Jackass: The Movie (2002)
"Being a dumbass can be fun. Being
a JACKASS is holy" - stu-22 on imdb.com
Okay - this one is really easy.
If you like the MTV show "Jackass," you'll like this
film. If you hate it or have become bored with it,
the same will probably play true for this film. If,
however, you're like me and you've only see the show
once or (perhaps even) never, maybe you need some
help deciding if this is a film you'd want to see.
Now let me also say this: If you
think you want to see the film, hurry and do so now.
Every review you read (including this one) and every
conversation you have about this film is going to
spoil things for you. Not knowing some of the "stunts"
performed here in advance of seeing the film is paramount
to enjoying it fully. You have been warned!
I've only watched the show on TV
once, and only for about 10 minutes or so. The show
caught my eye when I was flipping through the channels
and there was a rather nice looking guy in a sumo
diaper (which kept falling down) wrestling with the
real thing. This caught my eye because of one thing:
half- naked male flesh. When the segment was over,
I turned the channel. It wasn't long after this that
I heard people talking about the show and got the
general concept of what it was about, namely typical
dumbass guys doing stupid stuff but in the context
of a sort of "stunt" show.
Our entree to this sort of idea
seems to have first been presented by Tom Green who,
on his MTV show, used to do stupid stunt-like stuff
(Steve Allen without his meds) and fuck around with
surprising his staid parents a lot. I have to admit
that I liked some of Tom Green's stuff even though
it often bugged me. And it was often seemingly far
too mean spirited. If I were his parents, I think
I might have moved, changed my name and prayed to
God he never found me again.
Anyway, "Jackass," has some of these
elements. For example, in the film, one of the "Jackass"
guys (there are several dumb, 20-something, typical,
idiotic, overaged frat-boys in the "cast) puts a live
alligator in his parent's kitchen so he can get his
uptight mother to say "fuck" on camera. (She does.)
He also sets up a hidden camera aimed at the family
toilet and then goes in and attacks his father when
he sits down to take a dump. This is stupid, been
done before, been done better before, stuff.
But, for the most part, the "stunts"
in this film are amazing. Sure, they are base, idiotic,
frat-boy type ideas, but they are also as creative
as hell. You have to see some of these ideas played
out to believe how insane they are. They run the gamut
from these drunk guys in their hotel room giving each
other paper cuts (on purpose in the webbing of their
toes and fingers) to a guy who sticks a Matchbox car
in a condom up his ass and then goes an has an X-ray
simply to capture the X-ray technician's reaction
on camera. (He later shits the thing back out for
our visual enjoyment). This Matchbox car segment is
the climax of the film. This is the height of idiotic
frat-boy pleasure the film enacts, a guy stuffing
a toy car up his ass, getting an X-ray and then shitting
it out. This is the penultimate in the minds of the
"Jackasses."
Now, watching the film is often
like attending the most absurd drunken-frat-boy orgy
you can imagine. These guys are idiots, no doubt.
But, again, I had to respect the ideas these guys
came up with and executed. Some of them are interesting
and complicated. Some of them are just plain stupid
and yet they are still as interesting as hell. Don't
get me wrong, I would never want to hang out with
these guys; their favorite practical joke is taking
a pair of hair clippers set on 0 (zero) and shaving
chunks out of unsuspecting friends scalps, commando
style, while also holding a camera and capturing the
prank on video. This kind of shit irritates the fuck
out of me in real life. I hate people into practical
jokes. I think it's dumb. And yet, again, this film
held me captivated for almost 90 minutes!
In many ways, "Jackass" is an adequate
and clear representation of a segment of our society
and therefore, in many ways, "Jackass" can be construed
as a sociological experiment. Here, with no daring
on our own part, we are allowed entrance to these
stupid frat-boy parties and become part of them through
the magic of video. It is like a voyeuristic opportunity
to see these beer-guzzling, seemingly mindless dolts
in their natural habitat engaging in the most inane
of party tricks. It is a segment of society, the post-
adolescent male, engaging in these male bonding rituals
that are surely a staple of their existence yet one
which we, as outsiders, rarely get to view. These
guys are in a state of retarded adolescence and retarded
sociological growth. They are Peter Pan, drunk on
Miller (product placement) beer and operating on as
few brain cells as seemingly humanly possible.
Up until now, these orgiastic, low-brow,
homoerotic moments have been reserved almost exclusively
to the participant's memories, coveted personal video
tapes, and sordid Internet stories. Now, we get to
see this stuff and experience exactly what it is like
to be a drunken, stupid, closet-case frat-boy almost
first-hand. As a gay man, I can tell you, this is
fascinating and titillating stuff.
