Hustle and Flow
If you liked Walk the Line and Memphis music, this is a great companion. Here we are in modern, if you call cassette tapes modern, Memphis as we watch a fabulous performance by Terrence Howard depicting a hustler on the lowest rungs of the city. He sells whatever he can: his women, his pride, weed. He's a promoter with the chutzpah of Bill Graham, Steve Jobs & Bill Gates, just with none of the other skills they possess. All he's got is raw drive and raw emotion and when he puts it into a rap, a producer friend layers the track and they go about promoting the song. The song didn't do bad. 3-6 Mafia won an Oscar for it, the first Oscar to ever go to rappers.
While watching this film I thought of lots of things I wish I'd included in my review of Walk the Line. It's about the comments of the director that, although Johnny only spent one night in jail, he wrote about prison extensively, recorded a live album at Folsom and many people think he did do hard time. But what Johnny wrote about are the prisons of our own mind. He was himself tortured by the ghost of his brother who was killed under mysterious circumstances as a child and Johnny suffered from the loss all his life. He had been very close to his brother.
But Johnny recognized all types of mental prisons and I definitely saw them at play in this film. I have known people who lived in the same type of mental prison DJ lives in. The small time hustler, always looking for some little one-up but never really understanding what is needed to make fundamental change that would alter their social status or milieu or the deeper aspects of their personality and soul.
But, the prisons small-time hustlers and tortured artists live in are not really that different from the prisons the unfulfilled housewives and workaholics live in. When I'm in book group, I always hear the women commenting on the trapped, unhappy lives of the fictional protagonists. All the while I look at these women and the walls that bind their own minds and hearts, walls they do not see. I talk to powerful businessmen who are filled with self-importance who never seem to see their lack of heart or courage or creativity or openness. I see people in prison everywhere I look. I used to live in one myself, and probably still do, in ways I don't see. Though at least I talk to people who can, and do, point out my blind spots to me.
We look into our real prisons and see a lot of guys like DJ, born into poverty they'll probably never rise above. But, DJ does try to raise himself and he does accomplish something meaningful, creative, expressive and real. I don't see people for the place they inhabit, I look at them for the distance they've travelled. I look to the efforts they have made to love, to extend themselves, to grow, to change. I look for people who are self-aware, who value self-knowledge, who can talk intelligently about their emotions, responses, childhood, family and who show an understanding of how their life experience has shaped them but moreover, who have shaped their life experiences.
I look for masters of their own destiny, who understand that they are the directors of the film of their life, and that their life is supposed to stand for something, something more than making money and using stuff. DJ, low-life that he is, shows growth, shows some love, some creativity, he's real. He's an unseen, unwanted part of our society but has meaning and redemption in his own life, so who are we to judge?
The commentary track adds a lot and I really enjoyed the film itself, particularly watching how they made the tape. 3-6 Mafia is a platinum selling rap group and represent a lot of what is going on in the south today musically. In many places, music and basketball are the only roads out and there is a lot of hip hop production in almost every city but the south has the best crunk as far as I'm concerned. I happen to love Outkast and the Atlanta scene, but each city has good solid layered tracks which are rich with sound. So check out this DVD.
While watching this film I thought of lots of things I wish I'd included in my review of Walk the Line. It's about the comments of the director that, although Johnny only spent one night in jail, he wrote about prison extensively, recorded a live album at Folsom and many people think he did do hard time. But what Johnny wrote about are the prisons of our own mind. He was himself tortured by the ghost of his brother who was killed under mysterious circumstances as a child and Johnny suffered from the loss all his life. He had been very close to his brother.
But Johnny recognized all types of mental prisons and I definitely saw them at play in this film. I have known people who lived in the same type of mental prison DJ lives in. The small time hustler, always looking for some little one-up but never really understanding what is needed to make fundamental change that would alter their social status or milieu or the deeper aspects of their personality and soul.
But, the prisons small-time hustlers and tortured artists live in are not really that different from the prisons the unfulfilled housewives and workaholics live in. When I'm in book group, I always hear the women commenting on the trapped, unhappy lives of the fictional protagonists. All the while I look at these women and the walls that bind their own minds and hearts, walls they do not see. I talk to powerful businessmen who are filled with self-importance who never seem to see their lack of heart or courage or creativity or openness. I see people in prison everywhere I look. I used to live in one myself, and probably still do, in ways I don't see. Though at least I talk to people who can, and do, point out my blind spots to me.
We look into our real prisons and see a lot of guys like DJ, born into poverty they'll probably never rise above. But, DJ does try to raise himself and he does accomplish something meaningful, creative, expressive and real. I don't see people for the place they inhabit, I look at them for the distance they've travelled. I look to the efforts they have made to love, to extend themselves, to grow, to change. I look for people who are self-aware, who value self-knowledge, who can talk intelligently about their emotions, responses, childhood, family and who show an understanding of how their life experience has shaped them but moreover, who have shaped their life experiences.
I look for masters of their own destiny, who understand that they are the directors of the film of their life, and that their life is supposed to stand for something, something more than making money and using stuff. DJ, low-life that he is, shows growth, shows some love, some creativity, he's real. He's an unseen, unwanted part of our society but has meaning and redemption in his own life, so who are we to judge?
The commentary track adds a lot and I really enjoyed the film itself, particularly watching how they made the tape. 3-6 Mafia is a platinum selling rap group and represent a lot of what is going on in the south today musically. In many places, music and basketball are the only roads out and there is a lot of hip hop production in almost every city but the south has the best crunk as far as I'm concerned. I happen to love Outkast and the Atlanta scene, but each city has good solid layered tracks which are rich with sound. So check out this DVD.
posted by Intervision at 10:23 PM
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