i always have a book of poetry somewhere; leroi jones, shakespeare's sonnets, william blake, or charles bukowski. my favorite is walt whitman's leaves of grass, a tattered old paperback which i still have and return to from time to time. his language is sumptuous, erotic, romantic, and beautiful. now voyager, go forth to seek and find. that line to me is a sort of cipher; to be unafraid and alone in the world and my human experience, however difficult the process and passage may be.
dylan thomas is similar in his impeccable use of the english language and his startling, paganistic, and violent images of love and death (because what else is there, really? what are the two things we are doomed to experience, but love in all her anguish, bliss, and rage. and death in its finality).
i enjoyed this movie for its depiction of thomas; an other-worldly man no one could begin to comprehend. he doesn't adhere to social constraints or mores; he's a boozer, a brawler, and says what he thinks, even in the company of scholars and administrators at yale. in an early scene he's at a house party carrying a woman over his shoulder while she beats his back with a pan. ' i believe in naked women in red macintoshes!' (macintosh is british english for a waterproof coat. so, imagine that. maybe she's also in strappy heels).
the story takes john m. brinnin (elijah wood), a thomas fan and academic, on a speaking tour of the states, beginning in new york in the early 1950s. thomas immediately is out of sorts and out of place. realizing that gotham has too many things to seduce and distract the poet, they retreat to brinnin's county cabin in connecticut in preparation for their next speaking engagement.
as you would expect, thomas goes on a bender then barely makes it through his reading, only to bash the masters of the universe at yale with contempt:
' i wish we were all hermaphrodites,' he says. ' so we could fuck ourselves.'
the film is shot in black and white and the production design is dreary, muddy, and dark as if to mirror thomas' misanthropic disposition. for days, he holds onto a letter from his estranged wife caitlin before retreating to the woods to read it and has hallucinations about her. she berates him in his mind, ' ...little man, half-man, crumpled boy.' ' ...this is how it has to be until we devour each other, until we're set free.'
her words refer to the destructive nature of their relationship; fueled by love, anger, poverty, and booze.
the best sections of the film and its story are thomas's poetry. his words. to listen to verse and meter and allusion and grasp at the depths; to see the images in your mind. you understand what he speaks of and his sense of wonder.
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily; Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.
