The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg (Deluxe Two-Disc Set)

There are two features of Ginsberg's personality that come through over and over in this intriguing documentary: he was a deeply wounded man, and he was a deeply lovable one. The two were obviously connected: Ginsberg's wounds made him both vulnerable and compassionate. They could also make him rage against a world that condoned war and injustice, and all of these sides of him come through in his poetry.

Ginsberg's ur-wound was the tragedy of his mother, a remarkable woman who sadly suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, was in and out of institutions during Ginsberg's youth, and finally died in one. As a boy, Ginsberg was frequently charged with her care. As his stepmother says in the film, he was exposed to way too much for a young boy to take in. His feelings of helplessness, frustration, impatience, love, guilt, and fear in the face of his mom's illness and increasingly bizarre behavior marked him for life. Thankfully, his relationship with his father Louis, a lyric poet, was one of tenderness, mutual respect, and deep love.

Ginsberg's unhappy relationship with his mother, as well as his genesis from beat poet to cosmic poet to Buddhist poet to grand old man of American poetry is tracked in the film. Especially welcome are the long and marvelous clips of Ginsberg reading his poetry: long sections of "Howl," all of "Kaddish," and others, sometimes put in music. There's also a clip from Ginsberg's appearance on Buckley's "Firing Line," in which the two men stood one another down. Lots of vintage still photography and cinema featuring the beat poets round out the documentary.

The one thing missing in the film was more than a brief mention of Ginsberg's lifelong relationship with Peter Orlovsky. Ginsberg does say at one point, quite touchingly, that he and Peter made life vows to one another, and a rather vague reference to Orlovsky's later mental and alcohol troubles is made. But the relationship is for the most part passed over in silence.

A good film, both for fans of Ginsberg's poetry and those who know it only by hearsay. A fitting Kaddish for a man who's heart and imagination stretched cosmically.

No study of the 1950's and 1960's cultural revolution in the USA would be complete without the poetry and bohemian life-look at poet Allen Ginsberg and those of "The Beat Generation." The 1960's just didn't happen; the groundwork was laid in the 1950's with the writers and the poets and the musicians who began to eschew The Establishment, embrace peace, do drugs, sexually experiment, and put it all down into their art. This film is currently showing on ON DEMAND and I was fortunate enough to see all 480 minutes of it. Being born in 1955, I learned a lot, frankly way more, than I myself ever knew about the times. I have yet to see a more complete and absorbing film chronicalling the soul and heart of the Era. Highly recommended.
A nice complimentary film to this one would be Across the Universe (Two-Disc Special Edition), but simply as an aid with some music.

Probably the best documentary I've ever seen. Gives you a whole new appreciation for Ginsberg's poetry, especially his wonderful poem "Kaddish." Also, you see all the players: Kerouac, Kesey, Bellows, Cassidy, Dylan -- everyone.
A terrific buy.

This documentary is a very intimate portrait of Allen Ginsberg, much of the footage I'd never seen before. Not only is the film very well done - taking you from Allen's youth, to his death - but the bonus features are amazing; Ginsberg reading his work, countless interviews with people like Paul McCartney, Yoko One, Hunter S. Thompson, Bono, Johnny Depp and many more, and footage of Ginsberg and Dylan together... I'm a huge Ginsberg fan, and I highly reccomend this documentary.

I read that director Jerry Aronson spent 25 years collecting footage for this DVD release, and I believe it. I count almost eight hours of material, and what I've seen so far is both fun viewing and the final word on one of our country's greatest artists. This should be required viewing for everyone: from aging hippies to disaffected youth and everyone in between.