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The Source Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 5 Reviews)
The Glory of the Beatniks.
This movie is a fast ride and a lot of fun. It is the furthest thing from a slow-moving documentary. The technical style and flair would appeal to practically any viewer. The Source is glossy and gorgeous. The director's clout is also impressive. Johnny Depp gives a performance monologue as Jack Kerouac and John Torturro gives an emotional reading from "Howl." Dennis Hopper imitates Burroughs as well later in the film. Their efforts are impressive.
Just to let the skeptics out there know, there is no room for doubt in this documentary. The beats are heroes and saviors--and not much else is considered. That some of them were minor talents is brushed over. Massive beat generation fans would give it five stars. A totally sanitized version of William S. Burroughs is presented, and it is implied that Kerouac was only a heterosexual, which is something that most commentators would regard as dubious. The film's attitude towards drug use is rather slanted. One memorable quotation was, "you can overdose on anything including sushi." Well no, not really.
It does not matter though, the movie is an amazing sprint and it succeeds in making itself impossible to turn off.
A good introduction to Beat influence, but very broad
A documentary that wears its heart on its sleeve, "The Source" is a great collection of archival clips and contemporary interviews. It overreaches trying to connect all of the movement's reference points from Herbert Huncke to Henry Rollins -- the final half hour is a dizzying mix of quick cuts and fleeting words -- though it certainly does indicate the breadth of Beat syle, the film takes on a very slapdash quality. The admirable recreations of Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs seem unncessary when there's so much available footage, especially in a film that runs only 90 minutes. Still, ten seconds of Neal's madcap jitterbugging is worth all the well-intentioned homage. (One final sticking point: an all-inclusive overview of Beat influence that doesn't include Patti Smith, Tom Verlaine or Richard Hell isn't really complete, is it?) Workman did do his archival digging, however, and the final scenes of Ginsberg reading his own words on Time Square marquees is inspired.
The reality of the beat generation brought up to date
Released in 1999 to coincide with the publication of "The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats", this Chuck Workman documentary is a kaleidoscope of film clips, photos and interviews with a particular focus on Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. I looked forward to seeing this video in anticipation of learning something. After all, these writers influenced the era in which I was growing up and opened unique and dramatic new ways of viewing the world. Tracing the early beginnings in the 1940s and bringing the movement right up to the present, it showed the changes in these young men (and they were ALL men) through the years.
With the exception of Allen Ginsberg, they look like they all turned...out of touch with reality and locked into a way of thinking whose off-kilter attitude which was once hip, turned into an off-kilter attitude which never grew out of the fifties and seems "mental" today. Gregory Corso and Lawrence Ferlinghetti look like bad smelling derelicts. On a talk show in later years Kerouac, with slurred speech insists that the Vietnam war was a plot of the Vietnamese to get American jeeps and, in a later interview with William F. Buckley Jr., his eyes are red-rimmed and droopy and his words seem like babble as he is demolished by the precise cutting words of his host. The film moves fast and the clips come one after another. Often, the cast of characters are not identified and it was hard for me to follow just who was who. There's Ken Kesey. And Neal Cassady. And short film clips from 50s TV shows from Father Knows Best and Alfred Hitchcock poking fun at the Beatniks. It was hard to follow any individual story line and I found myself getting bored.
Several well known actors were hired to read some of the writing itself. Johnny Depp did a good job of reading Kerouac and Dennis Hopper read from Burroughs. John Turturro, was emotional in his reading of insberg's "Howl" but he never rose above the material. I wish this film was better. I would really like to know more about the beats. For years I've carried around the idea that some day I'd pick up acopy of "On the Road" or "Naked Lunch" in a secondhand book store and explore these writers for myself. But frankly, after hearing bits andpieces of them in this film, I've lost most of my interest. These ravings from angry young men intent on ripping preconceived culture apart certainly did influence our world. I say "hooray" for the effort. I'm personally glad that they opened the way to the future. But, after seeing this film, I'm not sure I want to enter their world through their words.
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