Here’s a great post on movies that are based on poems. The interesting thing about this list is that there are many movies based on the poems of Robert Service. I had no idea.
In 1982, there was a movie in the U.S. based on the Cremation of Sam McGee, one of my favorites. I was in high school then. I’d never heard of Robert Service. But I did know who he was by 1990 when another movie based on the same poem was made in Canada. I still didn’t know about the movie. You should check out the list, it’s an awesome list.
Elsewhere, I discovered a list of poets who have appeared in movies. The following names came up:
- James Merrill
- Amiri Baraka
- Viggo Mortensen
- Allen Ginsberg
- Robert Haas (yes, that Robert Haas)
A name that was mentioned, but only once, was Charles Bukowski, and that mention was with regard to Factotum, a movie based on a novel of his. Left out was his own biographical movie Barfly. We’ve already talked about actors who have written and published poetry, but what we have not talked about are my own secret acting aspirations. If there are any movie makers out there looking for a poet to feature in their next film, look me up, I’m available.