The Beat Generation: An American Dream [VHS]
by Janet Forman

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VHS Movie Reviews of The Beat Generation: An American Dream [VHS]

Movie Review: Beat is a state of mind
Summary: 5 Stars

It is nice to be able to put faces and voices to the names and characters that you've been reading about for years (and more than a few are nothing like you'd expect from their reputations.) You've got interviews and film footage from the "holy trinity": Kerouac, Burroughs, and Ginsberg- as well as a multitude of other beat and beat connected figures (Cassady, Ferlinghetti, Corso, Huncke, Dianne Di Prima, Jan Kerouac, Ann Charters, Abby Hoffman, Leary, etc., etc., etc.) The whole thing is kind of tied together by Steve Allen.

The thing that I got from this is that you can have the genuine "inner beatness", or you can have the whole "beatnik", pretentious wannabe thing. The latter is a cold dead and empty form. The former, however, is as alive as it ever was- here and there, underground. Beats aren't wannabes- the just want-to-be themselves- either alone or with a few like-minded friends. I know it came as a shock to me when I first started reading the beats- and found that they had been living, thinking, and feeling like I always had. Beat is a state of mind- and a state of mind isn't bounded by the irrelevancies time or place.

Movie Review: 5 stars if they didn't include Abbie Hoffman or Tim Leary
Summary: 4 Stars

Movie Review: A little late in the "Beat Rush"
Summary: 3 Stars

Summary of The Beat Generation: An American Dream [VHS]

General Video

• Genres > Documentary
• History > American History & Culture