All of these famously creative folks and more offer telling reminiscences adhering to the acerbic public status of Burroughs in this debut feature from Chicago filmmaker Yony Leyser. Leyser’s movie is a fully realized portrait that gets beneath the surface—perhaps for the first time—of Burroughs’ seemingly unbreakable façade. Leyser finds a lonely man haunted by demons who desperately yearned for love and affection but rejected both in equal measure.
In interviews for the project the 25-year-old Leyser—who produced, wrote and directed the film for more than four years—has repeatedly described his fascination with outsiders, outsider culture and, in particular, a longtime predisposition toward the mythic, decidedly “you say tomay-toe, I say tomah-toe” character that Burroughs presented to the world at large. For a period Leyser moved to Lawrence, Kansas, the place where Burroughs spent his final years along with his onetime lover, friend, editor and eventual executor of his estate, James Grauerholz. Recognizing Leyser’s enthusiasm and perhaps sensing a talent for digging beneath the surface, Grauerholz gave his blessing to the young filmmaker’s ideas, which eventually wrought this full length documentary biography of Burroughs’ life.
The portrait that emerges, which includes a lot of exclusive, never-before- seen footage and audio recordings, is of a man of extreme contradictions—someone who basked in his outsider status, a man who eschewed intimacy and “softness” yet seemed to have felt most comfortable kicking back with friends and supplicants. “He was famous for things that were supposed to be forbidden,” John Waters comments, noting the hallmarks of Burroughs dyspeptic character—the basis for his original fame in the mid 1950s that carried him through to his death in 1997. He was gay, a junkie, a man who had no truck with traditional values; a man who shot and killed his common-law wife under circumstances that are still subject to debate; and someone who ignored an only son (who followed in his addictive footsteps and died in his early 30s). These are the traits of an asshole, a literary Scrooge whose brilliance would seem best left to the page.
Certainly there’s enough footage to support that view of Burroughs in the film. We see and hear the poker-faced dandy, dressed in his signature, plain three-piece suits, speaking in that acid-dripped monotone, reading his own work (and in one startling moment, a section of Maria Riva’s biography of her mother Marlene Dietrich), sharing drinks with his fellow queer icon Andy Warhol, reveling in his gun collection (“I want to shoot something!” he gleefully cries) and swatting away questions from fans like so many flies. The brilliance of his autobiographical novels Naked Lunch, Junky and Queer, and his lasting effect on arts and culture (both are vast) are noted and rehashed.
Not surprisingly, it’s the intimate revelations by former lovers like Grauerholz and Marcus Ewert that help build a counterprofile of a guy who desperately loved his six cats, was deeply anguished over the loss of his son, suffered mightily from paranoia and chose dalliances with hustlers over long-term relationships. Several of Leyser’s interview subjects surmise that Burroughs suffered most from unrequited love, beginning with a high school boy and continuing through fellow Beat writer Allen Ginsberg and beyond—a running theme through his life that he shielded with his famously difficult public persona.
Fascinating and illuminating, William S. Burroughs: A Man Within adds a very human dimension to an intractable and gifted artist whose obsessions and professional mask obscured that from public view.
Of related interest: Allen Ginsberg, as noted, was Burroughs’ fellow queer Beat generation writer and author of the seminal queer-themed classic poem “Howl.” Both were the subject of one of last year’s most interesting, artsy films, Howl. The film is an attempt by out documentarians Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein (making their feature debut) to make a conjoined biography of the poem; its lasting effect on literature; and Ginsberg’s burgeoning life as a gay man and ostensible spokesman for a generation of outsiders, queer and otherwise. Oscilloscope Laboratories are now releasing the movie in a handsome, eco-friendly package (typical for Oscilloscope) that includes both the Blu-Ray and DVD versions along with a myriad of extras.
***Win the Howl DVD with special bonuses PLUS a copy of Allen Ginsberg’s book!
Special edition DVDs of Oscilloscope Laboartories’ latest film, HOWL, feature a plethora of extra features that help bring Allen Ginsberg’s controversial poem to life. Accompanying them is a paperback copy of the poet’s classic work—the City Lights Books’ Pocket Poet Series featured in film and boundary-changing obscenity trial that surrounded it.
To enter to win one DVD and one book, e-mail click2win@windycitytimes.com by Feb. 7, with “HOWL” in the memo line.
TV writer/director John Wells makes his feature film debut with The Company Men, which follows three top executives (Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper) for a year after each finds himself unexpectedly downsized out of his corporate position. Affleck, the youngest of the three, faces perhaps the greatest comeuppance—arrogant and cocky, his marriage in trouble, it takes a long time for reality to set in (i.e., the big ticket items—the foreign sports car, the McMansion—all must go on the block). All three face ageism and other woes that will be familiar to millions of upwardly mobile Americans.
Wells has chosen an interesting, topical subject that doesn’t get much dramatic attention (or sympathy) and, for quite a while, the movie holds for that reason alone (and the top-notch casting—which includes Maria Bello, Kevin Costner, Craig T. Nelson, Rosemarie DeWitt and Patricia Kalember—certainly helps). But Wells comes up with neat solutions, both short- and long-term, for the men (one has a brother who conveniently puts him to work in his construction business, for example) and throws in some over-the-top plots. Both of these elements toss the movie back toward his television episode-writing roots and strain credibility. The first half is insightful, though.
Check out my archived reviews at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com. Readers can leave feedback at the latter website.