William S. Burroughs: A Man Within

A fun documentary on a guy who had a hell of a weird life. Shows the deserved adoration he had from a variety of personnel (though mostly freaks and perverts ie other artists).

"The documentary persuasively argues that Burrough's most dangerous addiction might have been the refusal of love." - Joseph Jon Lanthier

An informative piece with a fine balance of historical footage and photographs, interviews, and artistic presentation. The film's subject is Burroughs in the context of his life and his work, rather than an exploration of the work itself. To that effect, it's very successful as some of his closest co-conspirators discuss some key insights on the man in interviews and old footage. It's not nearly exhaustive enough to cover every detail, but should be sufficient for those interested in Burroughs.

Burroughs is not the most voluble of subjects. Most of the time he's cold, aloof and enigmatic. YOu never get a feeling that he's opening up and showing himself. At the ssame time, i's clear that his writing and his personality made a huge impression on all the people around him, and its through their anecdotes and stories that you get, gradually, to have sense of the man.

Didn't really do much delving into him as a person, or his beliefs about life, etc, it was more like a recounting of the major events of his life, which I already got from Wikipedia.