Whitman on Film | a video essay at the poet's bicentennial

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Күн бұрын

This video essay is an analysis of Walt Whitman's every appearance in cinema and television, leading up to his 200th birthday on May 31, 2019. Besides English subtitles available here, the complete transcript is also at: whitmanonfilm.com/interactive.
You can skip ahead to the cited films at each timecode link below:
02:30 Intolerance (1916): Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
02:49 Manhatta (1921): A Broadway Pageant; Mannahatta; Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
03:39 Street Scene (1931): Passage to India
04:25 Now Voyager (1942): The Untold Want
05:18 Goodbye, My Fancy (1951): Good-bye My Fancy!
05:54 The Twilight Zone, Season 3 Episode 35 (1962): I Sing the Body Electric
06:46 Fame (1980): I Sing the Body Electric
07:16 Sophie’s Choice (1982)
08:12 Down By Law (1986): The Singer in Prison
08:59 Bull Durham (1988): I Sing the Body Electric
11:17 Dead Poets Society (1989): O Captain! My Captain!; O Me! O Life!; Song of Myself
15:17 Northern Exposure, Season 1 Ep. 2 (1990): When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d
17:12 Quiz Show (1994): I Hear America Singing
17:33 Doc Hollywood (1991): Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
18:14 With Honors (1994): Song of Myself; One Hour to Madness and Joy; Song of Myself
19:49 Little Women (1994): Give me the Splendid, Silent Sun
20:24 Beautiful Dreamers (1992)/Song of Myself (1976)
21:19 Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Season 5 Ep. 21 (1997): Song of the Open Road; I Hear America Singing; There Was a Child Went Forth
25:31 Love and Death on Long lsland (1997): The Untold Want
26:15 L.I.E. (2001): Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
27:25 The Notebook (2004): Spontaneous Me; Continuities
29:19 Leaves of Grass (2009): To You
31:10 Breaking Bad (2011-2013): When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
32:57 Whitman Trilogy by H. Paul Moon (2016-2019): America; The Wound Dresser; Civil War poems
33:21 Short Film by Sara Wolfley (2019): Poets to Come
As explained at the end title, this video essay was created for non-commercial educational access, in the spirit of fair use for analysis, with gratitude to these filmmakers who have honored Walt Whitman.
Written, narrated and edited by H. Paul Moon
Music of Scott Joplin & Henry Lodge performed by Michael Adcock
For more, visit: whitmanonfilm.com

Пікірлер: 21

@focuspulling 3 жыл бұрын

focuspull.in/join

@semiramisbonaparte1627 5 жыл бұрын

THIS WAS AN AMAZING VIDEO ESSAY, THANK YOU FOR THIS. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT DOESN'T HAVE MORE VIEWS!! GIVEN THE CURRENT STATE OF AMERICA WE ALL COULD USE A LITTLE MORAL BOOST SERVED FROM OUR GREAT FELLOW AMERICAN UNCLE WALT WHITMAN!

@hudsondeal 5 жыл бұрын

Yes, I am so glad you created this video. Whitman's poetry, in my opinion, stands side-by-side with the greatest. American readers still do not appreciate him at the level he deserves. You could also do "Whitman In Music," but it would need to be at least an hour long, probably two hours.

@focuspulling 5 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much. As you note, Whitman has inspired even more in the field of music - my own entry point was the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. I commend to you a series of four broadcasts by Ross Amico (WWFM), that now stream online, doing a nice job of going through the repertoire: www.wwfm.org/programs/lost-chord-ross-amico (scroll down to May 2019 broadcasts)

@PoetryETrain 4 жыл бұрын

Applause! Shared & Subscribed...

@focuspulling 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

@1398paulo 4 жыл бұрын

Amazing video-essay! Thank you so much!

@jccurran9327 4 жыл бұрын

Focus Pulling - Hail the Hero, Walt Whitman! Glad I found this gem. Of course, I subscribed. I return to your site to explore the suggestions (including the music prompts). I have always loved Walt's work and still do not think he gets his "full due". You truly have done an honorable trubute here - What a great 200th Birthday Tribute! This is truly a Masterpiece compiled by you. Walt Whitman himself would be proud! Your poetic rendition is floats easily to the ears. On a lighter note, I was glad to see that you included the Dr. Quinn show here. I loved it when I first saw it on TV. It seemed to catch the essence of the man and his times, didn't it? You know you are truly enchanted by "A Piece" (A writing/video, such as your presentation here) when you walk away and feel like you just met Walt himself and he was/is/always will be so much more than one dared to imagine. No higher accolade could you receive than to thank you for bringing about a "Meeting of the Man" as you did here. I will be back (another famous thought? - loving joke!). Many thanks Best Regards and Warm Wishes to all!

@focuspulling 4 жыл бұрын

Such incredibly generous comments, greatly appreciated and encouraging. You can see more related content at the interactive site I created for this, whitmanonfilm.com, where I'll soon be posting a new ten-minute film featuring a likeness of the poet himself, starting from Walt Whitman's actual birthplace on Long Island.

@KonstanzArrens 4 жыл бұрын

You could call this a ground-breaking doc I guess. But whatever you call it, it is novel and fresh, and a delight to experience for 35.06 minutes. An appreciation of North America's bard - "one of the roughs, a kosmos" - in the seventh art .

@focuspulling 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much for your generous comment. You're welcomed to explore more at whitmanonfilm.com where a new film will also be posted in the next few months.

@TheTheurgist 3 жыл бұрын

Well done

@richardzellers 5 жыл бұрын

There was the short reference in The History Boys about Now Voyager

@focuspulling 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the tip, I'll look for it.

@shamborkobita7023 3 жыл бұрын

Oh, how many wounds you have tended-and keep heeling still.

@cosmicman621 3 жыл бұрын

...how true brother.Bright Moments🐝🌈🌹

@josa3153 3 жыл бұрын

Nice vid keep it up

@rikkischulte8570 4 жыл бұрын

loved this! especially how ken burns-esque it is. was like being in a literary film theory class again. very well done. wanted to point out this clip, in 1976 Rip Torn originally played him in a CBS short: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b8yJq5yq29HecmQ.html then he also much later played him in beautiful trouble, i think 90/92? i can’t seem to find mention of beautiful trouble in the documentary but maybe i missed it. worth mentioning also that although beat culture did influence the 60s/70s, it itself was heavily influenced by authors like walt whitman. though films of ginsberg reading whitman in the 60s probably doesn’t count as film 🤷🏻‍♀️

@focuspulling 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks, means so much! Regarding Rip Torn (recently deceased, may he R.I.P., warm pun intended), if you look at the chapter index with timecodes beneath the video, you'll see the breakdown of two films as mentioned in my essay: Beautiful Dreamers (1992) and Song of Myself (1976). You also raise a good point about the symmetry of Whitman having influenced beat poetry and philosophy, rather than just the other way around. Meantime there's a healthy debate in the "Whitmaniac" community as to whether Ginsberg -- who championed Whitman -- was kindred after all. Maybe not!

@Austria88586 2 жыл бұрын

Went out of fashion with the Beat generation? They championed Whitman especially Ginsberg and Kerouac.

@focuspulling 2 жыл бұрын

Complex and maybe not so simple on both sides of the argument. But, do note that whomever great artists may venerate personally, are not necessarily consumed en masse in a passing zeitgeist. My point was that Whitman's romanticism, optimism, and pride bordering on nationalism, was not headlining in the specific area of this essay, namely Whitman on film. Back in the '60s, cinema was hardly a open range; it was still a studio system teased with barely visible independent films.