Workman's new work testifies to how the Beats go on By Matthew Barrett Daily Film Editor "The Source," director Chuck Workman's ode to the Beat generation, examines the lives of three influential Beat writers - Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. The documentary film blends bits of newscasts, historical footage, movie clips and interviews to give us an idea of what these men meant and still mean to writers and people in general around the world. The film starts off with a teacher talking to his class about Jack Kerouac and his quest to find truth and meaning in life. This background information is useful in that it orientates viewers who might be less familiar with the author or the movement that he helped jumpstart. We soon see a Kerouac appearance on "The Steve Allen Show" where he discusses his somewhat unusual writing techniques and states that it took him only three weeks to write "On The Road." From here, the film bounces around between interviews and stories involving the three writers. Those interviewed include Ginsberg, Tom Hayden, Philip Glass, Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey. The makers of the film were wise to include names for the majority of the interviews, another case where they go the extra mile to keep more viewers in the loop. For the most part, these interviews are conducted in a laid back manner and are very informative and interesting to listen to. There's just something so cool about a modern day Ken Kesey, in a blue cotton shirt and a floppy white hat being interviewed on the side of a highway about way back when. Through its inclusion of so many different types of footage, the film develops a rapid and scattershot feel that seems well-suited to the material. This momentum is lost, however, in sequences where different actors read work by the three authors. Johnny Depp (reading Kerouac), John Turturro (Ginsberg) and Dennis Hopper (Burroughs) all fail to bring anything other than their respect for the material to the film. The action seems to come to a standstill during the three readings, where the actors stare into camera and recite the work. Hopper is by far the worst of the bunch, as he tries to bring some of his usual, over-the-top intensity to the performance. In addition, the bright look of the readings is too stark a contrast to the beat-up and grainy look of the rest of the film. "The Source" also gets a little bogged down in its section on LSD, where plenty of people have plenty to say about the drug. At this point, there's really nothing new to discuss, although Leary offers up the news that "I try to take every illegal drug once a year." Kesey attributes some of his success to the drug, saying "I would have never written 'Cuckoo's Nest' without LSD." However, these two sticking points are minor drawbacks in what is, for the most part, a very entertaining movie. Towards the end of the film, we travel to Kerouac's grave and see that it is still decorated by beer cans, flowers and notes visitors have left for the author. This moment drives home the film's point - although they may be gone, the spirit of these men and the movement they helped create lives on in the independents of today. Courtesy of Touchstone Pictures Johnny Depp is passionate but not particularly insightful about the work of Jack Kerouac and his contemporaries. Originally on page 7B in the 1-27-2000 issue of the Daily.