Harlan Ellison: Dreams with Sharp Teeth

Love him or hate him, the pugnacious Harlan Ellison is more than deserving of filmmaker Erik Nelson's affectionate 2007 tribute, Dreams with Sharp Teeth. Having filmed and interviewed Ellison numerous times over 25 years, Nelson uses his own considerable archive to assemble an engaging and current portrait of the artist (with Ellison appearing feistier than ever at age 72), along with decades of career perspective, including Ellison's prolific contributions to science fiction TV in the '60s (like his classic Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever”) and his editorship of the groundbreaking anthology Dangerous Visions. Through long-unseen home movies from Ellison's youth to later clips from TV appearances and college lectures, we see Ellison first as a smart-aleck, know-it-all kid who was bullied at school in the '50s (and remains creatively motivated by anger as a result); then as a '60s and '70s-era celebrity and notorious seducer of women; and now as the happily married and aging-but-never-mellowing grand master of speculative fiction. Ellison needn't worry (although he does) whether his literary legacy will endure, as several of his friends and colleagues interviewed here (including comedian Robin Williams, author Dan Simmons, Battlestar Galactica producer/developer Ron Moore and A History of Violence writer Josh Olson) predict it will. The film captures Ellison's essence as a raconteur and literary force of nature, ferociously intolerant of stupidity and compromise, whose reputation as a “difficult writer” prevented him from a consistent career in Hollywood. Nelson's film skims over much of the controversy in Ellison's life, but that doesn't stop Dreams with Sharp Teeth—propelled by jangly guitar interludes by folk-rock legend Richard Thompson—from being an engaging and long-overdue portrait of an important and influential writer. DVD extras include a conversation between Ellison and author Neil Gaiman, readings by Ellison, and footage from the film's 2007 Los Angeles premiere. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (J. Shannon)