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EUR DVD REVIEW: The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg
Bio-Pic of Beat Poet Out on DVD
*Poet Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was among the handful of founding members of a literary movement that helped define what was known as the Beat Generation of the Fifties. He is probably best remembered for "Howl" the epic poem which opens with the immortal line, "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix."
But Ginsberg was not just a writer. He was also a visionary, a teacher, an activist, a spiritual seeker and a human rights advocate. And all these many sides of this complex icon are explored in The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, a comprehensive portrait compiled by Jerry Aronson.
The film is a true bio-pic in that it covers its subject's entire life, beginning with a return to his troubled roots as a neurotic, buck-toothed, gay Jewish boy growing up in Paterson, NJ. We hear Allen explain the source of his paranoia in his own words, when he describes how his mother had a nervous breakdown, and died in a mental institution, believing that Hitler was after her.
From there, the picture moves on to rely on informative interviews with
family members, friends and his contemporaries to expound further on the source of his rare genius. Among the celebs making appearances are William F. Buckley, Andy Warhol, Timothy Leary, Joan Baez, Yoko Ono and Hunter S.
Thompson. Ginsberg says he developed his gift this way, "I found people who I thought were smarter than me were smarter than me, so I listened to them." And he admits to "writing for Jack Kerouac's ear," the colleague obviously foremost among his influences.
Another icon of the era, Imamu Baraka (Leroi Jones), makes an appearance in which he reminiscences about how beatniks were "protesting a disgusting, anti-human culture," while Yippie Abbie Hoffman pays tribute by adding that "We couldn't have had the Sixties without the Fifties."
Cool, Daddy-O!
Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 84 minutes
Studio: New Yorker Video
DVD Extras: Six hours of additional material, including interviews, Ginsberg reading his poetry, Bob Dylan, William S. Burroughs, a theatrical trailer, "The Making of" featurette, and much more.
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