Kill Your Darlings (2013)

A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs.

Director:

John Krokidas

Writers:

Austin Bunn (screenplay), Austin Bunn (story)

Stars:

Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, Michael C. Hall

5 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Daniel Radcliffe	...	Allen Ginsberg
Dane DeHaan	...	Lucien Carr
Michael C. Hall	...	David Kammerer
Jack Huston	...	Jack Kerouac
Ben Foster	...	William Burroughs
David Cross	...	Louis Ginsberg
Jennifer Jason Leigh	...	Naomi Ginsberg
Elizabeth Olsen	...	Edie Parker
John Cullum	...	Professor Steeves
Brenda Wehle	...	Permissions Librarian
Erin Darke	...	Gwendolyn
Craig Chester	...	Businessman
Lenore Harris	...	DA Secretary
Mark Ethan	...	Campus Guard
Zach Appelman	...	Luke Detweiler

Storyline

In the early 1940s, Allen Ginsberg is an English major at Columbia University, only to learn more than he bargained for. Dissatisfied by the orthodox attitudes of the school, Allen finds himself drawn to iconoclastic colleagues like Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Together, this gang would explore bold new literary ideas that would challenge the sensibilities of their time as the future Beat Generation. However, for all their creativity, their very appetites and choices lead to more serious transgressions that would mark their lives forever.

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Plot Keywords:

murder | 1940s | year 2005 | year 1944 | reference to tulane university | 

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Taglines:

A true story of obsession and murder

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content, language, drug use and brief violence

Did You Know?

Trivia

In this film, David Cross plays Allen Ginsberg's father, Louis. In I'm Not There (2007), David Cross played Allen Ginsberg himself.

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Goofs

Jack Kerouac, upon his arrest, contacts his father and we hear an American accent on the line. Kerouac's parents were French-speaking Quebecois and it took Jack until his late teens to fully master English, which he spoke with a slight Québec lilt; it is thus unlikely his father and he would have spoken in English, much less in a General American accent.

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Quotes

Allen Ginsberg: You got me and Jack and Bill making your vision come true because you can't do it yourself.
Lucien Carr: No, Allen. You got what you wanted. You were ordinary, just like any other freshman and I made your life extraordinary. Go be you, now all by yourself. Leave me alone!
Allen Ginsberg: [crying] You don't mean... you don't mean that.
Lucien Carr: Allen. Leave!

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Crazy Credits

The first part of the end credits run over the top of photographs of the real Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lucien Carr and William S. Burroughs.

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Connections

Referenced in The Graham Norton Show: Johnny Depp/Benedict Cumberbatch/James McAvoy/Daniel Radcliffe/The Corrs (2015)

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Soundtracks

Bell Telephone March
Written by Louis De Francesco (as L.E. De Francesco)
Courtesy of APM Music

User Reviews

The beat generation misses a beat

There is a great story to be told about the beat generation. This isn't it.

Kill Your Darlings (2013) is a biographical drama about the early adult years of the beat generation stalwarts Allen Ginsburg (1926-97), Jack Kerouac (1922-69), and William Burroughs (1914-97). For those of you who don't know the details, Ginsburg achieved much acclaim for his literary works, including a National Book Award for "The Fall of America" (1974) and a Pulitzer Prize nomination for "Poems 1986-1992" (1995). He was famous for his support of homosexuality and his opposition to the Vietnam War. Kerouac is most famous for his classic "On The Road" (1951) and his later "Big Sur" (1962). Burroughs was a prolific author ("Junkie", "Naked Lunch") whose themes of death, drugs, and homosexuality can be seen in their beginning phases in this film.)

The whole idea of the beat generation was that if you could dismantle the structure of communication and still have some worth, then anything was up for grabs. If poetry could give up rhyme and still have substance, then sex could give up its hetero prefix and still have love, and society could give up its mores and still find order. To such a message, the dull and plodding structure of standard film school does no homage. Nor do the film makers even seem aware of the message of the beat generation, putting in scenes of jazz, sex, drugs, and English class without seeming to understand their inter-relationships.

There is a great story to be told about the beat generation. This isn't it.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Page Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 September 2013 (Croatia)

Also Known As:

Kill Your Darlings

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$53,452, 20 October 2013

Gross USA:

$1,030,064

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,877,924

Company Credits

Production Co:

Killer Films, Benaroya Pictures, Outpost Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1