Product Details

• Actors: Too $hort, John S. Dickson, Antonio Fargas, Heidi Fleiss, L. Hammond
• Directors: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes
• Producers: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes, Kevin J. Messick, Spencer Franklin
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: July 10, 2001
• Run Time: 87 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630601229X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #313,235 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There's a fascinating film to be made about the pimp culture and the myth of the outlaw sexual entrepreneur. American Pimp, a slick and entertaining but rather timid documentary by filmmaking brother act Allen and Albert Hughes (Menace 2 Society, Dead Presidents) isn't quite it, but it's a captivating document nonetheless. Flashy, garrulous real-life characters with names like Charm, Rosebudd, Too $hort, C-Note, and the "internationally known" Bishop Don Magic Juan take over their interviews with silver-tongued charm, spinning self-aggrandizing, often contradictory stories of life in the trade. The Hughes never challenge those contradictions and give only token representation to the women in the life (who have either bought into the myth or are too cowed to say differently). Apart from a few unguarded statements by less cagey subjects, the film avoids the seedy flip side to the so-called benevolent relationship between pimp and "ho." More to the Hughes' point is the fluid relationship between media image (as celebrated in such blaxploitation classics such as The Mack and Willie Dynamite) and street image. Simultaneously embracing and decrying their outlaw status, these pimps transform themselves into peacocklike fashion statements inspired by the very images they find so denigrating. They are undeniably dynamic characters playing out a bizarre fantasy of wealth, power, and swaggering sexuality, but if the film shows the cracks in their masks, it never manages to reveal the men under the money or expose the fallacy behind the fantasy. --Sean Axmaker

From The New Yorker

A relatively straightforward documentary that charts, in lurid, gritty color, one of the more constant and perplexing real-life metaphors in American cultural life-the black pimp. The Hughes brothers, who made their name with "Menace II Society," a rather sentimental evocation of ghetto life in Los Angeles, don't have any big ideas here, either. The film is an indictment of and a romance about black male life, ˆ la Robert Mapplethorpe's totemic portraits of black male genitalia, and only incidentally reveals the paradox of pimphood: the terror, self-importance, and ultimate impotence inherent in being powerful in a small, underground patch of the American dream. The movie is too clinical to be poetic and too solipsistic to be insightful; the most arresting thing about it is the language of the denizens of the night, which amounts to a form of jazz. -Hilton Als
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You want real EDUTAINMENT??? You GOT IT., October 10, 2000

By 

Ed Trillo "<3 Ed!" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Pimp (DVD)

If this film can be summed up into one word, it's "Edutainment". Believe it or not, this film is not only immensely entertaining, but it is educational as well. All our lives we've seen images of pimps in TV shows and movies, dressed up in their purple snakeskin outfits and acting like clowns - but "American Pimp" illustrates what real-life pimps are really like.

Ok, so some of the pimps ARE a bunch of guys dressed up in purple outfits acting like clowns, but this documentary shows the side of "pimpin'" that you've never seen. You'll learn about "the game" and how pimps get "knocked" for not keeping tight reins on their "hoes." You'll also see how their girls work day and night making hundreds, even thousands of dollars, and then handing it all over to their pimps without even getting the slightest share in profits.

Why do the girls do this? Why to pimps do what they do? WHAT exactly are pimps? Well watch "American Pimp" and you'll be educated and entertained like never before on the age-old profession of "pimpin".

This documentary ranks up there with "When They Were Kings!" It's a MUST HAVE for any DVD collection!

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars HMM..., July 5, 2002

By 

J. Johnson "capricornrising1" (CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Pimp (DVD)

Earlier this year,I happened to catch a HBO documentary on the lives of prostitutes in the Bronx area of Hunts' Point and was blown away.It was a rare showcase of the pysche of a hooker.
Most of the time,those type of documentaries are filmed from the point of view of the pimp not the prostitutes.
Hence,this documentary from one of my favorite directors,Allen
& Albert Hughes entitled "American Pimp".

"American Pimp" is both fasanating and disturbing.Showcasing years worth of famous pimps.From the well-known Bishop Don Magic Juan(glamourized by rappers such as Ice-T,Snoop Dogg,
Jay-Z,and Ludacris) and Too $hort to lesser knowns such as Charm and Rosebudd.
I found Bishop Don Magic Juan the most intresting pimp because
he seemed proud of his success.He even compares his wealth(courtsey of pimping) as "The American Dream".Which is a VERY intresting view.I also found it intresting when his mother and sister were featured and they were proud of his success as well.

Juan-like the other pimps featured-has a strange mix of charm,wit,self-assureness of dubious effects.You know that these men aren't to be exactly idolized yet they're charming and somewhat likeable.
Also noteworthy was the montage of the mainstream media's images of pimps.A lot of which borders on the offensive.
Blaxplotation films such as "Willie Dynamite","Superfly",and
"The Mack" glorified pimping.And rap artists have always adopted pimp tatics in their music and/or image to be cool.
Again,this is eyebrow raising stuff.

The Hughes Brothers pulled off this documentary well,I must say.
They didn't rely on tired sterotypes or cartoonish protrayals.
Altough I would've liked to have seen more commentary from the female/prostitute's prespective,"American Pimp" is a very intresting documentary that can't be missed.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars American Pimp review...., July 23, 2000

By 

Derrick A. Cameron (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Pimp [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Excellent depiction of the life of pimping from the Hughes Brothers, who are immensely talented filmmakers and earn their documentary stripes with this work. The life is a little glorified in this movie more than it should be, but I think the Hughes Brothers do a wonderful job of trying to show all of the aspects and dimensions of pimp life across the nation, not just one city. The pimps, and whatever you might think about them, have charisma, and although you might not care about them, they are very interesting to watch, which is all you can ask of a movie with this kind of subject. Wonderful effort and it is too bad that it wasn't widely distributed.