The Source (1999 film)

The Source is a 1999 documentary film directed by Chuck Workman.

Summary

The film is about the Beat Generation and its impact on the counterculture movements from the 1960s-70s onwards. It features appearances by Johnny Depp, Dennis Hopper and John Turturro intermixed with archival stock footage and excerpts from various films and shows like Jeopardy and Saturday Night Live.
Many poets and writers of the era appear on camera, including Ginsberg, Burroughs, Gary Snyder, Gregory Corso, Ken Kesey, Robert Creeley, Michael McClure, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Timothy Leary, Diane DiPrima, Ed Sanders, David Amram, Jack Micheline and Herbert Huncke. Contemporary artists who admire and were influenced by the Beats also are interviewed and/or perform poetry, including Jerry Garcia, Henry Rollins, Robert Motherwell, Norman Mailer, Terry Southern, Paul Krassner, Philip Glass, Joan Baez, Jim Carroll, Lydia Lunch, Ann Charters and Jack Kerouac's daughter, Jan Kerouac.
Because of the large amount of film and music clips used, more than three years elapsed between the completion of the film and its release in order to obtain the vast number of copyrights. In the interim, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Huncke, Micheline, Leary, Southern, Garcia and Jan Kerouac all died.

Reception

The film received positive acclaim with an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times praised the film, stating:

"A stirring, kaleidoscopic documentary about the Beat generation and its legacy... spans from the exultant 1940s photo of the young friends of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs to the Jeopardy show on which contestants could win money by asking 'Who were the Beats?'" 'It's eternity all the time, so there's no point being nostalgic for eternity,' Ginsberg is heard saying. But that wisdom runs counter to the moving experience of watching this film unfold."

Gary Morris of Bright Lights Journal, however, states that the "intriguing yet shallow" documentary is less a linear biography of the movement than a kind of "Beat chic" sampler.