“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, angelheaded
hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry
dynamo in the machinery of night…”
So begins the poem “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg who was one of the most
respected writers and acclaimed American poets of the so-called Beat
Generation of the late 1950s, poets that included Jack Kerouac, William
Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso and others. The poem
about sex, drugs, politics, and race shocked many people when first
published with its explicit language and sexual images and became a
cause célèbre leading to an obscenity trial in San
Francisco that tested the limits of the First Amendment. According to
Ginsberg, reflecting the culture of the fifties, “If you could write
about homosexuality, you could write about anything.”
Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, the film Howl is a
celebration not only of the poem but of the artist who, amidst the
turbulence that surrounded its initial publication, sought to define
his own identity. It is a non-linear work that interweaves a reading of
the poem by actor James Franco as Ginsberg with animation by the
graphic artist Eric Drooker, a dramatization of the obscenity trial,
and an interview with Ginsberg culled from the poet's own words. The
film begins with the young Ginsberg reciting “Howl” in a coffeehouse to
a young and approving audience. As the poem is being read aloud, the
spoken words are animated on screen. Though expertly conceived, the
animation creates a literal interpretation of the poem that fails to
convey its power and beauty.
According to the poet, he never planned to publish “Howl” because he
thought some of the language might offend his father and thus felt free
to write anything that came to mind, knowing that no one would ever
read it. Consequently, “Howl” delivers a wild torrent of words filled
with lines about radical politics, drugs, and homosexuality conveying
images that are often erotic and sometimes scatological. The poem may
not always be understandable but, especially as read aloud, is filled
with a rhythmic pulse that is pure music.
The poem describes people who are in love, in pain, and in joy, people
“who howled on their knees in the subway and were dragged off the roof
waving genitals and manuscripts, who let themselves be fucked in the
a*s by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy, who blew and were
blown by those human seraphim, the sailors, caresses of Atlantic and
Caribbean love, who balled in the morning in the evenings in rose
gardens and the grass of public parks and cemeteries scattering their
semen freely to whomever come who may.”
The interviews reveal Ginsberg's mental state and how he ended up in a
mental hospital, his only way out being to lie to the doctors that he
would pursue heterosexuality. His friend in the institute, Carl Solomon
to whom the poem is dedicated, however, had no easy way out, having to
endure electro-shock therapy and a strait-jacket. Ginsberg's mother,
Naomi, was also in a mental hospital for an unknown illness before she
died. These troubling personal events in Ginsberg's life are integrated
into the film in a way that is very moving although, because most of
the poem consists of readings and conversations, the film itself is not
very cinematic. One of the strong components is Ginsberg’s
homosexuality and the film depicts his relationships with Neal Cassidy
and Peter Orlovsky with whom he loved and lived with for most of his
adult life.
Using actual court transcripts, Howl also dramatizes the courtroom
drama with attorneys played by Jon Hamm and David Straithairn arguing
the case before the judge (Bob Balaban). Ginsberg himself was not at
the trial since it was brought against the City Lights Publishers and
Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The witnesses consisted of academics and
literary figures either condemning the poem as worthless and without
merit or praising it as an innovative and important work of art. The
judge in the case eventually determined that the poem had “redeeming
social importance,” a landmark decision.
Franco's performance captures the energy of Ginsberg's poetry and his
feelings about his life and art in the interview but overall fails to
convey his warmth and humanity, his spirituality, his playfulness, or
his progressive political views. In short, it succeeds in capturing
most everything about the artist except the very qualities that make
him so inspiring. As the film ends, we see updated information about
those mentioned in the film while, in the background, we hear Ginsberg
singing “Father Death Blues,” a moving ode to the death of his father
in a version by the aging poet as he nears the end of his life. “Father
Breath, once more farewell. Birth you gave was no thing ill. My heart
is still, as time will tell. Genius Death your art is done. Lover Death
your body's gone. Father Death I'm coming home.”Though Allen Ginsberg
is now home, his art will never be done.
GRADE: B+
The poem
http://www.wussu.com/poems/agh.htm
The song (earlier version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afAAltAmIzA
The song many years later (as shown in the film)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew6ef3nE-E4
