Poetry and prejudice: "Howl" cast links beatnik obscenity trial to Prop. 8

The Sundance premiere "Howl" may be based on a 53-year-old First Amendment case, but its stars say it raises issues that are still burning today. James Franco plays embattled beatnik poet Allen Ginsberg and Jon Hamm portrays defense lawyer Jake Erlich. Ehrlich, the person fictional attorney Perry Mason was based on, defended Ginsberg's publisher from obscenity charges for selling the ribald epic, whose homosexual references and antiestablishment tone outraged Eisenhower era moralizers. The film's vibrant animation of passages from "Howl" turns Ginsberg's challenging language into handsome, trippy imagery. On Tuesday, the day after the film's first public screening, Hamm linked the Ginsberg trial to the passage of California's Proposition 8 and other efforts to limit marriage equality for same-sex couples. In each situation, he said, "publicity engendered by all this brings to light the absurdity of ascribing second-class status to an entire group of people." "I was immediately attracted to the opportunity to play this person who delivers this incredibly passionate defense of artistic freedom, and what it is to be able to express yourself freely in this society and what it means to have that uniquely American approach," Hamm said. "When you think that that argument was presented in this case over 50 years ago," he continued, "the fact that we're still grappling with this means we have a long way to go. It's a wonderful opportunity to be the face and voice of the person making that argument. That's why I was attracted to it."