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Howl
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Oscilloscope Laboratories Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (9th April 2011). |
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The Film
 “Every word in this film was spoken by the actual people portrayed. In that sense this film is like a documentary. In every other sense, it is different.” The above text appears before “Howl”, the recent biopic focused on counter-culture poet and gay author Allen Ginsberg from relatively young indie production house Werc Werk Works Films. Filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman know a thing or two about documentaries – especially documentaries about people who also happened to be homosexuals. As the minds behind such acclaimed films as “The Times of Harvey Milk” (1984) – which Epstein won an Oscar for in 1985 – as well as “The Celluloid Closet” (1995), a fascinating look at homosexuality in Hollywood during the reign of the Hays Code, and the portrait of gays-and-lesbians-in-Nazi-Germany “Paragraph 127” (2000), they’re pretty much the perfect duo to tackle the life and art of Beat Generation icon Allen Ginsberg. Apparently the Ginsberg Estate thought so too, and asked Epstein and Friedman to produce something in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of “Howl”, Ginsberg’s most celebrated work (from the anthology book “‘Howl’ and Other Poems” by Allen Ginsberg). But when the writer/directors began researching Ginsberg and his writings in 2005 for their eventual film, they soon discovered that a traditional documentary really wouldn’t do the legacy of the author or his work just. Instead, after interviewing those who were closest to Allen before he died and approaching mutual friend Gus Van Sant for additional financing, they decided to produce what ultimately became the film reviewed here. Unlike anything – or very little – before it, “Howl” charts a unique venture into untested waters: an experimental hybrid of documentary, dramatized re-enactment, and stylized animation, and based on a script comprised entirely of sworn testimony, recorded interviews, and the text from “Howl” itself, the film is, if nothing else, an interesting experiment. Starring the consistently surprising and apparently transformative James Franco as the man in question, “Howl” covers the expected bases of a biopic by offering the cursory details of Ginsberg’s early life and career. It does this with a series of interviews in which Franco, sporting a thick beard, converses with an unseen reporter and said reporter’s reel-to-reel tape deck. Taken from the transcriptions of that interview – which truly happened in real life – Franco recites Ginsberg’s actual words with an eerily near-identical tone, discussing the institutionalization of his mother, initial need to impress his father, his unusual friendship with Jack Kerouac (Todd Rotondi), and unconventional love affair with Neal Cassidy (Jon Prescott), finding his life-long partner Peter Orlovsky (Aaron Tveit), whom he stayed with until his death in 1996, and how and why he became a poet. The interview scenes usually give way to one of two things: Ginsberg’s vivid remembrances come to life in stark black-and-white flashbacks, or brazenly colorful literal interpretations of the poem “Howl” by animator Eric Drooker. Drooker’s oddly cool, but sometimes-overwrought animated meditations on what “Howl” really means range from the disastrously distracting to the brilliantly symbolic. It’s frankly frustrating how off-putting some of the animated scenes can be, because at other moments they work quite well. Framing the film in a more traditional sense is the plot point of “Howl” and its publisher, Lawrence Ferlinghetti (Andrew Rogers), standing trial for obscenity in San Francisco in 1957. Mad man Jon Hamm plays Lerlinghetti’s defense attorney Jake Ehrlich. Standing opposite him is David Strathairn as Ralph McIntosh, an old-fashioned prosecutor fighting for the everyman who, McIntosh says, doesn’t understand “Howl” and only sees Ginsberg’s offensive, obscene language. Ehrlich and McIntosh parade a number of expert witnesses – an intellectual from Berkley played by Treat Williams, literary critic Luther Nichols (Alessandro Nivola), a pretentious scholar of Arts and Letters David Kirk (Jeff Daniels), and Mary-Louise Parker as Gail Potter, a prim-and-proper English professor and religious conservative objecting to “Howl” on the basis of its offensive subject matter – in order to prove to Judge Clayton Horn (Bob Balaban) whether or not “Howl” has any literary merit. Although an old-school traditionalist himself, Judge Horn is also an adamant proponent of free speech, leaving the court case anyone’s game. Hamm and Strathairn are exceptional in their roles – one turning in a more emotive performance than I’m used to, and the other a more reserved one (and both are powerful for their own reasons). And Franco is simply incredible, disappearing into the role. As the cover art says, James Franco is – emphasis added on “is” – Allen Ginsberg. Quite rightly critics have called his turn as Ginsberg “career defining”; it is, in every sense of the term. By the end of the film, the lines between documentary and dramatic re-enactment blur to the point that it makes little difference if Epstein and Friedman wanted to make a documentary or a story bound film… because the fact is, they’ve made both. “Howl” is a surprisingly well-done hybrid of a film. It really probably shouldn’t work – it’s quite short, and jumps around between a mass of visual styles and narrative flows – but it largely does, probably because of such credible performances from its actors and an obvious importance to its writer/directors. “Howl” is a quirky experimental picture about a polarizing, somewhat obscure figure. It most definitely won’t be for everyone, but I liked the film and so, it comes with a cautious seal of approval.
