With the release of Luca Guadagnino's outstanding film version of William S. Burrough's novella "Queer," we're seeing wonderful, renewed interest in Burroughs and his connection to cinema and art.
BURROUGH'S INFLUENCE
Like many of my generation, I discovered William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) when I was around 18 or 19, in the early 1980s.
From the moment I read "Naked Lunch," I was hooked. I loved the weirdness, surrealistic quality, rebelliousness, and strange use of language. It was crazy poetry and deep confession.
After reading "Naked Lunch," I gobbled up everything he wrote and consumed whatever I could find that others had written. I also looked for the short films he appeared in and/or wrote and watched endless videos in which Burroughs spoke at length.
During that time in the 1980s, it seemed he was everywhere: in music videos for bands I liked, in films by directors I admired, and in the news with hipsters and partiers of the 80s counterculture.
His work was uncompromising and challenging, incredibly honest, and uncomfortably revealing. He put himself out there with every poetic, oddball word he wrote.
Like another writer I came to adore, Hunter S. Thompson, Burroughs became a counterculture hero. However, unlike Thompson, his destructive lifestyle was never painted glamorous, enviable, or cool (even though I thought Burroughs was cool as hell).
"The only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius." - Norman Mailer, 1962
Burroughs' contributions to literature—especially his association with the Beat Generation movement—are incredibly important. Science fiction writers such as William Gibson and John Shirley cite Burroughs as a major influence.
Musicians such as Rogers Waters, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Genesis P-Orridge, Ian Curtis, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Todd Tamanend Clark, John Zorn, Tom Waits, Gary Numan, and Kurt Cobain loved, admired, and respected Burroughs.
He appeared in videos for bands like U2, Ministry, Nirvana, David Bowie, and more. Many bands have named themselves after direct references to Burroughs' work: Soft Machine, The Insect Trust, Steely Dan (named after a dildo!), Naked Lunch (a British band and an Austrian band), Interzone, Thin White Rope, Clem Snide, and Success Will Write Apocalypse Across the Sky.
Several short films feature Burroughs, some based upon his work like "Towers Open Fire" (1966), "The Cut-Ups" (1966) and "The Junky's Christmas" (1994).
So yeah, the guy was and still is pretty important.
He continues to inspire countless artists who followed in his stylistic footsteps to create some of the most interesting art of the latter half of the 20th century.
Below are some of ways Burroughs appears in the world of cinema. I include my comments and four film trailers in which he was portrayed by some terrific actors.
ACTORS PLAYING WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS
PETER WELLER in NAKED LUNCH (1991)
The first attempt to play Burroughs in a movie is still the best, and that performance is by Peter Weller, who is simply magnificent in the movie. David Cronenberg's masterpiece is a remarkable adaptation of what I always thought was an unfilmable book.
Cronenberg (who also wrote the adaptation) made the brilliant decision to make the movie about the book's writing instead of trying to make linear sense of the novel's insanity.
The result is one of Cronenberg's finest films, Weller's best performance ever, and one of the greatest book adaptations in film history. God, it's so good!
VIGGO MORTENSEN in ON THE ROAD (2012)
Directed by Walter Salles, this adaptation of Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel is a pretty disappointing film that most fans of the novel have politely forgotten.
It features a great ensemble cast including Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart, Alice Braga, Amy Adams, Tom Sturridge, Danny Morgan, Elisabeth Moss, Kirsten Dunst, and Viggo Mortensen, who plays Burroughs...and is easily the best thing about the movie.
BEN FOSTER in KILL YOUR DARLINGS (2013)
Written by Austin Bunn and directed by John Krokidas, in his feature film directorial debut, this disappointing movie had its world premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, garnering positive first reactions, but soon bombed upon its release.
The story is about the college days of some of the early members of the Beat Generation (Lucien Carr, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac), their interactions, and Carr's killing of his long-time friend David Kammerer in Riverside Park in Manhattan, New York City.
A great cast, including Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, Michael C. Hall, Jack Huston, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Elizabeth Olsen, and Ben Foster (as Burroughs), does the best they can with what they are given and makes the movie watchable.
DANIEL CRAIG in QUEER (2024)
My review of "Queer" is featured in the Dec 6th Movie Capsule Reviews post as well as on Patreon for paid subscribers.
The latest triumph from the exceptionally talented, adventurous, and busy director Luca Guadagnino is based on the semi-autobiographical novella by Beat writer William S. Burroughs and stars Daniel Craig in the role of a lifetime.
