Pranksy

Exit Through The Gift Shop has many messages. Off the top of my head these are the messages that I can think of:


Art is a sham.


Consumers are idiots.
    --art consumers especially.
    ----art is brainwashing 


Not everyone should try and make art.


Artists have rules about the trade---but wait! Hypocrisy. Perhaps it is about the hypocrisy the of the art world. Banksy comments on this at the end when he says that Mr. Brainwash did not follow the rules of an artist. Then he says that there are no rules...or at least there are not supposed to be any. 


Is this film a hoax? To me it does not really matter. I take the multiplicity of messages to heart. And it makes me laugh. I found myself asking if this was at all real. However, I watched the movie and got messages out of it. Isn't that the purpose of a documentary? 
But, if you are going to put a gun to my head...do I trust it? I wouldn't say that I do. No. I don't. How can I? It is not just pure coincidence that his alias is Mr. Brainwash--that has direct relationship to one of my themes of the film. 
Any film manipulates its audience through a variety of tools, including the way the film is actually arranged. Any good filmmaker will arrange the film to capture the audience or draw a certain response. 
Given Banksy's reputation makes it entirely possible and likely that this film is a hoax. But, does it really matter? Perhaps it adds to the meaning of the film. Art is a sham, so the film should be a sham. 
People read too much into everything. If the story is real or not I still have taken away messages that I can apply to my view of life.