William Burroughs: Thanksgiving Prayer (1991 Music Video) User Reviews

A quick shot of Burroughs

[jdrew922 · 9/10 · 16 January 2001]

Anyone who's ever felt bloated and full of self-loathing after Thanksgiving dinner will at least appreciate the tone of Burroughs missive to America. "Thanksgiving Prayer" is a pleasant shot of Burroughs for those unwilling to wade through the thickets of his masterfully unpleasant books. The film is a fine document of Burroughs' recitation style, which is as consistent as his writing. The latent humour of his writing becomes unavoidably clear in Burroughs' deadpan delivery. This "Prayer" should be heard by all Americans at least once before they sink from Thanksgiving's fatuous self-congratulations for their own good fortune, to Christmas' rampant abuse of that fortune.

At least the title is true

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 27 November 2017]

Here we have a 2.5-minute "Thanksgiving Prayer" released in 1991, but apparently filmed five years earlier already and as it was Thanksgiving recently, lets take a look at this very short film here. We have American writer William S. Burroughs say thanks for all kinds of stuff, sometimes ironically, sometimes truthfully, sometimes patriotically. The director is Gus van Sant, a household name too for sure and this is still from his days of mostly being a music video director. It is over 25 years old now already, over 30 apparently since it was recorded. It's a black-and-white short film that for whatever reason was screened together with Derek Jarman's Marlowe movie "Edward II". Burroughs wrote his monologue too. That is all I guess, not a great watch by any means and I am saying this as somebody who quite likes van Sant. Only worth seeing if you really love Burroughs. Otherwise skip it. It's a thumbs-down for me.