Comments on: William S Burroughs: A Man Within

By: Bukowski Quotes

Bukowski Quotes — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 02:40:38 +0000

Nice review. I also found the film to be a more honest approach to the man than other attempts I’d seen or read. Hearing from his past lovers and loves, to the extent he had them, was fascinating. I especially liked the story of his boyfriend getting up the courage to wake him up and tell him he loved him, with Burroughs going, “Huh? Oh, that’s okay.” Well, at least he had his cats. I didn’t realize how into them he was at the end.

By: Aasolaris

Aasolaris — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 05:00:16 +0000

I think that trying to understand the “man” behind WSB the reviewer is just showing a mirror of himself.

By: cherie nutting

cherie nutting — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 19:22:41 +0000

Thank you Yoni for featuring the Music which William Burroughs loved and supported.

THE MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA LED BY BACHIR ATTAR.

It was a pleasure to meet you and to see the film on the big screen at your opening in NYC.

Bachir and the Musicians thank you and we all send love.

Cherie Nutting

By: Patricia marvin

Patricia marvin — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 04:54:09 +0000

Now I want to go back and edit some typos and carelessness. If I had the right machine, I could, maybe.

By: Patricia marvin

Patricia marvin — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 04:51:23 +0000

I saw the film several times, it is a real onion. I liked it the first time. I think it should be required in any course about William or the beats. Very accurate, carefully crafted, it was fun, it made me cry a little. It puts William in contexts of time, of class, of company, of exceptions. I disliked some of the interviews at first and inexplicably liked them more as I saw them repeated. I found it remarkable that Yoni was able to convey both man and ideas, Very complex material there.
I can’t wait for the dvd as I want to stop the film about every 10 minutes and discuss or elaborate on some point. My friends assure me that will happen and we will make a night of it. I was in New York at one opening and could of mingled at the after party but wasn’t smart, I hid in a corner, now I want to send all those people who gave their time, stories and opinions that made this film so true (to me) a free tshirt. yoni, could you send me their addresses?
I was sorry that the film had so many shots of the shot gun art (which I understand is the hot media take on Williams art) and Fred’s opinion of the art. I admit the film did note there was a variety of art techniques but the long shots of the shooting told an abridged story of a great artistic journey, and in film, pictures are the majority of the tale. It could of has some flashes of The Seven Deadly Sins, etc. Fred comes from a back ground of classical art, little fine brush strokes, different school of art than Warhol, Gyson and Burroughs. But I have disagreed with Fred take on William’s art for decades. I found the art shot through with portals of light honest collaborations and stirred with media and texture.
No one should judge William, Yoni, or Fred from my run on writing. I don’t have a fine hand at writing, I am better at pies. I hope this film gets into the award arenas because it is that good.

By: cuthebull

cuthebull — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:17:05 +0000

Joe, WSB’s charisma was especially powerful with those who DID know him. Celebrities as well as his friends in Lawrence Ks. You can see them in Yony’s film. I spoke with some of his friends myself…A good number of them speak about him with genuine affection, describe WSB as a compassionate good friend…yes. it’s complicated and annoying for some to NOT get a clear delineation of characters as either saint or evil…very uneasy mish-mash, beautifully crafted in Yony’s film

By: kansaspo8

kansaspo8 — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:31:38 +0000

Interesting that so much attention drawn to comments of John Waters. Ironic, to me, that Mr. Waters was, of all the talking heads in movie, least ‘attached’ to WSB in a personal, business, financial or egotistical way.

Yony made a good doc. Let’s see what is next.

By: johnny strike

johnny strike — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:53:46 +0000

‘Life is very dangerous and few survive it…’

WSB

By: Graham Rae

Graham Rae — Wed, 05 May 2010 23:16:12 +0000

Alright, his life was a laugh riot. (Chuckle)

By: johnny strike

johnny strike — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:02:54 +0000

‘In the mid-1980s William went through a period of deep sadness and depression, reviewing a life’s catalog of mistakes and regrets, and this seems to have resulted in a kind of spiritual awakening, because by the end of his life ten years later he really had become enormously sweet and tenderhearted. I don’t mean saccharine-sweet — William was salty and irreverent and funny to the end — but he was more patient, more kindly, more considerate, more grateful, and more gracious. I would say he was trying to extinguish the Second Fire, ill-will, and to stave off the onset of the Third, mental dullness or boredom. In Western Lands, and even moreso in My Education: A Book of Dreams (which he assembled in the early 1990s), he encounters most of his old friends in the “L.O.D.” — the Land of the Dead, which in turn is coterminous with the world of his dreams, meaning that his view of the afterlife is a life in dreams, or a bardo state, between lives.
As death approached, William was writing in what he knew would be his final journals. In these he wrestled with his anger at man’s bottomless ignorance, and seems to have overcome it to a large extent, by the end. I think he never stopped believing that, in the words of Sri Aurobindo, which he often quoted: “This is a War Universe” — and he always saw himself in the warrior’s role. But by some dispensation of his own curious karma, including all the social and historical baggage he was born with, and all the passions he felt and violent actions he took in his life, William Burroughs was given a final decade of old age in which to look back upon that life and study its lessons — and in this time, with the help of his beloved cats, he attainted a state of ahimsa, compassion for the suffering that is everywhere.’

–James Grauerholz