Oh my gosh. I hate to say this, but this piece is just boring. Walt Whitman is a pretty hip cat for his time. He hung out with prostitutes, he was the original Down Low bro. He was as openly gay as you can…and in NYC, well just look at Chelsea!
But this documentary is old school, and we’re talking about that overly educated professorial delivery. This seems like a bunch of dull old over educated white dudes trying to take old Walt up to their level instead of getting down and dirty with poetry.
First off, this hour focuses too much on opera and other hi brow interpretations of Whitman’s work and his budding life in New York. Frankly, I thought it was an opera piece (and we all know what an audience killer opera is) not a poet profile for a while. In fact, the use of opera really kills the sense of time. Whitman is a Civil War era kind of guy, but you can never tell, if you didn’t know this to be the case, because the of the focus on the opera.
The delivery around the gay depictions of Whitman’s work is, well, quite frankly a bit nerdy titillating. I mean, the tone is kind like “ooohhhh look, we’re going to talk about the----shhhh---gay part! I kind of chuckled. After all, that’s one of the reasons he is so popular today.
It is a pretty well planned and produced story of his life. All of the facts are here and there are some insightful pieces of information and commentary. The tour of his NJ home is a nice touch. There is a lot of effort here and I am feel kind of guilty not really liking this piece more.
SHHHH--Did You Know He's Gay!?
Steve Yasko
Posted on April 16, 2005 at 01:21 PM
But this documentary is old school, and we’re talking about that overly educated professorial delivery. This seems like a bunch of dull old over educated white dudes trying to take old Walt up to their level instead of getting down and dirty with poetry.
First off, this hour focuses too much on opera and other hi brow interpretations of Whitman’s work and his budding life in New York. Frankly, I thought it was an opera piece (and we all know what an audience killer opera is) not a poet profile for a while. In fact, the use of opera really kills the sense of time. Whitman is a Civil War era kind of guy, but you can never tell, if you didn’t know this to be the case, because the of the focus on the opera.
The delivery around the gay depictions of Whitman’s work is, well, quite frankly a bit nerdy titillating. I mean, the tone is kind like “ooohhhh look, we’re going to talk about the----shhhh---gay part! I kind of chuckled. After all, that’s one of the reasons he is so popular today.
It is a pretty well planned and produced story of his life. All of the facts are here and there are some insightful pieces of information and commentary. The tour of his NJ home is a nice touch. There is a lot of effort here and I am feel kind of guilty not really liking this piece more.