The Source
review is copyright by Adrien Begrand

Well, "The Source" came and "The Source" went, and after the seemingly interminable wait since the 1999 Sundance Festival, the film was worthwhile viewing. Nothing new, but not a waste of time.

What Chuck Workman created was a decent introduction to the Beats...hardly a definitive film, mind you, full of flashy montages and whatnot used to cover up the fact that the film had barely anything to say that hasn't been documented umpteen times before. Workman basically shot a little bit of new footage & interviews and interspliced it with every kind of footage he could get. Much of that old footage is from other, far more splendid and important documentaries (which I'll get to)...with a few exceptions. There's some film footage of Kerouac kibbutzing with some women which I'd never seen before, as well as some fun Cassady footage from the Kesey camp. The best of the other unseen (by mine own eyes) stuff was the clips of the Kerouac Commemorative dedication (so much talk of this controversial monument, yet so few pictures!) from 1988 and the equally controversial Kerouac convention from 1995. Some fans of the Beats are also rabid fans of Bob Dylan (like yrs truly), and "The Source" has a few minutes of footage from Renaldo & Clara, including a snipet of the 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door' performance and Bob & Ginzy's visit to Kerouac's grave. Of course, nothing new to a Dylan fan, but this has to be the first time in ages anything from Renaldo & Clara was aired on American television (with the exception of the Tanled Up In Blue promo vid)...it's particularly jarring because many of us Dylan fans only have grainy kazillionth-generation bootlegs of R & C from its only television airing in the UK, and upon seeing the clear footage of the film it made me perk up and go, "oooh".

I'm happy with the performances the three actors give. John Turturro gives a good Ginsberg performance (though he's a little tall), by far the best actor to portray Ginzy thusfar...every other portrayal has been done like a parody. It was interesting to see him reciting 'Howl' outside the Rockland Hospital and in front of the Brooklyn Bridge. Johnny Depp is as good as he always is, and it's clear as he reads Kerouac that he's aware of how great the prose is. The highlight of the film by far is Dennis Hopper's Burroughs performance...his intense recitation (sort of a combination of Uncle Bill, Frank Booth, and Feck from River's Edge) with Sonic Youth's 'Cool Thing' playing on the soundtrack left me wanting him to keep going. He's got to to a Burroughs movie, or a recorded reading...just keep going, Dennis! You're brilliant!

Since this is an introduction to the Beats and their effect on today's culture, it had to keep things short and concise, but my goodness, were there some glaring omissions. The Jazz influence wasn't even touched on, aside from some token clips of Parker, Gillespie, Holliday, and a few others. The surrealism topic came and went much too quickly. The Joan Burroughs incident was barely mentioned, leaving the viewers to quickly read newspaper clippings during one of the quick montages...someone unfamiliar with Joan's death would obviously have a boatload of unanswered questions. And what's with the inclusion of Charles Bukowski?
He had absolutely squat to do with the Beats, other than that Ferlinghetti published a couple of his books.

I have to admit "The Source" looks good, and the rapid use of all the clips make it look snazzy, but those film clips work best when you see them in their entirety. Hopefully those new to the Beats will use "The Source" as a starting-off point and go on to watch the truly definitive documentaries. In the meantime, despite its shortcomings, "The Source" is good fun. I'll never get tired of watching anything about the Beats...

One more thing: isn't it ironic that for all the struggling for free speech, tolerance, and whatnot that the Beats did, that PBS had to mute some naughty words and cut a few minutes off the film? Not to mention chop the closing credits in half..."Hey Jack Kerouac" is a good song! Let everyone hear the whole thing, darnit!

I hate to say it again, but such childish censoring would never happen in Canada...