Video
Oscilloscope’s faithful to-the-source 1080p 24/fps high definition widescreen transfer does what it can with a film that utilizes a myriad of stylized aesthetic choices to tell its story. Framed in 1.85:1 with small letterboxing on the top and bottom of the image to preserve the film’s not-quite-16x9 aspect ratio, “Howl” features a strong AVC MPEG-4 encode with an average bitrate of 22 Mbps. Epstein, Friedman and cinematographer Edward Lachman mix-and-match filmstocks and photographic styles, even splicing documentary footage and animation into the scant 84-minute runtime. The results on Blu-ray are sometimes frustratingly chaotic, but more often than not, quite nice looking. The transfer is free of unwanted digital “enhancements” like unintentional digital noise reduction application, and I spotted no artificial sharpening, haloing, serious macro blocking or other unwanted issues. “Howl” can be broken down into five specific styles. The courtroom scenes, which are warm and natural, offer excellent detail in the wood grain paneling and each witness’ and lawyers retro wardrobe, are probably the film’s strongest, most conventionally attractive moments. In the supplements Lachman likens the court scenes to a traditional studio picture of the period, with intentionally over-saturated colors and generally over-polished visuals. The beautiful black-and-white scenes – some of which were shot in native monochrome, and others, which have a “Pleasantville-ian” look, were likely turned colorless via the digital intermediate – exhibit a superb grayscale with inky blacks, and some fine film grain. Intercut we also find heavily color-graded material – tweaked almost exclusively teal-and-orange via the DI – in the Franco-as-Ginsberg interviews; obviously there’s little natural color in these scenes. Meanwhile, some rough looking photographs and 8mm documentary footage of the real Ginsberg, which hope to add historical context, also appear, frequently sporting at least a fleck or two of damage along with some thick grain. The animated expressions of Ginsberg’s poem by artist Eric Drooker are – technically speaking – the transfers main weakness, not because of the somewhat simplistic nature of the CG animation, but in terms of encoding. Banding, can be quite severe, is a near-constant bother in these scenes, and there’s even a bit of artifacting and aliasing in these (clunky, if cool) animated insertions too. Otherwise, the presentation is good-to-great, with the sort of high levels of fine object detail expected of HD. Contrast is ample, and the presentation offers a solidly filmic texture.
Audio
Listeners can choose between two lossless audio options: a rather impressive, if oddly authored, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix (48kHz/24-bit) and a somewhat pointless (if totally acceptable) English PCM 2.0 stereo downmix. The inclusion of a 2-channel downmix is puzzling, although I assume it’s there for the small minority of customers who either listen to their Blu-rays through headphones or completely lack the ability to decode even lossy DTS. For the purposes of this review I’ll discuss the 6-channel surround mix. Overall, “Howl” sounds good on Blu-ray – save for one small issue. For some reason the mix defaults to a much lower volume than other comparable discs; once corrected (I bumped up the track six notches from my regular reference volume) the would-be-to-quiet film becomes much more powerful and reliable. Dialogue is clear and well-prioritized coming mostly from the front speakers, while the score – by Carter Burwell – bleeds nicely into the rears. The track isn’t quite a force of nature (and is instead rather reserved for a majority of the runtime) but it does provide a decent, realistic atmosphere in most scenes. Directly opposing their crummy visuals, the animated sequences are the highlight of the disc from an auditory standpoint, with full use of the sound field and much more pronounced authority. “Howl” is a satisfying lossless experience; just remember to turn up the volume. Optional subtitles are included in English and French.
Extras
Marketed as a 2-disc Special Edition, “Howl” includes a number of worthwhile and often exhaustively informative extras. Spread across one Blu-ray and one DVD fans can find an audio commentary with the directors and star, a detailed making-of documentary clocking in at ¾ of an hour, another lengthy five-part featurette with interviews from those who new Ginsberg best which runs just shy of thirty minutes in total, a short film featuring Ginsberg reading “Howl”, as well as James Franco doing the same in an audio excerpt, and a few random bonus trailers both related to “Howl” and not. Exclusive to the Blu-ray format are two additional short films featuring readings of two more Ginsberg poems, and a Q&A session with directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. All video-based content is encoded in nice looking 1.78:1 widescreen 1080i/p high definition unless otherwise noted. DISC ONE: BLU-RAY Headlining the terrific pack of extras is an audio commentary with James Franco and “Howl” writers/directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. Recorded in August of 2010, this conversation with the filmmakers and star is wonderfully informative. Franco moderates and occasionally dominates the discussion; topics covered include the life and works of Allen Ginsberg, the brief time that Epstein and Friedman considered making “Howl” a traditional documentary, the eventual reasons for its adaptation into free-form biopic, and more. Directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, stars James Franco, Jon Hamm, David Strathairn, Treat Williams, Alessandro Nivola, and Bob Balaban, poet Anne Waldman and many others discuss the genesis of the film via an eight-part documentary called “Holy! Holy! Holy! The Making of ‘Howl’” (1080i, 44 minutes). A mix of behind-the-scenes footage recorded on set while shooting the film, newer interviews with the cast and crew, and archival photos and video of the real life Ginsberg, this peek at the production and history of “Howl” is consistently interesting. The chapter titles – “‘Howl’ and Allen Ginsberg”, “Origins of the movie”, “On location of ‘Howl’”, “Cinematography”, “The obscenity trial”, “The directors”, “Behind the animation” and “Epilogue” – are pretty on point and should give an idea as to the topics covered within the documentary. Beginning in 2005, directors Epstein and Friedman began exploring the life and ways of Allen Ginsberg and “Howl” in order to craft a cinematic tale of the landmark poem and its revolutionary author. They began by constructing interviews with Ginsberg’s close friends and collaborators including Eric Drooker, Peter Orlovsky, Tuli Kupferberg, and Steven Taylor. A lengthy five-part featurette called the “Directors’ Research Tapes” (480i, 28 minutes 32 seconds) – a mix of interviews covering a number of topics including the obscenity trial and Ginsberg himself – is the sum of this “exploration”. In 1995, Ginsberg did a series of ten shows at the Knitting Factory to launch their new space in Lower Manhattan. At the time, he was choosing poems from his “Selected Poems” book to be published the following year. “Allen Ginsberg at the Knitting Factory” (1.33:1 480i, 35 minutes 10 seconds) is a collection of never-before-seen short films featuring the poet reading and discussing three of his most famous works. The first short is low-res footage of Ginsberg reading “Howl”; the two other, Blu-ray exclusive, films of similar visual quality have him reading “Sunflower Sutra” and “Pull My Daisy” respectively. These rare films were shot on VHS and have, obviously, dated pretty terribly in terms of picture; regardless, they’re definitely a nice bonus. “James Franco Reads ‘Howl’” (1080i, 25 minutes) is an audio-only feature in which the film’s multi-talented star does exactly that. The audio plays over a static background featuring an image of Franco as Ginsberg; technically it’s encoded in interlaced HD but only because of a single still picture. Epstein and Friedman discuss their film at a Q&A session (1080i, 22 minutes 28 seconds) that was held after a showing of “Howl” at the Provincetown Film Festival. Fellow filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell moderates the discussion and serves as emcee. As you’d expect there’s some overlap with the other extras here, but overall, like everything else on this disc, the Q&A is worth your time. Lastly a tab dubbed “Oscilloscope Releases” contains no less than nine trailers for recent films from the distributor’s library, including a theatrical trailer for “Howl” (1080p, 1 minute 45 seconds). Additional bonus trailers are provided for Oscilloscope founder and ex-Beastie Boy Adam Yauch’s “Gunnin’ for that #1 Spot” (1080p, 2 minutes 32 seconds) as well as “Wendy and Lucy” (1080p, 1 minute 37 seconds) featuring Michelle Williams, the documentary “Scott Walker: 30th Century Man” (1.78:1 480p, 1 minute 47 seconds), Jules Dassin’s “The Law” (1.33:1 480p, 3 minutes), “Terribly Happy” (1080p, 2 minutes 16 seconds), “The Messenger” (1080p, 2 minutes 17 seconds), Spike Jonze/Lance Bangs’ portrait of Maurice Sendak “Tell Them Anything You Want” (1080i, 40 seconds), “A Film Unfinished” (1080p, 2 minutes 9 seconds), and Yony Leyser’s “William S. Burroughs: A Man Within” (1.78:1 480p, 1 minute 40 seconds). DISC TWO: DVD Oscilloscope also provides the film – with a number of repetitive supplements – on standard definition DVD. A full-retail DVD-9 contains the film in 480i/p with an acceptable 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround with optional English and French subtitles. Extras duplicate most of what’s found on the Blu-ray, with the same audio commentary, documentary, and research tapes featurette, a short film featuring Allen Ginsberg as he reads “Howl”, and the Franco audio feature. Bonus trailers are identical across both discs.
Packaging
“Howl” debuts on home video from Oscilloscope Laboratories in a Blu-ray + DVD combo pack, as spine number 26. Typical of the company’s often-elaborate packaging the 2-disc release – containing a dual layered BD-50 and a DVD-9 – comes housed in a multi-paneled digi-pack made of 100% environmentally friendly, recycled material. The eco-cardboard package features hand-painted artwork by artist Dan Bina and slides into an outer box; both discs are stuck into sleeves inside the digi-pack. The package is marked as region free (region ABC and region 0) for both Blu-ray and DVD respectively. As such this release should be playable around the globe, although note that the DVD is encoded in NTSC format.
Overall
James Franco gives an excellent performance as Allen Ginsberg in “Howl”; a role that he just disappears into, Franco simply is Ginsberg by the end of the film. The film itself obviously won’t be for everyone, but I liked it even despite its flaws. Epstein and Friedman have tried something unique and I think it mostly works in a weird way. Oscilloscopes 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack is excellent with faithful A/V and a truckload of truly great supplements. Recommended. ---------------------------- Support us by purchasing this disc online at Bluraysforeveryone.com, they specialize in store exclusives and limited editions both new and used, plus have a wide range of new releases and catalogue titles. Join their reward program and earn points towards your purchases. Best of all for overseas customers they are customs friendly and offer great cost-saving shipping options. Check them out for some cool limited editions. 
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