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Rating:  - 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.
Rating:  - The counterculture lives!
This is a serious documentary on the beat / hippie movement. It has tons of old footage and interviews with many of the most prominent beat figures like Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, Corso, Ferlinghetti etc etc. It has historical footage of events like the Democratic National Convention in '68 and the be-in in San Francisco in '67. This is the perfect movie for someone who loves the beats or someone who has never heard of them. I didn't know much about them when i first watched this documentary on PBS, but after watching it i immediately became interested in their movement. I started reading a lot of the major works like On The Road, Naked Lunch, and Howl and turned into a major fan. This movie is exceptionally well-made and presented. It does have some Hollywood stars like Johnny Depp, but they are only reading the works of Beat authors, and do not have a major role. This is just a great documentary which contains valuable information and interviews with major beat characters who have since passed away. This is a must have for any fan of the beats, hippies, yippies, drugs, american literary movements, the counterculture, or just good documentaries in general. I absolutely love it and have watched it several times.
Rating: - Anyone who takes a liking to The Beats should watch this
"The Source" is an excellent documentry on 'The Beat Generation'. It was so good I saw it twice in the theaters. The documentry has a wealth of new material as long as familiar classic footage. My personal favorite writer Jack Kerouac came out of the beat generation and it was fantastic to see him and learn more about him. The documentry always explores other key figures like :Ginsberg, Burroghs, Cassidy among others. Three actors recite famous works by Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroghs. Johnny Depp and Dennis Hopper do fair jobs at working with material by Kerouac and Burroghs but Chuck Workman slaughters Ginsberg's poem "Howl". The only fault about this documentry was the previous and that it had to end. Check "The Source" out.
Rating: - Solid
This is a good solid documentary that sticks to its subject. The clips of Ginsberg & Burroughs are especially effective. The celeb performances in the second half are all of the work itself & not just empty theatrics. The Beats are still a source to return to for inspiration & insight. The world they emerged from is not all that different from the one in which we find ourselves now. Of course there's more, but this video gives you enough to get you started & gives you enough of the good stuff to go back to later
Rating: - Good compilation of clips and information about the beats.
When Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs set out in their writing, they had no idea what it would create - a whole movement. This film, including interviews taken when Ginsberg and Burroughs were alive, assembles clips from media, film, and personal account to show the beginnings of the beats up to the passing-away of Ginsberg and Burroughs. With a large assembly of other beat writers and the poets they influenced (Carroll and Bukowski), it is an extensive study to a misunderstood movement. It is interesting to see the Beat propaganda of the sixties, how negative and mocking the media treated the sense of a "cool" movement; they painted a false portrait. This film is for lovers of Beat or people genuinely interested. However, if you do not like documentaries, you won't like this one. Also, I was disappointed to see Depp, Hopper, and Turturro reciting long pieces of work when the actual writers could have performed it. Honestly, I skipped these parts. I wanted to see Ginsburg doing "Howl." Another disappointment is the DVD version, which was slapped together on the fly. I envisioned additional clips and useful information (let's face it, you can put TONS on a DVD), but only had 2 or 3 screens of names credited for making the movie and the trailer (in this case, not exciting). However, with all disappointments aside, this film is good for a few viewings. It conveys a better picture of the Beats than other films have before and enjoyed alot of the material.
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