America. Home of the free, home of the brave and home of excess. We like to eat, we like to fuck and more importantly we like to get fucked up. Drugs have become a part of our very foundation. Apple pie has given way to China white. A great pudding recipe handed down from your grandmother will get you nowhere, but a solid crystal meth recipe handed down from your uncle Carl will get you everywhere. Is it sad? I’m not sure, but it is a long way from happy. Just in my lifetime drug use has come out from behind closed doors, stereotypes of users have been abolished, it is in the media, it is a part of the people we are…and all of this happened while an invisible war has been in action.
“The Last White Hope” is a documentary that will show you just how well the war on drugs is going. And let me tell you it really seems to be going great. Drug use is up, education is down and all while you the taxpayer keep pouring the money in. Seriously, I knew a lot of this stuff from reading my left wing propaganda for years, but man the whole thought of our government running both sides of this war is enough to make anyone’s blood pressure rise. As with anything there are going to be non-believers as the film’s credits roll. Those same people though have the internet at their fingertips and still don’t know that it is for more than downloading music and porn. Eventually Darwin will take over and those people will phase themselves out. For the rest of us, those with a wider grasp for the bigger picture there are films like “The Last White Hope” that remind us that we aren’t along as we struggle to find truth in the bullshit.
Kevin Booth has constructed a film that is worth more than a watch. “The Last White Hope” is worth some serious frontal lobe absorption. The film moves in and out of every aspect of the growth and use of drugs in the American culture. For example, do you remember Oliver North before Fox News fame? All I could remember was his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal…which he came out a hero. What if I told you that he could be one of the main drivers of the crack epidemic that destroyed the parts of California. I won’t tell you though, I’ll let Kevin. What if I told you that the spread of crack can be attributed to one central marketing mastermind. I won’t tell you about Freeway Ricky Ross though, I’ll let Kevin. If you can think it and it has to do with the spread of drugs Booth has it covered. The only agenda that Booth has is promoting a new kind of awareness through the facts that aren’t always presented through the media. The facts presented shed some light on the black market. You will realize that you have seen commercials for crack, that you marijuana isn’t even close to heroin and that Joe Arpaio is a delusional lunatic.
“The Last White Hope” is a serious film and yet another film that questions the intentions of the government who watches over us. The film is full of interview after interview that creates a central idea for the viewer to walk away from and break down. I loved the footage with Tommy Chong, truly a great camera capture. Booth got close to Joe Arpaio and showed me how far to the right a person can possibly go. The gem in the film to me however was the interview footage with Freeway Ricky Ross. Booth did not get into the prison to sit with Ross, the conversations take place over the phone. I believe this works out better than an actual in person would have. For some reason when you hear Ross’ voice you don’t hear a drug dealer, you hear a man. With no image for you to look at, no prison blues, Ross comes across like the common man. He comes across like a man you can believe. Maybe this fooled me, but I like to think not. I guess though that very idea on Ross sums up the movie pretty well. The film isn’t over your head, it isn’t too smart for it’s own good, it isn’t tailored for a side. The film is a question, a question in tolerance. The tolerance of American citizens putting up with the bullshit of their government versus the tolerance of the US government on it’s drug using citizens.
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