Albino Alligator (1996)

ALBINO ALLIGATOR (1996)

Dir: Kevin Spacey

I’ve been wanting to revisit this film. I saw it first when I was in high school. As a young and enthusiastic film lover and wannabe filmmaker, I remember it as a sort of film school. It’s one location (mainly), fantastic dialogue, and an actor’s canvass. Stylish atmosphere, quick cutting, and fancy camerawork hide the real budget of the film. Kevin Spacey *cringe* makes what’s mainly a stage play into a work of paranoid art. The cast is vast and mighty. Featuring the brilliance of Matt Dillon, Faye Dunaway, Gary Sinise, William Fichtner, Viggo Mortensen, Skeet Ulrich, Frankie Faison, Joe Mantegna, and M. Emmet Walsh these actors bring everything they’ve got.

To be honest, I forgot this was a Kevin Spacey film when I sat down to re-watch it. I even turned away when his name was in the credits. So when I sat down to write this, that’s when I saw it was him. It immediately makes me feel regret for the revisit. It’s that question of can we view the art without the artist? I struggle with it all the time. I love Polanski’s films. I love Woody Allen’s films. And yes, Kevin Spacey was a great actor. But, it is incredibly tough to willingly be a patron of their works.

I wanted to revisit Porkys (1982) for my birthday last year. I love the Porkys films, but I also know they’re considered sexist and exploitative. A barista asked me what I was doing for my birthday and when I told them a backyard screening of Porkys, I felt embarrassed. I felt dirty by wanting to see a very non-PC film. They laughed, and I nervously began expressing how I knew it wasn’t ‘with the times,’ or progressive. But they stopped me and gave me the advice only a 21-year-old could provide: “It doesn’t matter as long as no one makes money.” The end of the terrible creator debate was right there. You can enjoy the artwork from an awful artist as long as you don’t pay them or encourage them to create more.

While I streamed Albino Alligator, my brain assumes the creators didn’t make as much as if I were to buy the film. But setting all politics aside, I lived in Louisiana for 6 years and never heard the f*cking phrase albino alligator or as William Fichtner’s awful southern accent goes: bino’gater. But, according to this film, it means a deliberate sacrifice. When an albino alligator is forced to venture out in front of the other gators to see if there are predators about and may get eaten to protect the pack. I believe in the reality of this almost as much as I believe in a basement in New Orleans. It makes for good metaphor though. Once the gator story is told, we try to figure out which hostage in this hostage film will be the sacrifice. Through a few twists, we get a satisfying conclusion.

The film is a worthy watch, but because Kevin Spacey directed it, in the words of a Chicago barista, don’t pay for it.