Norman Mailer Movies

Harold L. Humes, known to his friends as "Doc," was a modern-day Renaissance man -- he was a published novelist, invented water-resistant paper houses for use in the Third World, helped launch the literary journal The Paris Review, co-founded the New American Cinema Group, studied at MIT, and served as campaign manager for Norman Mailer's ill-fated run for mayor of New York City. Humes' friends and colleagues included George Plimpton, William Styron, and Timothy Leary, but his association with the latter proved to have unexpected consequences -- Leary turned Humes on to LSD in the mid-'60s, and Humes' outgoing, mildly eccentric personality took a left turn after he began indulging in psychedelics. Humes' career as a writer bottomed out, his marriage fell apart, and he spent much of the '70s and '80s as a vagabond, drifting from one college campus to another, where he would become a campus character until he wore out his welcome. Humes' daughter Immy Humes is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker, and Doc is Immy's filmed portrait of her father, in which he offers his own perspective on his strange life and times while a number of his famous friends share their memories him. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato follow up Party Monster by returning to the documentary form of their most popular film The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Rather than examining evangelists-cum-gay icons, this time the duo takes aim at the cultural phenomenon that is and was Deep Throat, the hardcore porn film that cost 25,000 dollars to make and grossed over 600-million-dollars world-wide, making it the most successful independent film of all time. The impact of the film on the public's perception of pornography is discussed, as is the unlikely relationship the film had to the Watergate scandal. Actress Linda Lovelace who later denounced Deep Throat, claiming she'd been forced to make it at gunpoint, appears in interviews that were shot just before her fatal 2002 car accident. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story documents one of the most shocking and brutal events in the history of boxing. During a bout against Benny Paret in 1962, Griffith beat the man so badly that Paret died from the injuries sustained in the ring. This tragic incident becomes more complex when one learns that before the fight Paret made a derogatory comment about Griffith's possible homosexual orientation. The bout was televised nationally. The film includes footage from the fight as well as interviews with Griffith himself, journalists, historians, and others. This film played at the Sundance Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Author Norman Mailer shows up at the Dragonfly Inn accompanied by an interviewer (played by Mailer's son Stephen Mailer), throwing Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) into a tizzy when he seems to reject her cooking. But Sookie would have been hard to deal with under any circumstances; she's just found out she's pregnant again. In other developments, Rory (Alexis Bledel) prepares to write what she hopes will be an inspirational article about a super-secret Yale society for the college newspaper; and Rory's dad Christopher (David Sutcliffe) once again enters the life of Lorelai (Lauren Graham) -- and once again bearing news of great importance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The real-life drama of the 1994 O.J. Simpson trial is given quasi-fictional treatment in this two-part CBS miniseries, which aired in November 2000. Much of the miniseries' plot focuses on the battle of egos between defense lawyers Johnnie Cochran (Ving Rhames) and Robert Shapiro (Ron Silver) and how the personalities of these men in part shaped the outcome of the trial. Also included in the cast are Bruno Kirby and Christopher Plummer. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

In 1955, artist, author, and anthropologist Tobias Schneebaum fulfilled a life-long dream by visiting the jungles of Peru. Seven months later, the New York native returned with remarkable tales of living with a tribe of cannibals, watching their murderous raids on other tribes, and even eating human flesh with them. In 1999, Schneebaum returned to Peru at the age of 78 with a camera crew in tow in hopes of finding the cannibals he lived with many years before. While Schneebaum prepares for his journey, he lectures on the rituals and lifestyles of indigenous peoples, shares his views on homosexuality and open marriage among the natives of West Papua (in one sequence, Schneebaum, who is gay, is reunited with a tribesman who became his lover), and shows footage from his expedition with the Asmat people, who are believed to have attacked and eaten Michael Rockefeller in 1961. Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale was shown at the 2000 L.A. Independent Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Director Chuck Workman, who documented the life of pop culture icon Andy Warhol in his 1990 film Superstar, here explores the lives, works and influence of four leading lights of the "Beat Generation" of the 1950s: William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. Cutting back and forth between archive footage of his subjects, readings of selections from the three authors by Johnny Depp, Dennis Hopper and John Turturro (Cassady was an associate and inspiration to the Beats), and film clips that in both serious and farcical fashion document the impact the Beat culture had on American society, Workman creates a fast-paced collage of sounds and images that attempts to show how the Beats became the dominant counter-cultural movement of the last half of America's 20th Century. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In 1955, poet Allen Ginsberg summed up the greatest fears of his generation in a landmark poem appropriately titled "Howl." As a result of that defining piece of prose, Ginsberg would become an icon of the Beat Generation. Inspired by Ginsberg's powerful personality and captivating charisma as a performer, filmmaker Jerry Aronson procured every film clip of the poet that he could find and compiled it into a comprehensive documentary tracing the life and times of the man who never backed down from his beliefs. From Ginsberg's early experiences alongside such American icons as Jack Kerouac, Timothy Leary, and William Burroughs to his historical clash with William F. Buckley, and his tense confrontation with police during the 1968 Democratic Convention, Aronson's film doesn't miss a beat. Back to back readings of "Howl" from 1955 and 1992 show precisely how the poem continued to resonate decades after it was originally written, and by exploring Ginsberg's political and spiritual beliefs Aronson offers compelling insight into the mind of a counter culture legend. Originally released in 1993, The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg was updated to cover the events surrounding the subject's untimely death in 1997 and to provide a final, fitting epitaph for the controversial author.

