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Amos Lassen wrote on 03/12/2012:

When I was an undergrad, Paul Goodman was my hero. He was the spokesman for the New Left and his book, “Growing Up Absurd” was our Bible. (How times have changed). Goodman was not just a philosopher; he was also a poet, a radical pacifist, a seer, co-founder of Gestalt therapy and an out gay man. What we learned from him back then is just as important today.

Goodman rose to prominence as New York became the cultural and artistic center of the country at a time when ideas and those developed them had great influence. The film uses archival multimedia as well as Goodman’s own poetry to give us a picture of an intellectual whose time has come again. Those who appear in the movie are a who’s who of American culture:

Epi Bohdi
Michael Bronski
Noam Chomsky
Morris Dickstein
Jason Epstein
Zeke Finkelstein
Michael Fisher
Richard Flacks
Frieda Gardner
Geoffrey Gardner
Daisy Goodman
Naomi Goodman
Sally Goodman
Susan Goodman
Jacqueline Gourevitch
Allen Graubard

Ambassador Philip Kaiser Edmund Leites
Judith Malina
Michael Vincent Miller
Laura S Murra
Grace Paley
Marcus Raskin
Thomas Rodd
Ned Rorem
Michael Rossman
Taylor Stoehr
Jerl Surratt
Lee Swenson
Michael Walzer
Burton Weiss
Gordon Wheeler
Vera Williams

Goodman was the spokesman for a generation and we see that through the words of others as well as his own. Jonathan Lee is responsible for the film that sheds light on a fascinating man who influenced so many. His voice was strong and his ideas were powerful—he was loved and hated and castigated by many. With his Gestalt therapy he was able to break down barriers therapist and patient. Goodman wanted to totally redo the education system of this country and he even wrote a book about communal architecture, Goodman was concerned with the whole man and he loved sex, making passes at both men and women.

It was “Growing Up Absurd” that made him a celebrity especially with his statement that our society was morally corrupt and hypocritical. He stood at the head of demonstrations against the Vietnam war but he abhorred violence and he shrunk away as the anti-War movement became violent, He died in 1972 of a heart attack.

We hear about Goodman as those interviewed speak as we look at archival photographs and we become aware of his sense of humor and his seductiveness.