HOWL – my impression

HOWL — the movie — is 85 minutes of pure delight. It is a mini class in poem criticism, the philosophy of poetry, and a poet's self-analysis all rolled up in an obscenity trial, a recitation, and an interview. All sorts of writers will relate to this movie, but especially poets.


Note: In my viewing of HOWL today, the only part that left me a bit cold was the animation (of some of the recitation). I didn't get it. Everything else, though, was HAWT. And at the end there is some video of the real Allen Ginsberg's Father Death Blues.


Update (Oct 26, 2010): Apparently James Franco (Allen Ginsberg) is not yet done with gay poets as he is slated to direct The Broken Tower, a movie about Hart Crane.


Allen Ginsberg's recitation of HOWL (from PennSound):
Ginsberg/SFSU-1956/Ginsberg-Allen_04_Howl_SFSU_10-25-56.mp3