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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A captivating, hypnotic documentary exposing a part of Las Vegas I knew nothing about., April 14, 2010 This review is from: STRIPPED: Greg Friedler's Naked Las Vegas (DVD) I caught this documentary on Showtime and couldn't change the channel. I've been to Vegas about twenty times and, admittedly, I haven't given much thought to the people who actually live there. WOW.
When in Vegas, I'm usually so caught up in my own pleasure (and then regretful pain), I have no reason to shed brain cells on anything but gambling and partying. What I didn't realize is there is a motley population of people who call that place home: people with hopeless dreams of stardom; seemingly happy people with 9-5 jobs; people who are running away from something; people who would give anything to run somewhere else.
Artist Greg Friedler makes Las Vegas the destination where he completes the final book in his "Naked" series: "Naked Las Vegas." Filmmaker David Palmer documents Friedler's journey. I don't know much about this book series, but what Friedler did was photograph approximately 150 people with their clothes on and then completely nude. This is where the documentary gets so intoxicating. Once these random people take their clothes off in front the camera, they feek obligated to divulge the most intimate details of their bizarre lives... to a total stranger! So, with every nude body that we see, we get another glimpse into the desperate, tragic, yet often times hopeful lives of these Vegas locals. Initially, the expectation of more nudity kept me glued to the screen, but with each nude body came another intimate story, and eventually, like an addict, I was sucked into these people's remarkable lives.
This documentary captured the human condition in a way I've never seen before. Bravo.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you?3 of 4 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars Not as harsh as the review below, but still asking "Is It Art?", April 2, 2010 This review is from: STRIPPED: Greg Friedler's Naked Las Vegas (DVD) I had the interesting experience of being a subject of both the book shoot and the movie. I even got to be on the poster (starting the third row from the bottom), with the technically truthful title of C.E.O. (of a one-person company, to be more truthful, but Greg wanted a C.E.O. in the mix). My big contribution to the film is appearing in the later parts, where I am filmed looking at how I turned out, and wondering out loud "if this is art".
My own definition of art, and it's only one person's opinion is that "art takes a human emotion and portrays it better or differently than has been previously done". Under this definition, my opinion is "no", but if there are thousands that say "yes", they have my blessing. That doesn't mean Greg Friedler didn't work extremely hard on this, he did. And I believe he believes that what he does is art. But I also worked hard collecting baseball cards as a boy, which is more of what I compare this project to.
It would be really easy to expand negatively about a lot of things relating to this project:
-- Like Greg's dismay that more people were not willing to totally bare themselves, for no money. In a town where the folks who remove their clothes frequently for others is a higher percentage than most cities, it became apparent early that he might have been a bit naive about his recruitment expectations. He is seen late in the film, exhausted and exasperated, and just wanting to get out of Vegas due to the setbacks. But if had come to Vegas and asked people if he could film them punching themselves in the face, he would have also had a hard time getting recruits. Objectively speaking, he was asking a lot of people.
-- Like the fact that who you see in the book is basically most of the people he could get to participate. In a sense, he was lucky to have his "headquarters" at the Stratosphere, which is about a mile from the small Las Vegas art district, but also right in the neighborhood of head shops, 30-minute motels, bail bond offices and porn shops, and has it's more than it's share of strippers, streetwalkers, drug dealers, and homeless folk. The subjects he got for this book often reflect this, but in a big disproportionate amount to the TWO MILLION people that live in the Las Vegas valley, most of who are a lot more day-to-day and "ordinary".
-- Like an over proportionate amount of the people in the book that DO take their clothes off as a part of their daily lives than the average Las Vegas resident. Or are aspiring to make a living as a "performer" by doing so. Colorful yes, representative, no. The obsession to get an Elvis impersonator in the book shows both Greg and David Palmer as folks who knew Vegas mostly from what the "What happens in Vegas..." folks want you to think.
-- The book shows a lot of colorful people, and this is a positive, but to say this is a fair representation of Las Vegas is misleading. Had he gotten thousands of people to participate, and figured out a way to represent a chosen amount in a way that I would consider artistic, I'd be more open to call it that. But like the baseball cards, all he could display was what he got to collect.
But again, Greg did work very hard on this. Very hard. To sympathize with him, A LOT of people who not only said they would participate in the book AND bring lots of their friends totally crapped out on him. This got him depressed, and almost panicky as the project was drawing to a close. It also forced him to look harder into his chosen neighborhood for subjects, and had he tried it in the suburban area that constitutes most of the valley, he might have even gotten arrested.
And the movie does colorfully show a lot of Las Vegas.
And, personally, for me, it was fun to do. As a "C.E.O.", I have no boss at work to answer to :) . Overall, I'm glad he did it.
And interesting observation is that when he shot the book, there were just the smallest signs of the economic downturn that would soon devastate the city. I wonder now which way the project would have gone if he were to do it now.
3.0 out of 5 stars Revelling it all, February 21, 2012 This review is from: STRIPPED: Greg Friedler's Naked Las Vegas (DVD) A doco of making the Nude Las Vegas, a photo-album in a set of similar albums from the other places round the USA, is a memorized art history, participants share their thoughts of nudity, life and affections of edition produced. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you?
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