The cast, led by an amazing Craig, does a fantastic job grounding the heedlessness in solid emotion and gravity, resulting in a wild ride that challenges the mind and fills the heart.
This film is almost as great as Cronenberg's. It attempts even more during the final minutes when it sums up Lee's life in a nearly wordless sequence that captivated and moved me beyond words.
FILM ROLES & CAMEOS BY WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS
DECODER (1984)
"Decoder" is a 1984 West German film directed by Muscha. It is a cyberpunk and counter-cultural film roughly based on the writings of Burroughs, who also acts in the film. It is completely crazy and hard to get through, but it remains an important work of the cyberpunk genre and would go on to influence tons of video games and such works as "The Matrix" films, "Dark City," and "Ghost in the Shell."
BLOODHOUNDS OF BROADWAY (1989)
"Bloodhounds of Broadway" is a period comedy film based on four Damon Runyon stories. It stars Matt Dillon, Jennifer Grey, Anita Morris, Julie Hagerty, Rutger Hauer, Madonna, Esai Morales, Randy Quaid, and Burroughs, who makes a cameo. It's a strange hybrid of a film with a lot to hate and a lot to love.
This was director Howard Brookner's only feature film; he died soon before the film opened. The studio recut the movie and added Walter Winchell-esque narration. It received negative reviews. Six months following its theatrical release, the film was televised as a presentation of PBS's American Playhouse on May 23, 1990. A documentary about the director (listed below) would be released years later.
DRUGSTORE COWBOY (1989)
Gus Van Zant's masterpiece. "Drugstore Cowboy" is a singularly incredible crime drama film written by Van Sant and Daniel Yost and based on an autobiographical novel by James Fogle. The classic film stars Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James Le Gros, Heather Graham, and William S. Burroughs. It was Van Sant's second film as director, and it's still his best.
The source novel by Fogle (who was a massive Burroughs fan) was unpublished when the film was made. It was later published in 1990 after Fogle was released from prison. Like the characters in his story, Fogle was a long-time drug user and dealer.
Burroughs' appearance in this film as "Tom The Priest" is legendary and easily the best use of the writer in any film. The video above features every scene that Burroughs appears in in the film, and it is awesome.
DOCUMENTARIES FEATURING WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS
BURROUGHS: THE MOVIE (1983)
A really great film that I love very much.
From the Criterion Collection:
"Made up of intimate, revelatory footage of the singular author and poet filmed over the course of five years, Howard Brookner’s 1983 documentary about William S. Burroughs was for decades mainly the stuff of legend; that changed when Aaron Brookner, the late director’s nephew, discovered a print of it in 2011 and spearheaded a restoration.
Now viewers can enjoy the invigorating candidness of "Burroughs: The Movie," a one-of-a-kind nonfiction portrait that was brought to life with the help of a remarkable crew of friends, including Jim Jarmusch and Tom DiCillo, and that features on-screen appearances by fellow artists of Burroughs’s including Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Huncke, Patti Smith, and Terry Southern."
Aaron Brookner would go on to make the documentary about his uncle, noted below, which features Burroughs.
It's easily the most entertaining documentary about Burroughs ever made. It features interviews with some of the coolest people ever, all singing the praises of William, talking about his far-reaching influence, and more.
This 2010 independent documentary film directed by Yony Leyser features previously unreleased footage and interviews with his friends and colleagues.
The film uses archival footage and interviews with John Waters, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Sonic Youth, Laurie Anderson, Amiri Baraka, Jello Biafra, and David Cronenberg. It is narrated by Peter Weller and has a soundtrack by Patti Smith and Sonic Youth. It is great.
UNCLE HOWARD (2016)
Director Howard Brookner died of AIDS in NYC in 1989 while in post-production on his breakthrough Hollywood movie "Bloodhounds of Broadway" (showcased above). His body of work had been buried for 30 years in William S. Burroughs' bunker until his nephew Aaron Brookner unearthed Howard's story and the memory of everything he was.
An outstanding documentary about family, lost art, the pressures of Hollywood, compromise, and the misunderstanding of a true artist. Burroughs is featured prominently here, and it's terrific.
William Burroughs's long connection with cinema is much more detailed than what I have provided here. I hope you check out the films I shared and explore the work of this profoundly challenging artist whose controversial work will be talked about forever.
Oh yeah, as if William S. Burroughs couldn't get cooler, he is also featured on the cover of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
(He is in the center, above and to the left of Paul's head, right next to Marilyn Monroe)
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