Howl
(Starring James Franco, Jon Hamm, Daniel Strathairn, Bob Balaban)
Here’s a well-acted movie that captures a strange and wondrous piece of LGBT history.
Years before the outbreak of the Civil Rights movement and the birth of the hippies, Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl shook the safety of 1950s America. After the end of WWII, many people thought that all young men and women – after facing carnage, madness, and genocide – would fall in line. Ex-soldiers would become bankers and real estate developers, dress like Don Draper in Mad Men, marry, have kids, and live in shiny new suburbs.
Of course, that didn’t happen.
A small group of professional hobos wandered the country aimlessly, becoming traveling Lotharios, taking odd jobs, getting into trouble. Some experimented with drugs, some experimented with art and literature and jazz, and some experimented with homosexuality. A few brave souls, like Ginsberg, had the conviction to admit they were gay when there were no support networks. Many of these social and sexual outcasts ended up in psych wards, given electric shock therapy to jolt them back into normalcy.
After eight months in an asylum and years meandering about, Ginsberg wrote about all that, and the counterculture Beat Generation was born. Howl’s widespread fame made possible Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch.
Howl follows the San Fransisco obscenity trial that surrounded the publisher of Ginsberg’s famous, potty-mouthed poem. (The publisher was Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights, for you history buffs.) At the time, Ginsberg was holed up in a flat a few miles away, giving a long interview. At stake in the trial was the ability to represent both heterosexual and homosexual acts in literature without sinking to euphemism. Underneath the proceedings was a current of discontent, sexual deviance, progressive politics, and drug use that challenged the 1950s nuclear family ideal.
Howl the film is written and directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, the pair behind the documentary The Celluloid Closet. They set before themselves the monumental task of presenting Ginsberg’s early life, his seminal work, and the trial in one single film. Word-for-word court transcripts, animation and Ginsberg interviews create a pastiche that doesn’t always cohere. Jon Hay’s animation is stunning, but it’s out of place, vacillating between explaining too much of Ginsberg’s words and trying hard not to be too literal. As a whole, this fascinating film sometimes feels more documentarian than emotional, a well-played and vital literary lesson.
What always works in Howl is the acting. Strathairn plays the conservative prosecuting attorney Ralph McIntosh with confused and frustrated aplomb. Bob Balaban’s Judge Clayton Horn is a model of quiet, insular skill. Guest spots by Mary-Louise Parker and Jeff Daniels are delightful. Jon Hamm brings gravity and poise to legendary defense attorney Jake Ehrlich. Taking center stage is Franco as Ginsberg both before and after he has become famous. Franco models the poet’s famous humming pauses and deadpan, nasal voice without ever losing the heart underneath. He also taps into the pain and shame that Ginsberg himself barely concealed. Along with 127 Hours (which will be reviewed in the Dec. 9 Watermark), Franco has two career-defining performances in 2010.
To paraphrase from his poem, Howl certainly proves that Ginsberg was one of the best minds of his generation. The actors in this film have created a breathing tribute, one worthy of this unlikely LGBT hero.
