THE CRITERION COLLECTION PRESENTS: BURROUGHS: THE MOVIE. (1983) DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY HOWARD BROOKNER.
STARRING WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS AND
FRIENDS, INCLUDING: MORTIMER BURROUGHS, PATTI SMITH, FRANCIS BACON
THE ARTIST, ALLEN GINSBERG THE POET, LAUREN HUTTON AND WILLIAM S.
BURROUGHS JR.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
This really is a most extraordinary
piece of film-making. It's the story of the writer William S.
Burroughs, not to be confused
with the author Edgar Rice Burroughs who wrote the wonderful TARZAN
books, or am I the only feckin'
eejit who ever does that...? Yep, I thought so, haha.
William S.
Burroughs was one of the darlings of America's Beat Generation, a
generation that included Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac among
others. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1914, the year the Great War started, and died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas after
suffering a heart attack in 1997. Naturally, there were plenty of
noteworthy bits in between also, or we wouldn't have the pleasure of
being able to watch this intimate film-portrait of the man
himself...!
Burroughs'
literary genre is defined as satire/paranoid fiction, a genre which I
freely admit I don't tend to read much of. I even have a sneaking
suspicion that the writings of an American male from the Beat
generation might be quite heavy going for an Irish female writer from
2016, haha, although don't quote me on that, it makes me sound ditzy.
Much of
his work seems to be semi-autobiographical and drawn from his
experiences as a heroin addict. His first novel, published in 1953
when he was in his late thirties, was called JUNKIE: CONFESSIONS OF AN UNREDEEMED DRUG
ADDICT and,
well, I guess the stark title probably speaks for itself.
Burroughs
became possibly the world's most famous homosexual writer, however,
after his masterpiece, the controversial NAKED LUNCH, was
published in 1959. I'm ashamed to say that I've never read this book,
but those of you who have will probably know why it's so
highly-rated.
I must
be quite the ignoramus, however, as a few years ago I was a regular
attendee at an Open Mic night called NAKED LUNCH in
a nearby pub. I always wondered why it was called that, and
frequently wondered at the absence of any refreshments or, indeed,
nudity at the event. I guess now I know.
This
documentary film started life in 1978 as the thesis project of the
director. Thanks to Burroughs' full and frank co-operation with and
enthusiasm for the endeavour, however, it finished up being a
full-length feature film some five years later. Apparently, Brookner had
unparalleled access to the elderly scribe and this certainly shows in
the finished product, as he gets Burroughs (and friends) to open up
on a variety of painful subjects.
I was a
bit shocked at the seemingly casual way in which the death of
Burroughs' second wife, Joan Vollmer Adams, is treated in the film.
Burroughs himself shot her dead in 1951 when they were both heavily
mired in drug addiction and all that that entails. He claimed it was
an accident that occurred when they were performing their so-called
'William Tell' act.
He received
only a two-year suspended sentence for this act of homicide which
apparently affected his writing positively. Gee, that's great and
all, Willie boy, but surely a woman is still dead because of it...!
Joan was the mother of his one child, William S. Burroughs Jr,
himself a critically-acclaimed writer of two-and-a-half novels, and
therein hangs another sad and shabby tale which gets an airing in the
documentary.
There's
actual footage of Burroughs' tragic son in the film. I say tragic
because he died in 1981 at the young age of only thirty-three of
alcoholism and liver failure. Estranged from his father, William
Jr.'s life was one long chronicle of drug addiction, alcoholism,
petty crime and trauma related to his father's shooting dead of his
mother when he was only four years old. Well, it's possibly not the best start in life for a young fella, is it?
As if
all that wasn't bad enough, in the documentary itself we see
Burroughs' much younger assistant (and former lover, I
think) openly boasting about how
he thought he'd been
more of a son
to
Burroughs than poor William Jr.
In some shots, William Jr. is actually sitting right there in the room watching his father and his assistant (James Grauerholz) chatting away cosily together while he himself is left out in the cold. These scenes are deeply uncomfortable and upsetting to watch. I'm afraid the assistant, good-looking as he is, doesn't come across as very likeable in the film.
In some shots, William Jr. is actually sitting right there in the room watching his father and his assistant (James Grauerholz) chatting away cosily together while he himself is left out in the cold. These scenes are deeply uncomfortable and upsetting to watch. I'm afraid the assistant, good-looking as he is, doesn't come across as very likeable in the film.
There's
loads and loads of
footage of Burroughs Sr. performing his iconic works at various public
readings, at which he's treated like an absolute literary superstar,
which I suppose he was. He was a friend and contemporary of Beat
writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack ON THE ROAD Kerouac,
and in fact Burrough's former lover Allen Ginsberg, who comes across
as a lovely gentle sort of chap, features heavily in the documentary.
He's extremely pro-Burroughs, which would imply that he loved the old
guy to bits, warts and all. Aw. It's sweet to see.
Other
participants in this truly eye-opening film include songstress Patti
Smith, who claimed that Burroughs was 'very hard to get
into bed...!' and Burroughs'
brother Mortimer who apparently disapproved of all the swears in
NAKED LUNCH. Oh dear!
The
offended face that William Sr. puts on when his brother says that he
doesn't really see why all the profanity in the book was 'necessary'
is hilarious to see. It seems
that even famous writers aren't immune to a bit of good old-fashioned
sibling rivalry, jealousy and irritation...!
There are
some gorgeous old photos of Burroughs, Mortimer and their parents and
grandparents in the film too, some of which date back to Victorian
times. There's also some really special old footage of Burroughs
wandering around his old neighbourhood, cane in hand and panama hat
on head, which would bring a tear to the eye of the sternest viewer.
He's a very old man, after all, with all the frailties and fragilities that that implies. And, after all, we've all done things we're ashamed of, haven't we? Mind you, I never shot my spouse or significant other, but I still find it hard to sleep at night with the rattling and groaning of the various skeletons in my many closets and I bet there's a few people out there to whom the same also applies...!
He's a very old man, after all, with all the frailties and fragilities that that implies. And, after all, we've all done things we're ashamed of, haven't we? Mind you, I never shot my spouse or significant other, but I still find it hard to sleep at night with the rattling and groaning of the various skeletons in my many closets and I bet there's a few people out there to whom the same also applies...!
The
wonderful folk at THE CRITERION COLLECTION
are releasing this superb
documentary on Blu-Ray this July (2016), by the way. It comes
complete with a whole host of extra features, including new
interviews with film-maker Jim Jarmusch who was involved in the
project and also James Grauerholz, the guy I was telling
you about earlier, remember?
It's a
fascinating watch and the viewer certainly gets an access-all-areas
laminated pass that allows him/her to peep behind the scenes of this
extraordinary writer's extraordinary life. Well, a virtual pass,
anyway. Don't be expecting an actual one!
Even if Beat writing isn't
your thing, and I'm freely admitting that it's not mine, the film is
still a little slice of essential Americana that would go down well
with a nice glass of wine and an open and receptive mind. Watch it.
It's unmissable.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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