American Pop

Summary

“You could be a star.”

Animated films aimed at more mature audiences are not extremely common in America. While Asian audiences have been appreciative of more mature animated fare for decades, America has rarely embraced the notion of mature cartoons. Ralph Bakshi would certainly be amongst the best known American filmmakers to successfully craft animated films for mature audiences. His career was marked by his adaptations of R. Crumb’s work in Fritz the Cat, his adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, his fantasy films Fire and Ice and Wizards, and his career defining sci-fi fantasy film Heavy Metal. With American Pop, Bakshi aimed to make a film that tracked the lives of four generations of Russian Jewish immigrants while also showing the ways in which the times they lived in shaped popular music. Utilizing rotoscoping animation to bring a realism to the motions of the characters, the film still looks interesting over forty years later. Many considered American Pop to be Bakshi’s best film, so it makes good sense that Sony has given the film a Blu-ray release. Fans of the film can feel good about finally retiring their old DVD copies after a very long wait.

Spoiler Alert: Given that this film very quickly runs through four generations worth of stories in under an hour and a half, my plot synopsis reveals far more than I ordinarily would. I would recommend skipping my plot synopsis unless you have seen the picture already.

American Pop begins in Imperial Russia in the late 1890s. A rabbi’s wife and her son Zalmie escape to America to flee the Cossacks. The rabbi is slain as they flee. In New York City, Zalmie (who now goes by Tommy) gets a job handing out chorus lines for a man named Louie. He soaks up the atmosphere of the dance houses. His mother dies in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and he is taken under the wing of Louie completely. Tommy becomes a singer. Overseas, working with Louie in an act, Tommy gets shot in the throat. Tommy, with his dreams of being a singer shattered, becomes a comic and meets a stripper. They date and he helps her become a singer. He begins working for mobsters and she becomes pregnant. They marry. His son Benny is born during the prohibition. The mobsters go to war. Tommy’s wife is killed. Their son Benny grows up to become a good piano player, while Tommy climbs the ladder of the mob. Benny marries a mob boss’s daughter, gets her pregnant, and then enlists in World War II. When Benny is killed overseas, his wife remarries. Their young son Tony watches as Tommy testifies on television in trials (similar to the Valachi Trials.) Tony, as a teenager, goes to beat poet clubs and then heads out west. He meets a pretty blonde waitress in a diner and gets a job working as a dishwasher in Kansas. In the cornfields, he proposes that she come travel the country with him out to California, but she stays and he goes. He rides the rail out to California and lands in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. His harmonica playing gets Tony in with some pot smoking hippies. As his music writing career takes off, he becomes addicted to hard drugs. The female lead singer of the band Frankie also gets addicted to hard drugs. At a show in Kansas, Tony meets a young blonde boy named Little Pete. He recognizes that Little Pete is his son from his night with the waitress. Frankie overdoses after Jimi Hendrix performs. With the band broken up, Tony takes Little Pete with him to New York. As Tony deals and does drugs, Pete learns guitar and plays on the street for cash. Tony steals the little money he makes for drugs. He ends up pawning Pete’s guitar, but giving Pete the pawn ticket and some drugs to sell to get the guitar back. As a teenager, Pete is a prominent cocaine dealer. He has also written some songs that he wants to play for some studio musicians.

American Pop is almost a slam-dunk. For myself, the overall story that the film tells which weaves together all of the musical styles and numerous historical events over the course of its short running time is truly exceptional. The problem I had with the film was that the dialogue in the picture never seems to match the brilliance of the overarching story. In particular, the section of the film which features the Beat poet character Tony is almost unbearable as his dialogue is spoken by Ron Thompson. I think this is a case where the film will probably divide audiences in terms of their overall enjoyment of the picture. It is safe to say that Ralph Bakshi’s vision for the film is well crafted. The cel shaded animation is fluid and strikingly realistic at times thanks to the use of rotoscoping. The film visually is very secure in what it wants to attempt and for the most part succeeds on that front. Artistically, I feel like American Pop is a success. Narratively, I feel the film is for the most part a success. In terms of enjoyment of the film, parts seem to work and some moments fail to land due to the dialogue. The film has an extraordinary soundtrack that features songs by Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Bob Seger, Heart, Sex Pistols, Cole Porter, and many more. Unless a film is made by Martin Scorsese, I can’t imagine another film being able to secure this many music licenses now, which makes American Pop all the more interesting when viewed today. 

In terms of the film, I enjoyed it while lamenting that parts of it could have been so much more. In terms of the Blu-ray release by Sony, fans should be excited to see that the film has been given a big upgrade from the DVD. While some special features or an expanded soundtrack (as was done for the Blu-ray release of Heavy Metal,) could have made this release all the better, I think fans will still want to upgrade to experience the film again.

Video

Sony Pictures presents American Pop in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 in 1080p with an MPEG-4 AVC encode. This release draws on a new 4K transfer that Sony has performed of the negative. Because this animation was made using hand drawn cell animation and was shot on film, Blu-ray presents much finer detail than prior releases. The DVD release is over twenty years old, so this is a big leap forward for the film. Clarity is solid with a nice layer of very fine grain over the picture. The film has not been cleaned up to remove specking or some blemishes from the original animation. There is some specking and some color anomalies occasionally present themselves, but I personally would rather have a more detailed image than see the film scrubbed of all of its original grain structure in the process of cleaning it up. I think it is safe to say that the movie has never looked better than it does here.

Audio

Sony has provided an engaging English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo track that capably replicates the original sound design of the film. The movie has a list of notable songs from Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Bob Seger, Heart, Sex Pistols, Cole Porter, and more. The limitations of the original sound design are apparent, particularly in the recordings of the dialogue, but I think fans of the film will be satisfied with this track.

Supplements:

• None

Overall Scores: 

Video – 4/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 0/5

Overall – 3.5/5

American Pop is considered by some to be Ralph Bakshi’s best film. It is probably Ralph Bakshi’s biggest swing for the fences at a true artistic statement. The film is extremely ambitious to tackle four generations of history and music in under 96 minutes. I personally prefer some of his other works (most notably Heavy Metal,) but I am happy to see that his films are finally seeing the light of day on Blu-ray. Sony’s Blu-ray is a no frills release with only the film on the disc, but the video and audio presentation is solid and represents a big upgrade over the prior DVD release (from over twenty years ago.) For fans of the film, this release should be worth picking up. You can finally retire your old DVD!

This film can be purchased at www.moviezyng.com.