Customer Reviews

Voices & Visions: Walt Whitman [VHS]

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I find this video on Whitman one is THE best video out there for teaching purposes. The readings by Galway Kinnell are excellent, as are the biographical analysis by Justin Kaplan (who wrote my favorite biography of Whitman) and the personal interpretations by Allen Ginsberg. Harold Bloom does seem to confuse "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed" with "Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking" as well as put forth some rather silly theories concerning the poet's relationships with other people; and Donald Hall does make a tiny biographical error; but all-in-all, the film is excellent. The small errors or doubtful interpretations also make great jumping-off points for class discussions.

The film explores variouses influences on the poet, from the King James Bible to to journalism to opera. It also contains some of the earliest images ever made in "moving pictures" to help illustrate the parallel between the visual artist Eakins and the poet Whitman.

I do hope this is reproduced on DVD some time. The VHS tape I bought several years ago plays only on certain VHS players and not on others (sound is distorted, tracking all off). Fortunately, the original is not copy-protected, so I was able to make a copy that does seem okay on other players. Closed-captioning would also be a bonus.