| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poetry Brought to Life,
By
This review is from: Poetry in Motion (DVD)
"Poetry in Motion" is an early documentary by Ron Mann, who is now more widely known for his documentaries "Grass" and "Comic Book Confidential". As with most of Mann's documentaries, he partly uses this film as an excuse to explore "alternative culture" by meeting with people he admires and capturing it all on film (something most people would love to be able to do for a living). But, as always with Mann, the product is meaningful and insightful, as well as entertaining and educational for anyone with an interest in the arts and culture, and not self-indulgent or fluffy.In some of the most interesting parts of the film, Charles Bukowski bravely dismisses most poetry, including most poems considered to be classics, as boring and pretentious and lacking in any meaning to the average person, and is equally critical of most people making a living as poets. In fact, his rant strongly reflects the feelings (usually not so well expressed) of most people I knew in highschool. But while Bukowski makes a great point, the rest of the film manages to prove that at least some poets are not guilty of such crimes as it brings their works to life. Most of the film consists of various poets, some unfortunately now departed, performing one of their poems, plus there are a few scenes wherein several of them explain their philosophies about poetry and its performance. The performance styles of each poet varies as greatly as the contents of their poems. Some poets are accompanied by background music or actually turn their poems into songs. Others incorporate dance or other visuals. Others merely read out their poems (some, e.g. Jonathan Carroll, with more feeling than others), sometimes proving that a poem is an intrinsically beautiful thing without a big production. Of course very few people will enjoy all of the performances. I found a few (e.g. the Four Horsemen's) to be horribly pretentious, showing all style and no substance. However, even the less palatable performances do a wonderful job of illustrating that poetry can be given unexpected and exciting new form when removed from the page and given life and motion, and that one's experience of a poem can be significantly transformed merely by the way it is performed. To mention a few of my favourite performances: Tom Waits performs a song, playing solo on an accoustic guitar (illustrating the fine line between poetry and music). William S. Burroughs delivers one of his poem/stories in his usual laid back, gravel-voiced, sardonic style. And, in an especially entertaining performance, Allen Ginsberg energetically sings an anti-government poem with a full rock band accompanying him while the audience dances and twists (Ginsberg sometimes joining in, wiggling and shaking on stage). "Poetry in Motion" is an interesting documentary which should be especially enlightening to those whose exposure to poetry is limited to classroom dissections of those boring, stale poems Bukowski gripes about. But old converts will find it enlightening as well.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The good, the bad, the Bukowski,
By Joshua W Berk (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Poetry in Motion [VHS] (VHS Tape)
"Poetry in Motion" somehow won an award for best documentary in the early '80s despite the seeming litmitations of not really being a documentary and also of not really being very good. The film does not have any structure, narrative or point. The filmmaker demonstrates no research or understanding of his topic. All he did was point the camera at the poets and let them do their thing. This would be fine, except for that, as Charles Bukowski says in one of the few interesting segements in the film, "most poets are a--holes." Old Buk is featured at the very beginning, middle and very end of the movie and, despite being the only poet on the thing not to read one word of poetry, steals the show. I laughed out loud as he talked about how reading Tolstoy gives him a headache and giggled again when he said that he was driven to write because everyone else was doing it so badly. His words rang especially true after the parade of pompous, boring, and nauseating poets featured on the film. With a few exceptions (Allen Ginsberg, Helen Adams, Tom Waits, William Burroughs and a few others), I found myself wondering if perhaps the filmmaker was trying to to illustrate Bukowski's points by making a movie about how bad most poetry is and how obnoxious most poets are. If so, the film is a success -- but still a waste of time. Truth be told, I don't think the filmmaker could tell the difference between good and bad poetry if it were right in front of him -- which, in fact, it was. Way too much bad poetry performed by pompous jerks overshadows the few gems on this video. I don't know where else Bukowski can be seen on video though, so some will want to buy it for that reason alone.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good old hippie poetry and interviews,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Poetry in Motion [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Get this tape!! Steal it from a friend if necessary, but see it, especially if you were a child of the 60's or are interested in these kinky, highly creative citizens.Seeing and hearing these talented writers read is just plain awesome! Peace.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
