- Release date: 1999
- Runtime: 88 min
- Genre: Documentary
- Starring: Steve Allen, David Amram, Amiri Baraka, Paul Bowles ... See all
- Director: Chuck Workman
- Plot: Traces the Beats from Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac's meeting in 1944 at Columbia University to the deaths of Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs in 1997. Three actors provide dramatic interpretations of the work of these three writers, and the film chronicles their friendships, their arrival into American consciousness, their... Read more
User Reviews
If you like them....You'll love this
Oct 06, 1999
dan-336
Oct 06, 1999dan-336
The Source was the first documentary I have ever seen on the big screen beside those huge IMax films. The Source was very enjoyable film. I have always read Kerouac and Burroughs w/ much enthusiasm and this film helped me... Read more at imdb.com
One of the best films of the year, Chuck Workman creates another excellent documentary
Jul 11, 2000
Del Harvey
Jul 11, 2000Del Harvey
The Source takes some priceless footage of this country's seminal beat poets and traces their impact on our society over 5 generations, from the 50's up through present time. Back in the 40's a young football player named Jack Kerouac... Read more at imdb.com
Frames Cutting Up Through Time Endlessly: Watching TV
Apr 07, 2000
DigIt
Apr 07, 2000DigIt
No comment can make them alive again: they have gone some other place, some other time... Those crazy poets, wonderful wanderers, so human and so divine, so simple and still so far from the ordinary. They are the true spirit... Read more at imdb.com
Witty, intelligent and fun.
Oct 24, 2000
dottoo2
Oct 24, 2000dottoo2
"The Source" is witty, intelligent and fun. This is a nostalgic romp through our Cultural History that will entertain and validate anyone who has felt alien in this culture. The directive is to enjoy.... Read more at imdb.com
Excellent documentary
Jul 04, 2000
E.B. Hughes
Jul 04, 2000E.B. Hughes
Chuck Workman did a fantastic job recreating the beat generation, via old footage, and vignettes involving Johnny Depp as Jack Kerouac, and Dennis Hopper as William Burroughs. This is truly a "must see" little gem of a film.... Read more at imdb.com
Great Documentary & Performances!
Nov 06, 2000
j.reiss
Nov 06, 2000j.reiss
This film is perhaps the greatest documentary ever made of the Beat Generation. It has engrossing interviews, heightened by some of the finest performances ever done by the actors. Dennis Hopper deserved an acting Oscar, but Tuturro and Depp also... Read more at imdb.com
Too Much of a Love Letter
Jul 15, 2004
konky2000
Jul 15, 2004konky2000
This film is simply a love letter to the three writers Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs. The film offers no dissenting viewpoints, and provides very little evidence to back up its claims that these three men were somehow... Read more at imdb.com
The masters of words
Aug 24, 2006
Petri Pelkonen
Aug 24, 2006Petri Pelkonen
They were called the Beatniks.The Source (1999) tells how Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac met at Columbia University in 1944, and started an era of the Beats then.Many others joined the group, like William S. Burroughs.Kerouac died in 1969, Ginsberg... Read more at imdb.com
Critics Reviews
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News
The Beat Generation: Rebels, with good cause
sfgate.com –
1999-09-17
"THE SOURCE," a documentary on the Beat Generation, unfolds with Allen Ginsberg sitting in a room flooded with outside light, looking through a picture album as words clutter the background - "the whole mythology of a generation," "get it in... ... Full Article







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