Walter Salles’ stunning new film of Jack Kerouac’s Beatnik classic On the Road, captures the essence of Kerouac’s restless vision, even if it doesn’t maintain strict adherence to the book. This may frustrate diehard Beat fans but I would urge them to go and see it nonetheless. This is simply a cinematic interpretation of the text and I would say that it largely succeeds as a film.
If you’ve ever dreamed of packing it all in and hitting the road in search of adventure, then this film (and book) should really capture your imagination. It follows lightly fictionalised versions of Kerouac (Sal Paradise), Neal Cassady (Dean Moriarty), Allen Ginsberg (Carlo Marx) and others in their manic quest across America in search of…well, you decide.
The film interpretation
Being a fan of the book, I am perhaps slightly predisposed to enjoy this film as a story but objectively speaking there is much to praise. There are strong performances throughout from a young, talented cast. Kristen Stewart has surely now answered any questions about her ability to act outside the Twilight franchise and will hopefully continue to take more interesting parts.
English actors Sam Riley (‘Kerouac’) and Tom Strurridge (‘Ginsberg’) provide first class performances as does Garrett Headland as ‘Cassady’. The photography is stunning and the sets and props and wardrobe and everything else really do transport you back to that crazy time, which (in my opinion) is a considerable achievement.
On The Road
I was constantly reminded of The Motorcycle Diaries (an account of Che Guevara’s youthful adventures across Latin America) as I watched the film and have just found out that that too was a Walter Salles film and is also well worth checking out. This is by no means (and never could be) a perfect translation but it is so much more interesting than a lot of what’s on at the moment. What other film could offer words like these:
“They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars”.
On the Road is in cinemas today.
