DVD Review of Destroy All Rational Thought

Nearly fifty years after the fact, the Beat Generation is still an important part of American culture. With characters like author Jack Kerouac, actor James Dean, and author/painter William Burroughs, the generation of artists immediately after the end of World War II truly inspired a counterculture still prevalent in America. While the mainstream of the American public was seeking jobs, having babies, and moving to the suburbs, Burroughs and Company retreated to artists' havens in Paris, New York, Tangiers, and Montreal. Tangiers became the main retreat for the Beat Generation, as the Moroccan artistic community was most amenable to American and European artists. With Burroughs meeting with Moroccan figures like Hamri, the major painter of the time from Tangiers, an international counterculture was created. For this generation of disillusioned youth, or for those looking to learn about the essence of the Beat Generation, the new DVD release of Destroy All Rational Thought is a good selection albeit a bit ephemeral for the uninitiated.

This film centers around the 1992 Here To Go Show in Dublin, Ireland, which was organized by film directors Joe Ambrose and Frank Rynne. The show was a celebration of the eclectic mixture of music, sound, art, and literature that came from the Tangiers art community. The power of the Dublin show came from the willingness of recluse William Burroughs to contribute spoken word recordings, art pieces, and connections to Moroccan artists for the event. As well, the show celebrated Beat Generation progenitor Brion Gysin. Gysin was an artist prominent in Morocco and influential to musicians from Europe and the United States. Gysin's influence on Burroughs was most noticeable, as Burrough's seminal Naked Lunch utilized the artist's Cutup Method to create a disjointed vision of the future.

Ambrose and Rynne directed the film in order to provide another avenue for interest in the artistic products of the Beat generation counter culture. The result is a combination of live interviews with Burroughs and others, recordings from the 1950s and 1960s experimenting with visual and audio effects, and live performances by Moroccan musicians. While Ambrose and Rynne are able to deftly maneuver through experimental material that is difficult to make coherent, the methods they use to put the art into context are a bit distracting. Ambrose and Rynne use large font tickers and typewriter style lettering across the screen to provide background on various artists on the Tangiers scene. While the directors' intentions were good, the use of interview material or narration may have been less visually distracting than the low tech approach that they used in the film.

The DVD extras on Destroy All Rational Thought help put the dizzying array of materials in the film into perspective. The insightful interview with the film's directors is especially important for viewers, as it puts some historical context into the creation of the Dublin show and the film itself. The song Don't Play Guitar, written by William Burroughs, is performed behind a slide show of letters and materials provided by Burroughs. Another slide show on the DVD covers the different art pieces shown at Dublin, which is a good selection for art lovers and Beat Generation buffs. All in all, Destroy All Rational Thought is a good movie though novices of Burroughs and others should find a good biography or collection of materials to acquaint themselves before viewing.