William S. Burroughs: A Man Within (2010)
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Reviews Counted: 15
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 530
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Movie Info
Featuring never-before-seen archival footage of Burroughs, as well as exclusive interviews with colleagues and confidants including John Waters, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Sonic Youth, Laurie Anderson, Amiri Baraka, Jello Biafra, and David Cronenberg, WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS: A MAN WITHIN is a probing, yet loving look at the man whose works at once savaged conservative ideals, spawned countercultural movements, and reconfigured 20th century culture. The film is
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Peter Weller
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All Critics (17) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (2) | DVD (1)
One fascinating tribute.
Top CriticMostly, "A Man Within'' is a breezily stylized, very enjoyable trot through the writer's life, theme by theme, era by era.
There is not a word or image wasted in a documentary you wish ran an extra half-hour beyond its condensed 90 minutes.
Leyser's collation of interviews and stock footage is polished enough to effectively perpetuate the Burroughs legend.
This one is more geared toward people who aren't already fans, though fans will find much to enjoy.
Burroughs was a quasi-obsession of mine during my youth and young manhood, and he's the only Beat (including Keoroac) that I don't feel I have to some extent outgrown. He was also ... an extremely "strange ranger."
Yony Leyser is unduly proud of being kicked out of film school, especially because his first feature film displays so many of the amateur mistakes that might have been solved by a couple more years in the classroom
Fairly disorganized in the telling and rather impersonally told by filmmaker Yony Leyser, this documentary biography of the stone-faced Beat author of The Naked Lunch is still worth seeing.
The documentary persuasively argues that Burrough's most dangerous addiction might have been the refusal of love.
Everything you need to know about a pioneering writer who took individuality to its furthest extremes.
it's difficult to imagine that Burroughs, the rare writer whose work can still shock after more than half a century, would have appreciated so many fine and noble sentiments on his behalf.
At a mere 88 minutes, it feels a bit glancing. But as an introduction or refresher course, it gets the job done.
It's a persuasive documentary; one that ought to gain Burroughs some new converts if the film itself can find a wide enough audience.
Audience Reviews for William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
Director John Waters is on hand here, a welcome presence in so many recent documentaries, and he seems to be the only one acting as a cultural critic rather than as a friend or fan. Waters raves about how Burroughs became a gay man, a junkie, and even a punk without breaking a sweat, long before such things were even remotely acceptable or "cool". Burroughs didn't deal in remorse, certainly not for the shooting of his young wife Joan Vollmer as her death to him was far beyond that, something so terrible, "You can't fix it" and consequently he carried the guilt around with him for the rest of his days with the ghost of Vollmer everywhere.
Super Reviewer
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Foreign Titles
- William S. Burroughs - A Man Within (DE)
Burroughs was a deconstructor of labels (of any type) and that's what especially calls my attention to him.
"He opened up to me not gay culture, but gay rebels who couldn't fit in with gay culture, who were very different. (...) Burroughs has an uneasy relationship with queer culture in America, or queer writing or whatever. Burroughs was never seen as part of that, he was still too transgressive. Even when it become sort of okay to be queer, he was beyond queer".