Fabulous deluxe two-disc DVD of The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, directed by Jerry Aronson is out now on New Yorker Films. I loved the movie when I reviewed it in 1994, but watching it again was bliss. It's a touching and insightful documentary on Beat poet and prophet of the hippie movement Allen Ginsberg that really translates to film the beauty and power of his words. Covering 50 turbulent years with other Beat writers such as William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, the film mixes great archive footage and features revealing interviews with Joan Baez, Norman Mailer, Ken Kesey and Ginsberg himself, painting a full-blooded portrait of a visionary writer and gentle soul.

Long sequences of Ginsberg reading two of his most famous poems, Howl and Kaddish (a poem he wrote for his mother, who died in a mental institution), give you insight as to how influential he really was. A hilarious section with a blissed-out Ginsberg chanting mantras on William F. Buckley's Firing Line television show while Buckley looks on with customary sanctimonious bemusement is definitely a highlight.

What's great is the extras: Ginsberg and Bob Dylan over Jack Kerouac's grave in Lowell, Mass. Ginsberg and William Burroughs, Ginsberg and Neal Cassady at the City Lights Bookstore in 1965. Plus touching interviews with Timothy Leary and Andy Warhol. Patti Smith tells a wonderful story about Ginsberg buying her a sandwich in a automat and mistaking her for a boy, and the late great filmmaker Stan Brakhage describes Ginsberg by quoting Tennessee Williams and describing how Ginsberg was truly a kind spirit.

P.S. See David Cross portray Ginsberg in Todd Haynes' new Dylan pic I'm Not There.