CREEMEDIA
Not many movie makers would dare attempt to present an 80-year socio-musical history of the United States in an hour and a half—and animated, yet. Then again, not many directorial types would have introduced themselves to feature audiences with an X-rated Fritz The Cat, or alienated the Hollywood establishment with Coonskin.
CREEMEDIA
Ralph Bakshi On American Pop
by Toby Goldstein
Not many movie makers would dare attempt to present an 80-year socio-musical history of the United States in an hour and a half—and animated, yet. Then again, not many directorial types would have introduced themselves to feature audiences with an X-rated Fritz The Cat, or alienated the Hollywood establishment with Coonskin. Ralph Bakshi, whose latest film portrait is a challenging, painfully estatic movie called American Pop, has done all of the above, and more.
A jovial bear of a man whose Brooklyn accent has not been tempered by a decade of Los Angeles living, Bakshi eats controversy like corn flakes. His fundamental Truths are expressed so boisterously, an opponent had better have her facts ready, and fast. “Music is totally allegorical,” he booms. “Y’know music doesn’t create a period, the period creates the music, I think. I don’t think the Beatles created the 60’s.