“Howl”

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked”

New York, jazz and rebels. Cigarette smoke, the sound of moving the cart in the machine, grunt and sigh. Stray souls and missed opportunities. Nothing but lost generation. So why were there so many objections if it is true? Because someone collected it together, hurled abuse and portrayed love when others did not have the courage. Everyone knew it but he could not describe it. However, it was him who released the uncensored truth and therefore has been appreciated.

San Francisco, year 1955. On the stage there is an unknown young writer. He takes out some papers, which still smell of ink, from the reel and he adjusts his glasses. For the last time he looks at the audience and then he sinks into the content of his work. Whine. From verse to verse increasingly confident he pronounces word after word. Moloch. Within every second the audience submerge into the poem, forgetting about everything, absorbing the visions of a rebel.

The film tells about the circumstances of the creation of the poem “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg. Vulgarity, indecency and lack of values, — these are the allegations against Allen. In the film we witness a trail at court, a controversial interview with the creator of the work and illustrated fragments of poems. The film differs from others of this genre, in beautiful animations that leaven “Howl”. The creators of this film balanced among different forms of communication. Everything can be viewd as complementary, nothing is too much or too little.

“Howl” by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman is certainly the best film showing the figure of the famous Allen Ginsberg. James Franco impersonated the poet He played a well-known figure not for the first time but, in my opinion, in this film he gave the best perormance.

“Howl” does not belong to a simple form of the cinema and it raises a lot of controversy. You have to understand it and it is really worth it because it stays in the memory for a very long time.

“Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men!”

Another movies about Alan Ginsberg: “Kill Your Darlings”