Kill your Darlings (4 Stars)

True Stories #20

Name: Allen Ginsberg

Lived: 3 June 1926 – 5 April 1997

Film dates: 1943 to 1945

Film made in 2013

"Like all lovers and bad people, I am a poet".

This quote from the film is interesting. I noticed today for the first time that the English subtitles are different to the spoken text. In the subtitles the words are "like all lovers and sad people", and this is the quote listed in IMDB's quote section. I can guarantee you, Daniel Radcliffe says "bad people". It seems like he blundered, but I like the quote the way he spoke it.

"Kill your Darlings" is about Allen Ginsberg's formative years at university. He studied Literature at Columbia University, but he was expelled before graduating. (Note: he was re-admitted to Columbia University a year later, after the events of the film).

The main purpose of the film is to show Allen's relationship with his best friend, Lucien Carr. Lucien was a rebel, as far as literature was concerned. He wanted the banned books of the day to become compulsory reading at university. Lucien encouraged Allen to share his rebellion. The problem is, Lucien was a poor student with no writing abilities. He only had good grades because a former university professor, David Kammerer, wrote his essays for him. David and Lucien had been lovers, and now David was stalking him, working as the university janitor so he could be close to him. Lucien rejected his advances as a lover, but he still profited from David's help with his essays.

The film ends with Lucien killing David. Allen writes a defence for Lucien, which Lucien rejects. Then Allen submits the defence as his end of term paper. He's warned that if he doesn't retract the paper he'll be expelled, but he refuses to back down. The problem is that the essay dealt with the subject of homosexuality, which was a taboo subject at university.

Today is the third time that I watched the film. I can't say that it helps me understand Allen Ginsberg any better than I already knew him from his poetry, but it gives me a fascinating insight into American university life in the 1950's. I wish I'd been there. I wouldn't have been a rebel, but I would have enjoyed sitting on the sidelines watching the rebellion.

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