Burroughs: The Movie
- NOT RATED
- Year:
- 1983
- 90 min
- 46 Views
I'm very pleased tonight...
to introduce a man who,
in my opinion...
is the greatest living
writer in America.
Reading selections from
Naked Lunch and Nova Express...
in his first television
appearance ever...
here is Mr. William Burroughs!
Twilight's last gleamings.
Uh, ladies and gentlemen,
there is no cause for alarm.
We have a minor problem
in the boiler room...
but everything is now under -
- Sound effects of a nuclear blast.
The explosion splits the boat.
Dr. Benway, ship's doctor...
drunkenly added two inches
to a four-inch incision...
with one stroke of his scalpel.
"Perhaps the appendix is already out,
Doctor," the nurse said...
- peering dubiously over his shoulder.
"I saw a little scar."
"The appendix out?
What do you think I'm doing here?"
"Perhaps the appendix is
on the left side, Doctor.
That happens sometimes,
you know."
"Stop breathing down my neck!
I'm coming to that.
Don't you think
I studied appendectomy
in 1904 at Harvard."
and searches along the incision...
dropping ashes from his cigarette.
"And get me a new scalpel.
This one's got no edge to it."
- He thrusts a red fist at her.
and flattens against the wall...
a bloody scalpel clutched in one hand.
The patient slides
off the operating table,
spilling intestines across the floor.
Dr. Benway sweeps instruments,
cocaine and morphine into his satchel.
"Sew her up. I can't be expected
to work under such conditions."
a crowd at the rail...
and boarded the first lifeboat.
"Y'all all right?" he says,
seating himself among the women.
"I'm the doctor."
I remember one thing about him,
that he kept ferrets in his room.
He was the only Harvard student
that had ferrets as pets.
And I admit, I couldn't
imagine having such things...
but there was Bill
and there were the ferrets.
I didn't feel at all comfortable
with Bill.
"Man, this guy's gotta be heat."
William is, like,
never sees anybody...
never goes out,
hates parties...
and-and lives a completely
enclosed - enclosed life, you know?
William would make a great prisoner.
You know?
I mean in solitary.
He, uh, bewilders me
just a little bit, even now.
There's no one more - He's
up there with the pope, you know?
You-You can't revere him enough,
you know?
He's one of the greatest minds
of our times, you know?
You wouldn't know sh*t
about Burroughs...
unless you knew him for a long time
to see how he responded,
how he acted.
Well, Kerouac said
that Burroughs was...
the most intelligent man
in America.
a million times.
He's a hard guy to get into bed.
That's why I like him, I think.
I was born February 5, 1914,
in Saint Louis, Missouri.
As a young child, uh,
I wanted to be a writer...
and I wrote descriptions
of corn dances in New Mexico...
that were much praised
by my English teachers.
But it was many years...
before I came back to any -
even any attempts to write.
I thought that
they led very glamorous lives...
uh, living in Tangiers
and smoking hashish...
and sniffing cocaine in Mayfair.
It struck me as being
a very glamorous...
and easy and pleasant life.
Little did I know.
"When Kim was 15,
to withdraw from the school...
because he was so unhappy there...
and so much disliked...
by the other boys and their parents.
'I don't want that boy
in the house again,'
said Colonel Greenfield.
'He looks like a sheep-killin' dog.'
'It is a walking corpse'...
said a Saint Louis
matron poisonously.
Years later,
Kim settled that account.
When informed of her death,
he said...
'Well, it isn't every corpse
that can walk. Hers can't.'"
"'The boy is rotten clear through,
and he stinks like a polecat'...
Judge Farris pontificated.
Now this was true.
When angered
or aroused or excited...
and steamed off a rank,
ruttish animal smell.
'The child is not wholesome'...
said Mr. Kindhart
with his usual restraint.
Kim remembers
his father's last words.
'Stay out of churches, Son.
And don't ever let a priest near you
when you're dying.
All they got a key to is the sh*t house.
And swear to me you will never
wear a policeman's badge.'"
I never felt that I really belonged at all...
uh, social structure.
There was just
something wrong there.
Now there's -
This is, uh - Corner wall.
Now that's Dr. Senseney's old house.
It was his wife...
who said about me that
I looked like a walking corpse.
that she had died, I said...
"It isn't every corpse that can walk.
Hers can't."
"I can divide my literary production
into sets.
Where, when and under
what circumstances produced.
The first set is a street of red brick houses...
with slate roofs, lawns in front
and large backyards.
The address is
4664 Pershing Avenue...
and the house is still there."
Do you wanna stroll over there?
You see -
You can see all the rooms.
See the little room
to the side there?
That was my father's study.
Nothing here but the smell of empty years.
How many years?
I can't be sure.
I remember a dream
of my childhood.
I am in a beautiful garden.
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