Which leads me to the homeroticism
included in the film. What gay man hasn't read sexually
explicit fiction on the Internet about frat-boy parties
turned orgy? This is the stuff of cock-hardening fantasy.
"Jackass" is our glimpse into this world. There is
much male nudity (including some minor flashes of
semi-flacid penis) in the film. The guys who engage
in these stunts often seem to enjoy appearing in jock-
straps, underwear and G-strings, if they are not completely
nude. In gay culture, the participants here would
be what we used to call "rough trade." That is, they
are tattooed, muscular but not inordinately buff,
guy-next-door-looking young men. Although the stunts
they perform never become expressions of sexuality
in the traditional sense, the underlying homoeroticism
of these gatherings and some of the events undertaken
cannot be denied.
If the pure comfortableness of their
nearly-naked flesh while in each other's company is
not enough to confirm this idea, then let's talk about
some of the stunts undertaken here. The Matchbox car
is not the only example of the male anus as something
used to hold something else in the film. In an earlier
segment, one of the guys (Steve-O, my favorite to
look at) shoots bottle rockets out of his asshole
while laying on the ground with his knees held firmly
to his chest. Later, in this same segment, a bottle
rocket is attached by a string to another man's penis
and then shot into the sky. And then, finally, the
symbolic homosexual moment is enacted where these
two events are united and the man shooting off the
bottle rocket from his ass is connected, by the sexually
implied umbilical cord-like string, to the penis of
the other man and then sent skyward (like a symbolic
erection and/or orgasm). If this isn't the gayest
thing you've ever seen (other than gay porn), I can't
imagine what would be.
This is, in many ways, the gayest
mainstream film I have ever seen. The male-bonding
rituals undertaken here are glaring in their obvious
homoeroticism. In the comfort of my own home, and
not in a movie theater full of people, I would probably
become sexually aroused watching this film.
If there is anything to dislike
here, it is, perhaps, the sometimes cruel nature of
these stunts and how they come to be enacted. Although
the participants here are all adults who take part
in the activities of their own accord, there is some
obvious name-calling and psychological manipulation
taking place behind-the-scenes which occassionally
makes its way unto the finished cut of the film. For
example, Steve-O refuses to do the Matchbox car stunt
and yet talks about it on screen while his is subtly
chided by his cohorts. Also, there are some midgets
and enormously fat guys involved in the stunts whose
inherent physicality are the butts of the jokes themselves.
Again, these are adults who take part in these activities
of their own free will but they often come across
as "carnival freaks" in some sort-of modern day sideshow.
It is manipulative and exploitative and, let's face
it, cruel.
The only seemingly real "victims"
of these stunts, however, are the numerous animals
who are used in some of them. Granted, these animals
are never put into real danger, per se, but their
usage is nonetheless troubling. They may not be abused,
but they are used aggressively against their will
(animals cannot give permission, of course). The alligators,
sea urchins, whales, and wild cats that appear in
the film have their "personal space" invaded by these
"Jackasses" and it is, unquestionably, wrong. This
was the only true "problem" I had with the film.
We have reached a point in this
sociological situation we call life on planet Earth
where it has seemingly all been done. There is nothing
new anymore. We grasp desperately for new sensations,
new experiences, new ideas and new thrills. The circus
became showmanship became the sideshow became Jim
Rose became "Jackass." This film, perhaps more than
any other ever produced, shows our psychological and
physiological need, as males living in the modern
world, to not only bond with our fellow males but
to express the closeness that used to be exhibited
naturally in the group hunt and the gathering around
the fire. Caveman became hunter became frat-boy became
Kiwanas became "Jackass." And then as well, raw animal
sexuality became hug became handshake became prank
became frat-boy antics became anal sex became hug
again became "Jackass."
Anarchistic and disturbing, in many
ways, this film may be the best film ever in suggesting
male aggression, male bonding, male sexuality and
male psychology in the post- millennium, supposedly
civilized world. It is no accident that there is hardly
a real female (with the exception of mother figure
and random bystander) anywhere near the camera in
"Jackass."
Note:
Guest stars include Spike Jonze,
Henry Rollins, Rip Taylor and Tony Hawk.
Directed by Jeff Tremaine. The main
"Jackass" is Johnny Knoxville.
Several MTV type rock songs are
used well throughout the film to accentuate the action.
The "Acting" in the Report Card
below takes into account that it is possible that
much of this film (as well as the entire "Jackass"
TV-show) may be staged and phony.
Viewed in October 2002 at a sneak
preview in Austin with Melissa and Ashton. Corey and
Martin from the "Reel Deal" also attended. There was
some new Paramount rep who made me tell her who I
was and give her information about the site.
