Howard Brookner Movies
Howard Brookner made documentary films during the late 1980s. Among them was a film about William S. Burroughs, the author of Naked Lunch. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Produced for theatrical released by PBS' American Playhouse, Bloodhounds of Broadway is not exactly a remake of the 1952 film of the same name, though both pictures use the same Damon Runyon stories as inspiration. The scene is Broadway: the time is New Year's Eve, 1928. Madonna plays small town girl-turned-hoofer Hortense Hathaway, who loves gambler Feet Samuels (Randy Quaid) more than somewhat. Since it is known far and wide that Feet has not a penny to his name, he must find some way to pay off his debts in a hurry. So he offers to sell his huge feet to a demented-an operation which will, alas, cost Feet the use of his life. Upon waking up to the fact that Hortense loves him, Feet decides that he prefers breathing to pushing up daisies. Meanwhile, a society doll named Harriet MacKyle (Julie Hagerty) turns on the spigots when her pet parrot is laid low by a clumsy gunman. And while all this is transpiring, high-roller Regret (Matt Dillon) has to beat a murder rap. Even while Regret is sweating it out, "The Brain" (Rutger Hauer), who is bleeding profusely after confronting the business end of a shiv, searches high and low for someone willing to donate blood to save his life. If you can, keep an eye out for author William Burroughs as a butler. Bloodhounds of Broadway was the first non-documentary effort of filmmaker Howard Brookner-and the last, since he died before the film was released. To gloss over the film's plot holes, the distributors added a Winchell-like narrator to the proceedings, courtesy of actor Joseph Sommer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julie Hagerty, Randy Quaid, (more)
- 1987
Innovative opera composer and director Robert Wilson attempted to create a truly international opera to be performed at the Los Angeles Olympics. Six different composers from six countries were to compose operas from his libretto based on the United States' Civil War. After an initial performance in their countries of origin, they were to be performed in one nine-hour-long epic in Los Angeles during the games. Since the very word "opera" means "work," and the ideal of opera is to join every major art form into one massive undertaking, the ideals of "The Civil War" series of operas parallels the internationalist ideas of the Olympic movement itself. Unfortunately, though the organizers okayed the project and the Olympics Committee agreed to put up matching funds, other funding fell short and the deadlines were not met. Despite that, this extraordinary effort involved casts and composers in Tokyo, Marseilles, Rome, Minneapolis, Rotterdam, and Cologne, with Robert Wilson writing the libretto and directing each of the productions. This documentary begins by considering the composer's life and more innovative works, such as "Einstein on the Beach" and "The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud," and it goes on to document the extraordinary international artistic venture involved in bringing "The Civil War" to life. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1983
- R
This biographical documentary on author and eccentric William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch), founder of the Beat Generation literary movement along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, is roughly divided into two segments. The first part has some witty scenes as the camera follows the author around to his various early haunts in the U.S., London, and Morocco. His friends are interviewed, including an interesting segment with Allen Ginsberg. In the second half of the film Burroughs becomes more of an exhibitionist than a subject, suggesting that discretionary editing would have made a smaller but better final version. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, (more)
