and dehumanizing them. They speak about females as if they were retarded children. It's putrid. In the Q&A, the Hughes discuss how most of the girls who are with these pimps are emotionally or mentally challenged. But we see only glimpses of the girls in the film and this area of the story is not traversed, so the film has a huge gaping hole in it. In focusing on pimps, it suggest that their thoughts and actions are valid. I agree that documentaries are best if impartial. This is not impartial. It only gives one side of the story; The pimps side. It glorifies pimps into God-like movie stars. It's unforgivable.

The pimps are shown to be real and despicable indeed. But it is also obvious that they realize that they are on camera. They ham it up uncontrollably. The Hughes seem to let it all splay across the screen with glee. We can almost hear them salivate behind the camera. How can we accept this disgusting film as valid and real when we can tell the participants are over-exaggerating for effect, for the camera? How can we accept the statements they make and the opinions they give as factual when they are obviously manipulators and bullshit artists? There is no voice of reason here. It's a huge gaping hole in the film's logic. It negates any impact the film might have.

The film does try to show other sideline ideas here and there. A few interviews with female prostitutes are allowed on the screen but it is far too little to justify the abhorrent tirades of the pimps we are forced to endure here. Legalized prostitution in Nevada is discussed briefly with a owner of a "legal" brothel. It seems like a highly pleasant alternative to the garbage we have to suffer through in most of the film.

What is most repulsive and despicable about "American Pimp" is the laughter it evokes from it's viewers, which will mainly be college aged males. It does nothing to open their minds. Rather, it closes them and makes them believe the most vile and revolting things imaginable. About women, about men, about sex, about money and about America.

The Hughes Brothers should be ashamed. Who wants to watch a film about human garbage?

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