Walt Whitman

Originally aired on PBS's American Experience, Mark Zwonitzer's Walt Whitman is a middling (literally) biography that focuses primarily on the famed 19th-century poet's productive years as he continually revised and added to his landmark work Leaves of Grass (first published in 1855, but going through nine editions before Whitman died in 1892). While Whitman's early years (he hailed from a dysfunctional Long Island farming family) as a teacher, journalist, and editor, as well as his post-Civil War final 20 years living in Camden, NJ are only sketchily presented, Walt Whitman truly shines in the way it effectively captures (and nicely translates in a cinematic sense) Whitman's vox populi tone, as the poet “sings” of the American people, the nation's varied landscape, and the varieties of love (heterosexual and homosexual—Whitman was gay)—cutting back and forth between archival material and modern day shots mostly set in NYC to convey the centuries-spanning timeliness of Whitman's verse. Narrated by J.K. Simmons (with Chris Cooper providing Whitman's voice), the documentary interweaves stills and dramatized poetic scenes with interviews and readings featuring scholars and writers (including poets Billy Collins, Martin Espada, and Yusef Komunyakaa, as well as novelist Allan Gurganus). It may not be the most comprehensive biography of its subject, but Walt Whitman will inspire viewers to discover (or rediscover) a classic of American literature: Leaves of Grass. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)