30 July 2016

THE CRITERION COLLECTION PRESENTS: BURROUGHS. (1983) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.




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.

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...!

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.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.

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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