“IT’S WORSE THAN YOU THINK” (2005)

Polly Staffle Rating: ***

“I may not change the world, but I guarantee I’ll spark the mind that does”- Tupac Shakur

Most people live their lives with their eyes closed to the truth. They tell themselves what they don’t see simply doesn’t exist. They pass a homeless man on the street begging for change. They look the other way. He doesn’t exist. Their children get wasted at parties and get into fist fights. They look the other way. It doesn’t exist. Their children take to the street, commit assault and vandalism. They look the other way. It doesn’t exist.

Their whole lives are based on looking the other way and not seeing what is in front of them. They get up in the morning, put on their stylish business clothes they paid too much money for that someone was exploited in order to make and head into their so-called “real world.” Their only worry on the way to work is that it’s hot outside their air conditioned $30,000 car and they have to roll down their window to get their Starbucks or McDonald’s from either a juvenile delinquent or an illegal immigrant. At work they slave for wages while their children play hooky and have promiscuous sex. At the end of the day, they drive home listening to a CD whatever new marketing campaign has convinced them to buy and then sit in front of the television so they can be sold on more crap and have their heads filled with junk so they aren’t left out of the water cooler discussion at work the next day.

There’s no room for individual thinking living this way. These folks live inside a bubble separated from the evils of the world. The government, media and marketing experts tell them what to think and as long as a crime doesn’t affect them personally, it doesn’t concern them.

Filmmaker Ryen McPherson, 23, knows this is how most of the world lives. He also knows he is incapable of changing it. He doesn’t set out to do that. McPherson just wants to make people stop and think. For those that don’t remember his name, he was one of the creators of the controversial release “Bumfights Vol. 1: Cause for Concern.” He now has a six month jail sentence which he’s to begin July 28 due to his part in the making of that video.

Though the media hype surrounding them has died down, McPherson and Indecline have continued to document the underbelly of society. They no longer have ties to “Bumfights” as they sold the rights before its release. The new producers, who later sued Indecline, supposedly wanted to stretch the footage into a series and this lead to much nudity being taken out and fake footage added in. That fact may also explain why “Indecline Volume 1: It’s Worse Than You Think” is actually better than the original “Bumfights.” Instead of any lame “Bum Hunter” skits, “It’s Worse Than You Think” is simply footage capturing life on the street in all it’s brutal glory as Indecline takes their viewers to the darkest corners of the west coast.

Sometimes the footage is disturbingly violent, other times it can evoke politically incorrect laughs or heartbreaking sadness, but beyond everything else, it is always raw, in your face and a big dose of reality we don’t usually see on our televisions. Maybe that’s why so many people take offense. Part freak show, part crime documentary, part gonzo/mondo shockumentary featuring nudity and real human emotions, Indecline’s compilation bombards us with many things we don’t necessarily want to see. These are images of things that shouldn’t be taking place. It angers us. It scares us.

There are images of teenagers and thugs beating the crap out of each other in the streets and at what appears to be an outdoor concert. There’s a horrible ass kicking that leaves the victim bleeding out of his eye, a stabbing in which McPherson said he was too close for comfort and an assault with a hammer. There’s visuals of riots and complete chaos in San Francisco. There’s vandals smashing in windows of a house and punks harassing people on the Las Vegas strip. Other disturbing images include a man, who we are told is a practicing dentist, unknowingly caught on tape masturbating in public.

Not all of the footage here is as harsh. There’s a few pissed off old people and a babbling well-dressed man holding a sign, protesting God knows what, as he doesn’t make a lick of sense and lots and lots of vandalism. The Indecline logo is spray painted and hung everywhere. McDonald’s advertisements are altered to say “Double Bypass” and “Sausage McMuffin w/E-coli.” Other billboards are changed to read “Need Money Steal a Car,” “The National Alliance Securing the Future for Racist Americans” and “See Lies When You Have TV.” There are graffiti artists creating their visions on the side of trains and the freeway as well as one scene where an individual climbs the side of a building. Graffiti writers Ges, Kem, Jase, Diar, Natural, Biter, Kuhr and Boker, who are said to be some of the nations finest, are featured. Skateboarders Ragdoll, Vinny Vegas, Sean Eaton and Matt Ball performing stunts and eating pavement are also here.

