Howl (2010)

The film opens with a statement explaining that every word spoken in the film was once spoken by the actual people portrayed--it is both like a documentary and quite different. The story focuses on Allen Ginsberg and his famous poem, HOWL, first read in 1955 to a crowd at San Francisco's Six Gallery when he was 29. Ginsberg later refers to the poem as a bomb due to the impact it had on our culture.

Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman partnered with Gus Van Sant to create a film that is part conventional biopic/documentary and a psychedelic Fantasia. The film raises questions...Who has the right to free expression? What is art?

Ginsberg (James Franco) is shown in New York during while attending Columbia. He grew up with a poet/teacher for a father (Louis Ginsberg), but it was not until he met Jack Kerouc that he began to imitate his father's style of rhyming poetry. He fell in love and his muse was awakened. He wrote for Jack's attention. They were both influenced by William Carlos Williams and the imagination. The two moved to San Francisco, where Ginsberg worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency and. developed a philosophy of writing that was focused on speaking frankly as he did with his friends.

Key moments of Ginsberg's life are woven together with a reading of HOWL, various comments about the poem, the texture of life in mid-1950s America--a transitional time between the cold war and growing counter-culture years. The epic poem lambastes the consumerism and conformism of the era and opened the door to our post-modern world.

The film includes fantasy animations to reflect the imagery of the poem..."visionary indian angels chinamen of Oklahoma, angel-headed hipsters."

Also featured are courtroom scenes from infamous obscenity trial after Lawrence Ferlinghetti was accused of publishing and selling obcsene materials (HOWL) at his City Lights bookstore. Jon Hamm portrays the defense attorney and Mary-Louise Parker is a witness.

The film was surprisingly good. James Franco captures Ginsberg's speech inflections and important presence in the beat poetry scene of the mid-20th century.

The DVD includes extra features that add background to the making of HOWL and Ginsberg's life as a poet.