George Carlin's American Dream

George Carlin is a comedic institution. You don’t get into the top two or three comedians of all time lists in multiple publications and sources just because. The man’s career is legendary, both for its length, its multiple transformations, and his impact on everything from pop culture to American law. For almost any other comedian — Kinison. Seinfeld. Williams, even Pryor — a four hour documentary might be overkill or indulgent. But not Carlin. Seriously, the 45 minutes whizzes by. You never feel a moment of drag. Every word, every factoid, every moment feels crucial if a viewer wants the full story of the man. It should also be said that, while the documentary exists because of reverence for the man and his singular career, it is not 4 hours of worship and deference. This isn’t a four-hour back massage. Carlin the myth and Carlin the man are explored in equal measure; his fraught relationship with both his parents, his issues with career satisfaction, drug abuse, issues with his first marriage to Brenda, there is nothing off limits here. He was a man, after all, and this never shies away from it. It also balances and explores how and where the line was drawn between what people saw on stage and who he was off it (and that line is hard to define). If there are negatives, it would be that, for longtime Carlin fans, there’s little actually new here. If you’ve read his posthumous autobiography Last Word, or have seen other documentaries or interviews, or even were there during his career, you know the majority of this. Maybe not as in the weeds as this goes, but his history of drug use and heart problems, multiple career reinventions, and marriage issues aren’t new topics. Also, if you love Carlin, the length will breeze by, but if you’re not a die-hard and are just kinda curious or want to use this as an intro, 4 hours might feel like a huge commitment. But for everybody else, it’s a fantastic deep dive into one of the most important comedians ever, and maybe the last true philosopher. I wish he were alive to see it. No doubt he’d be a little put off by the reverence, but he earned it. And even though much of his material is still relevant today, this will remind you that so many of the newer things our terrible world has spewed up since his passing 14 years ago deserve his pointed insight and razor-sharp deconstruction.