Gang of Souls: A Generation of Beat Poets

Maria Beatty's 1989 Gang of Souls brings together the surviving (at the time) Beat poets—Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, and Diane di Prima—along with a number of other poets and performers inspired by those 1950s-era iconoclasts, including Jim Carroll, Marianne Faithfull, Lydia Lunch, and a surprisingly boyish Henry Rollins. The result, however, is anything but poetic, in this slice-and-dice mix of talking head commentary on subjects such as the importance of Ginsberg's 1956 landmark poem “Howl,” the liberating lyricism of the Beat writer, the challenges of creating poetry, the struggle to attract contemporary audiences, etc. There's relatively little in the way of genuine poetry here, unless you count John Giorno's painfully hammy (and mercifully brief) spoken word performances. Gang of Souls suffers from the format, as each guest writer spends anywhere from five seconds to two minutes to convey their thoughts before the camera cuts to another poet for more sound bites. A few writers, particularly the punk-rambunctious Lunch, use their snippets of screen time with self-indulgent gusto, but most—especially Burroughs and Ginsberg—seem politely but conspicuously bored. DVD extras include updated text bios on the poets. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)