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DEATH SMELLS

Today's film was the documentary and NYTimes Critics' Pick

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within

Burroughs is (generously) credited with setting the stage for the cultural revolution known as "the sixties".

In many ways, Burroughs is a big pill to swallow. A gay man who didn't want the label. A gun fanatic that killed his wife and ruined his son's life. A heroin addict who never really kicked it. Ever. Inventor of prose made from cutup pieces of paper. Shit like that.

But he is a fascinating character and this film picks up on that theme enlisting many people to talk about him from their own experience. The group alone is interesting enough but what they unearth about Burroughs is even more so. It forms a tapestry in which an actual image of the real man emerges. Not sympathetic but more, perhaps, about the loneliness and isolation and the courage it took to seek his own way in spite of that.

I never read a lot of Burroughs. His gay life was not mine. His addictions were of another sort. His novels were raw and cringeworthy. Transgressive for the sake of it.

But Burroughs does not need my approval to admire him. I liked the film and came to like him better than I did.

He is still a big pill to swallow but now it is a bit more candy coated. Easier to go down.

The production and art work are quite good. It was great to see the footage with Ginsberg and others.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films