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I hated the musical, never read the book.
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But last night, I saw a movie I was so intrigued by. It's called "Howl" and stars James Franco as beat-poet Allen Ginsberg, author of the eponymous 1955 poem. Also featuring David Strathairn, Bob Balaban, Jeff Bridges, and Jon Hamm - which wouldn't be unusual for a "Hollywood" movie - but this is more like a documentary - and yet not.
Yes, in that every word spoken by any character in the film was truly spoken by the characters they play. But otherwise, the scenarios were dramatically re-created, and not "reported" on in documentary style. The controversial poem at the center of the piece is rendered wonderfully in two ways - a re-staging of a 1955 Ginsberg reading (by Franco) at an underground club that was, of course, the epitome of the beat poet Go-Daddy-O scene so often lampooned and copied - - - and an animated accompaniment to a less-public-drama reading, also by James Franco, that constantly punctuates the action - which shifts between the censorship / obscenity trial of the poem's publisher, and an extended interview with Ginsberg that deftly illuminates the poem as it unfolds in the aforementioned treatments and at the trial.
It really is an unusual and, imo, an unusually successful format for a film. So I recommend it for that alone. But it's also equally worthwhile for the appreciation of this seminal work of poetry and of Ginsberg as a person that can be gleaned through this oddball, wonderful film.
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