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THE SOURCE Send This Review to a Friend
The saga of the "Beat Generation" has faded into memory, but Chuck Workman's documentary "The Source," not only revives recollections of that wild literary and cultural era but credits it with being a wellspring for movements that followed from the 1960s onward. The thesis is somewhat overstated, but the film does succeed in showing that such relationship did exist, at least to some extent.
Some of the ground has been covered elsewhere, but Workman has assembled an array of footage that is intriguing and useful to watch. One need only cite some of the icons and personalities revisited to communicate the flavor of the exploration--Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Timothy Leary, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ken Kesey and Gregory Corso, to name a sampling. The device of dramatizing work by Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs is used, with the effective aid of John Turturro, Johnny Depp and Dennis Hopper. In that sense, this is not a pure documentary.
Workman emphasizes the connection of the Beats with music, which affords the opportunity to stress links with Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones and various others. "The Source" tends to get repetitious in parts, yet it stands as yet another addition to the lore of modern cultural and social rebellion and the importance of the participants to our national life. A WinStar Cinema release.
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