Howling at Moloch
Examining a poem and a film in detail to find how they each work as individual pieces and how they function together helps to better understand them. The 1968 poem, Howl by Allen Ginsberg, was the basis for the 2010 film by the same name, which was directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. One of the main themes throughout both the poem and the film was Moloch. The author introduces Moloch in his poem as a metaphor for all the terrible things that separate humanity from their true selves. The central idea of Moloch normally exists within the confines of dystopian worlds. Initially, the movie Metropolis by Fritz Lang introduces Moloch as a dark, sinister, machine-loving entity that sucks the soul out of people and enslaves them. A clear, concrete definition …show more content…
The lines of the poem, now spoken out loud, come to life on the screen where they dance around as animated figures as if the viewer is on a drug-induced, hallucinogenic haze. These animations give the lines a deeper meaning and help the reader to reach an entirely new level of understanding of the poem. In the beginning of the film, as the actor who portrays Mr. Ginsberg, James Franco, types his words on an old-fashioned typewriter, they begin to dance on the sheet of paper and much like the words do in the mind as they are read. The imagery is vivid but is also confusing at times. The composition of the different elements of animation used while the lines of the poem are read aloud by Franco bring the poem to life. A scene that illustrates the point, is one in which the character of Ginsberg, played by James Franco, is reading Part II of the poem where the idea of Moloch is visually portrayed as a series of ominous, dark, frightening images that look like they come directly from the depths of hell. If Moloch is a fleeting, figurative idea in the poem, the film offers a more concrete
Examining a poem and a film in detail to find how they each work as individual pieces and how they function together helps to better understand them. The 1968 poem, Howl by Allen Ginsberg, was the basis for the 2010 film by the same name, which was directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. One of the main themes throughout both the poem and the film was Moloch. The author introduces Moloch in his poem as a metaphor for all the terrible things that separate humanity from their true selves. The central idea of Moloch normally exists within the confines of dystopian worlds. Initially, the movie Metropolis by Fritz Lang introduces Moloch as a dark, sinister, machine-loving entity that sucks the soul out of people and enslaves them. A clear, concrete definition …show more content…
The lines of the poem, now spoken out loud, come to life on the screen where they dance around as animated figures as if the viewer is on a drug-induced, hallucinogenic haze. These animations give the lines a deeper meaning and help the reader to reach an entirely new level of understanding of the poem. In the beginning of the film, as the actor who portrays Mr. Ginsberg, James Franco, types his words on an old-fashioned typewriter, they begin to dance on the sheet of paper and much like the words do in the mind as they are read. The imagery is vivid but is also confusing at times. The composition of the different elements of animation used while the lines of the poem are read aloud by Franco bring the poem to life. A scene that illustrates the point, is one in which the character of Ginsberg, played by James Franco, is reading Part II of the poem where the idea of Moloch is visually portrayed as a series of ominous, dark, frightening images that look like they come directly from the depths of hell. If Moloch is a fleeting, figurative idea in the poem, the film offers a more concrete