On The Road

A film that captures that elusive spirit of Jack Kerouac's novel
There is bound to be a generational gap in the audience response to Walter Salles' and Jose Rivera's adaptation of Jack Kerouac's immensely important book ON THE ROAD, a story about the 'first beatnik' who in the aftermath of WW II found the world not only confusing but senseless, and his way of trying to find his place as a writer spawned his book that is in many ways a diary of three years of living on the lam, penniless except for occasional odd jobs to finance gas, food and crash pads. It is a Whitmanesque song of independence and yearning for meaning and love and acceptance and Salles and Rivera, with considerable assistance from the musical score by Gustavo Santaolalla and the cinematography of Eric Gautier.

The young unfocused writer Sal Paradise/Jack Kerouac (Sam Riley)is joined by free-spirited Dean Moriarty/Neal Cassady (Garrett Hedlund in a magnificently realised portrayal) and his girl, Marylou/Luanne Henderson (Kristen Stewart) and Carlo Marx/Allen Ginsberg...

It Was a Beautifully Filmed, Well-acted, Classic in the Making
Let's just get this out of the way - the movie is not the book. Now that we've established that truism for most book-to-movie adaptations, let's move on.

Just to give a little background on my mindset before I viewed this movie, I am not a Kerouac fan. Reading Kerouac as a black woman, is like repeatedly sticking a fork in my eye in some parts. It's painful to read the misogyny and the romanticism of picking cotton (When I read he thought he could make it his "life's work," I almost threw the book out of the window). But, I continued and actually understood his mindset by the end of the book. However, I really never wanted to be in his head again. It was a scary place.

So, as you could probably tell, I had my reservations about the movie. However, the cast won me over. When you have Amy Adams, Viggo Mortensen, Steve Buscemi, Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, and Kirsten Dunst all in one movie, you can practically guarantee some fine...

CENSORED VERSION
What a let down. This is some sort of re-cut version, not the theatrical version that I seen. Censored and re-cut. Hopefully there will be an unrated version released. I feel cheated. Not recommended.

Click to Editorial Reviews