DVD Review: The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg

You know about how kids will try to get out of reading the book by seeing the movie, right? Well, you don't need to read a book about Allen Ginsberg, you can just watch The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg instead. If you still want more of Ginsberg, after this, then you must be a Ginsberg fan--not that there's anything wrong with that.

We spend our time with this documentary getting to know Ginsberg, his family, friends, and fans over the course of much of the tumult of the twentieth century. Great American poet Ginsberg was born in the 1920's, the son of another great American poet, Louis Ginsberg, and in the 40's and 50's became part of a circle of writers that also included Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, who all became collectively known as "the beat generation" and were often referred to as "beatniks," forerunners of the hippie movement of the 60's. 

This "deluxe two-disc set" DVD package from First Run Features includes the 84-min. documentary feature and six hours of extra footage, and all is well worth viewing. It's organized like book chapters, each "chapter" covering roughly a decade, Ginsberg reading "Howl" in the 50's, leading protesters in a meditation chant, "Ohm," as all Hell breaks loose at the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968. He's interviewed by the conservative William Buckley in '68 and the more liberal Dick Cavett in '78. We continue to follow his life as he, although born to the Jewish faith, becomes heavily involved in Buddism in the 70's, joins protests against nuclear weapons in the 70's and 80's, and publishes a book of photography shortly before his death in 1997. We also get a taste of what it was like to be part of the LGBT community, as Ginsberg was, prior to the "gay revolution" of the 60's and 70's.

Although the documentary itself is only 84 minutes long, take time to watch the bonus material, too, which adds up to roughly six hours. See the "making of" bonus feature in which the director, Jerry Aronson, explains why he had to go to Europe to find funding, join Ginsberg and Bob Dylan in a visit to Kerouac's grave, follow the Buddist custom of watching over Ginsberg waiting for his "inner breath" to vanish after death, and virtually attend his memorial service that includes a tribute from Patti Smith. Hear in dozens of interviews, personal memories of Ginsberg, from sources that include but aren't limited to: Joan Baez, Bono, Beck, William Burroughs, Johnny Depp, Ken Kesey, Abbie Hoffman, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Patti Smith, Hunter S. Thompson, Timothy Leary, and Andy Warhol. 

From the jacket blurb:  "For 25 years, Academy Award-nominated director Jerry Aronson accumulated more than 60 hours of film on Allen Ginsberg, resulting in this comprehensive portrait of one of America's greatest poets . . . This Special Edition contains the Director's Cut of the award-winning documentary that began filming in 1982" and ended with Ginsberg's death in 1997. The film was first made available in the early 2000's but remains relevant to the counter-culture of any period.

Available from First Run Features:  firstrunfeatures.com