“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked…”
The first time I heard the start of Allen Ginsberg’s iconic beat poem ‘Howl‘ was in They Might Be Giants’ “I Should Be Allowed to Think.” When I subsequently came across the Beat Generation, I was drawn to these rogues and subversive revolutionaries who rejected the middle class life that I was currently bored of, in search of something more visceral. But after college, I put my Beat affections in the same drawer as the sticky blue tack that held posters to my wall, and the mixed tapes that people now scoffed at with the advent of CDs. But deep inside me, there’s still a dirty-soled rebel who loves the Beats.
So, I’m a fan of the poem ‘Howl.’ And the rhythmic beat of the trailer had whetted my appetite. But did the docudrama about the poem’s creation and backlash starring James Franco as Ginsberg live up to my hopes?
The simple answer is – no. The film, made by the creative team responsible for The Celluloid Closet and The Times of Harvey Milk, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, weaves crisply shot black and white portraits of Ginsberg’s early life with vintage holiday card colored reenactments of Ginsberg interviews (culled from the span of his career) with animated illustrations of the poem itself mixed with Franco’s own staccato performance of the piece inter-cut with a dramatization of the infamous 1957 obscenity trial, where book publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti was brought up on charges for publishing the allegedly obscene poem.
While much of the film is alluringly shot, and lovingly constructed, the view is narrow. The courtroom scenes are meant to represent the larger world’s love/fear of ‘Howl,’ and the social change it could and did bring to America. While interesting, the film never takes us beyond the walls of the courtroom or Ginsberg’s own mind. Since Howl was created by two men known for their social documentaries, I expected more scope than the film provides. The film is beautiful, intriguing, and moving in turns, but I wish it had more to say.
Howl wholly preaches to the choir. All who are social liberals that believe all art should be protected by free speech no matter how “obscene” or potentially offensive will see their beliefs manifested by the gloriously debonair defense attorney played by Jon Hamm. All others will be mocked. The characters who question or rebuke the poem’s value are cut down to caricatures of squares: the stodgy bloated professor (Jeff Daniels), the stiff and flustered prosecutor (David Strathairn), and finally the prissy school marm played by Mary-Louise Parker, who actually looks like a cartoon. By not presenting a balanced counterargument, Hamm’s champion for free speech is less the sympathetic underdog defense lawyer of Inherit the Wind, and more the smart-ass bully who could rightfully be accused of the kind of holier-than-thou narrow-mindedness of which he accuses these squares.
Ultimately, the film feels like a premature victory lap for free speech and the social acceptance of gay love, when in fact the battles for free speech and gay civil rights are being fought daily. The film’s blithe omission of this reality personally left me unsatisfied.
Here’s what I suggest: read ‘Howl‘ aloud. If you are moved – if you laugh or cry or feel shaken to your core – then this movie will have something for you. But know that Howl is more a celebration of the poem than a docudrama about its creation or impact. If you know this going in, you may enjoy Howl as much as I was hoping to.
5 out of 10
Howl opens in theaters and on Cable VOD on September 24.