Of course the reason McPherson has been in and out of the court room so much over the past few years is here as well with footage of homeless men and women. Having grown up in San Diego County, which has close to 10,000 homeless men, women and children and now residing in Las Vegas were there are as many as 13,000 on the streets, is it any wonder McPherson has such an interest in the subject? McPherson actually began a relationship with homeless military vets Rufus Hannah and Donnie Brennan when he was in high school. He began shooting footage of the two for school projects, one included a scene where the two men go into a donut shop and apply for a job. Later those images and McPherson’s relationship with the homeless men laid the groundwork for what became “Bumfights.” The highly vocal Rufus, known as “the Stunt Bum,” and Donnie, who tattooed Bum Fights on his forehead, became sort of cult celebrities. The two men were paid actors in the project and seemed to speak very highly of McPherson, calling him their friend. Those that have not seen the video assume Donnie and Rufus are beating the crap out of each other, but in actuality the “bums” fighting are mostly high school kids. The scene where he attacks Donnie and sends him to the hospital, Rufus was given directions to play fight and not hit the other homeless man. But that didn’t stop prosecutors and lawyers from going after Indecline. Though they couldn’t get felony charges to stick, McPherson plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of staging an illegal fight, while the rest of his crew plead guilty to conspiracy. It was the footage McPherson shot in high school of Rufus and Donnie applying for jobs that got him in trouble. The skit was to have the men eating a box of donuts and while filming Rufus and Donnie broke into a food fight. Years later the footage he shot as a minor led to McPherson standing in a court of law pleading guilty to “Giving someone something of value to hit another with a jelly donut.” He was sentenced to community service at a homeless shelter and three years of probation. Paper work red tape involving the community service led to the court declaring McPherson was in violation of his probation and thus he was given his jail sentence. To me the strength of “It’s Worse Than You Think” is the footage of the homeless. Though it seems to later cause him many woes, I hope future McPherson projects do not shy away from the subject.

This video opens with McPherson’s appearance on MSNBC with prosecutor Curtis Ross discussing “Bumfights.” The screen fades to black and the quote “Turning a blind eye to the ugliness in the world will leave us all spinning in circles” appears, setting the tone for the hour-long production, which is less like “Jackass” than “Bumfights,” but just as slick as any MTV programming. Then the haunting footage of a visibly upset elderly homeless woman screaming “I keep getting raped and raped and raped all the time, but there’s never any people around me” opens the onslaught of street sequences. The editing by Jason Redding and Jay Parker is top notch as Indecline moves from image to image without giving viewers even the slightest chance to catch their breath. When it’s all over with, we’ve met Jerome, who has nubs for legs and only one functioning arm, a crack addicted lady that looks like Mick Jagger and an obviously insane man that says John Wayne is his cousin. There are also scenes with a crazy man playing “Jingle Bell Rock” on a kazoo and dancing in the middle of the street and footage of a woman on a bicycle almost being hit by a car.

My favorite highlight, however, would be the ending which would be the most manipulating Indecline does of the street dwellers. Reminiscent of Spike Lee’s “I’m Malcolm X” ending of his 1992 biopic on the slain human rights activist, Indecline gives us homeless men and women, the junkie Bling Bling, a toothless prostitute flashing her breasts, what appear to be disabled military veterans on the street and various other misfits, transients and cast outs declaring “I am an American.” An African American male with feces on his forehead closes the sequence repeating over and over, “I’m a piece of shit.”

I don’t feel this is the best Indecline will ever have to offer, but it definitely tops any other ruckus video I’ve seen including “The Best of Backyard Wrestling: Future Kings of the Ring.” My biggest complaint with this release is there is no narration and it’s sort of just an incoherent mess. I personally would like to see it done in more of a traditional documentary style with less of a circus feeling and more of a human interest approach. I’d also like more background on the individuals depicted. Where do they come from? How did they end up where they are? What are their hopes, dreams and fears? Where are their families? How do they survive? What do they eat? Where do they sleep? I want to see more of their world. Not just a few pieces. But in doing so, Indecline would be pushing an agenda and they don’t really have one. They don’t want to tell you what to think. They just want you to decide for yourself what you should do now that their images are etched into your brain.

Perhaps you find yourself offended by Indecline’s footage and their morals. Some may argue they are low-life opportunists, exploiting those that are unable to help themselves. If you said there were times when they took things a bit far, especially with “Bumfights,” I’d be willing to agree with you. But nothing their doing as gonzo journalist should have any of them facing jail time. If we were to prosecute based strictly on morals, the entire entertainment industry would come crashing down. From the innocent such as naked babies in television commercials, to children in violent films, to the selling of war by the government through news outlets, to the demonizing of suspects and convicted criminals by the media, to the manipulation of teenage girls so they take their clothes off on a stage or on film.

The simple fact is when the cameras are not on and Indecline is no where to be found, there are still fights and criminal activities running rampant in our streets. There are homeless men and women, skateboarders, graffiti artists, hookers, crack addicts, mentally and physically challenged individuals living outside of society trying their best to survive. Indecline is offering a window into that alternate world that we can view from our safety zone. If you don’t like what you see, do your part to change it. But simply closing your eyes to it doesn’t make it go away.

- CCF, July 2006