Customer Reviews

Poetry in Motion [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"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.

"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.

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.

I expected more. I purchased this film along with Slamnation and Fooling with Words. The film barely kept me engaged and the poetry and performances were lackluster. Fooling with Words gives a more comprehensive look at the craft with poets that are not relics of an age almost forgotten. Slamnation is a must have and will wake you up from the coma that Poetry in Motion might cause.

This is a well intended video, that relies too much on performance & not enough on the poetry itself. Strong appearances by Bukowski, Berrigan & Waldman make it worth seeing. I would have liked to have seen more like these. But instead there is too much singing & back up bands. Not all poets are good performers. The ultimate performance is on the page not the stage anyway, but here the performances are taken out of context. It tries too hard to be the Woodstock of poetry. I would like to see more of what these poets did best.

Poetry is subjective and therefore difficult to say what one individual finds good or bad another would agree with. My opinion of the poetry presented in the film aside, this film presented a good look at various styles of poetry. Some of the poets are so long winded that you lose interest in the performance and what they are saying. Then there are those whose poetry and/or style are well worth wading through the others. All in all this is a good retrospective of the emergence of and use of various styles of poetry and poetry as performance art.

but every time this film is shown at a theater, i always see it because i love to find out what makes a poet a poet and what creative processes they use to make poetry...jim carroll's segment is good..he has one of those reading voices that you could pick out of a crowd...amiri baraka does a masterful job with his tribute poem to larry neal and bob marley called " wailers " jayne cortez's " i see chano pozo " is musicially brilliant.bukowski's segments are cool, but it would've been nice if he had read a poem...he's okay as a poet. but there's no mystery to his work...its too easy to "get"...

Poetry in Motion is a blast from the poetry past and shows poets struggling to get their ideas across in a variety of musical mediums. While the methods they use are entertaining to observe, I started to miss the silence needed to contemplate the subtleties of the language being used. The words flew by so fast and were crowded out with music and a leaning towards a more speedy presentation. At times poets played with ideas and created musical instruments to give background music and dimension to the readings. One poet wore a tie that played like a miniature piano.

Some of the poets seemed to be somewhat uncomfortable with the transparency of being on camera. As if by reading their poems, suddenly they were more intimate with the audience than before. Helen Adams came completely unglued in front of the camera, as if possessed by some muse. Her highly entertaining and eccentric style is even more enhanced when you start to observe her office surroundings. She playfully feeds off her poems and hardly reads them at all. She truly performs her poems with an advanced memory and captures all the subtleties of the language and sends your imagination on quite a journey. There are two readings on the DVD, one is in the "additional footage" section and could be considered a bit of a ghost story.

Throughout this DVD you can observe poets stepping out of their private writing lives and in front of the camera where they tell their stories, explain how they became poets and explore their artistic freedom with audience participation. This may inspire you to attend a poetry reading, read your poems out loud or to record your poetry on CD.

~The Rebecca Review

Fans of poetry will love seeing the famous poets read their work. Ginsberg sings "How To Meditate" and Bukowski is sprinkled throughout the film, giving advice to writers and describing the poetry scene of that day. It's great to see the poets perform their work, speak to the interviewer back stage, and learn about their poetic ties. On the second viewing, I found myself fast forwarding to the scenes with Ginsberg, Baraka, and Bukowski. On the third, only Bukowski. The film captures the Contemporary American Poetry scene of the early eighties, but with poetry's progression into new areas, the film becomes an archive. People interested in American poetry should see this movie at least once.

The world of VHS is over - bring on the DVD. This is one of the most fantastic group of poets ever assembled on one video. There should be move videos/DVDs for me to gobble up. I hungry - feed me. I am working on a collection of these documentaries and the VHS versions are all messed up and old. DVDs are the wave of the future - lets go people - start working on it.