The deluxe two-disc DVD release includes over six hours of bonus materials, including a "making-of" documentary, footage of Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac's grave, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg in a 1994 appearance at Naropa University, selected readings by Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and Ginsberg at a 1965 City Lights Bookstore appearance, the making of the music video for "A Ballad of Skeletons", a guided tour of a Ginsberg photographic exhibition hosted by the writer himself, excerpts from Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit, footage from Ginsberg's New York City memorial, photo galleries, and trailers. Additional interviews with subjects ranging from Joan Baez to Johnny Depp, Yoko Ono, Hunter S. Thompson, and Ken Kesey show just what an expansive influence Ginsberg truly had as an artist. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Norman Mailer wrote and directed this demented film noir, which takes place in a Provincetown of perpetual twilight. Most of the tale, based on his best-selling novel, is told in flashback as Dougy Madden (Lawrence Tierney) pays a visit to his son Tim (Ryan O'Neal). Dougy, a tough ex-bartender, is ravaged by cancer and decides to see Tim one last time in order. But Tim is suffering both from writer's block and from the effects of too many years of drink, drugs, and sex. His sexy wife Patty Lariene (Debra Sandlund) has recently left him and disappeared. Even worse, one morning he awakens from his stupor to find the front seat of his car covered with blood and a severed head inside his drug stash. He tries to rekindle a relationship with his ex-wife Madeleine (Isabella Rossellini), now married to the psychotic Provincetown police chief, Alvin Luther Regency (Wings Hauser), and he re-acquaints himself with old prep school friend Wardley Meeks III (John Bedford Lloyd), who was also married to the missing Patty Lareine. As the murders pile up and Tim's psyche takes a beating, Dougy decides to help Tim put an end to this chaotic mess of murders. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Milos Foreman's cinematic adaptation of E.L. Doctrow's sprawling pop-culture epic Ragtime follows a variety of characters whose lives intertwine during the earliest years of the 20th century. Brad Dourif plays the meek young brother in a wealthy family who ends up helping Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Howard E. Rollins) when the proud black man stands up to the racism that surrounds him with a criminal act that leads to a standoff with a police commissioner (James Cagney - making his return to the big screen after fifteen years away). Secondary characters include a street artist (Mandy Patinkin) who gets his foot in the door of the nascent film business, and a flighty young woman (Elizabeth McGovern) who inspires men who desire her to violence. Randy Newman composed the score, which included a song that earned him his first Oscar nomination. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

The title of this made-for-TV biopic is faintly risible: is there anything about Marilyn Monroe that we don't know by now? Pleasingly enough, the story is told in a straightforward, nonexploitive manner (the affair with JFK warrants no more than a throwaway line). Emmy-nominated Catherine Hicks plays Marilyn, nee Norma Jean Baker. We follow her progress from orphanages and foster homes to her first 20th Century-Fox contract at age 20. Considered "washed up" before her career has gotten off the ground, Marilyn is rescued both professionally and emotionally by her agent/lover Johnny Hyde (Richard Basehart). She rises to full stardom and is the center of attention of two "ideal" marriages, first to baseball player Joe DiMaggio, then to Arthur Miller (neither of whom are depicted on screen). But Marilyn remains a lonely, tragic figure, a victim as much of her own demons as of Hollywood's exploitation mill. Based loosely on Norman Mailer's highly suspect biography of the actress, Marilyn: The Untold Story premiered on September 28, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This is a very personal documentary about women's liberation by the poet and novelist Sandra Hochman. Against the backdrop of the 1972 Republican and Democratic Presidential conventions, she reminisces about her own life, interviews many notable figures in political life and in the women's liberation movement, and makes satirical jabs at the male establishment. The fact that the media largely ignored the vice-presidential bid of Shirley Chisolm serves as a good illustration of how far the movement has yet to go. The documentary ends with shots of Hochman tap dancing around national monuments in Washington, D.C. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The third (and last) of author Norman Mailer's experiments in cinéma vérité filmmaking created between 1968 and 1970, Maidstone stars Mailer as Norman T. Kingsley, a celebrated filmmaker who is often described as "the American Buñuel." Kingsley and a large retinue of friends, actors, and colleagues have descended on his estate in Upstate New York to work on his latest project, a sexually provocative drama. At the same time, Kingsley is planning to launch a campaign for president, and he's visited by a large number of guests eager to discuss his political perspectives, including journalists, academics, and a handful of African-American radicals. Also on hand is Kingsley's ever-present posse of hangers-on nicknamed "the cash box," led by his half-brother Raoul (Rip Torn). As a British television reporter records the proceedings for an upcoming profile, a shadowy group of American intelligence agents questions if the nation might be better off without the possibility of a Kingsley candidacy. In the film's final reels, Mailer and his cast and crew drop their collective improvisation and discuss their work so far before the camera, but Torn takes it upon himself to give the film the ending he feels it needs by attacking Mailer with a hammer. Fascinating if only for its remarkable portrait of Mailer's legendary ego in full flight, Maidstone would be the writer's last stab at filmmaking until he was hired to direct a film adaptation of his novel Tough Guys Don't Dance in 1987. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi