For years, Jack Kerouac’s
novel On the Road had been considered
unfilmable. That hasn’t stopped people from trying ever since it was published
in 1957 with Kerouac himself sending a letter to Marlon Brando asking the actor
to star opposite him in a film version. It isn’t the style or the structure
that makes the novel difficult to adapt but rather its iconic status as one of
the signature books of the 1950s. Even more daunting is its status as a book
that millions of people grew up reading, like The Catcher in the Rye. As a result, it has become a much beloved
and cherished book for generations of readers. Anyone attempting to adapt
Kerouac’s novel into a film faces the intimidating task of living up to the
impossible expectations of legions of fans, not to mention somehow making
people forget the equally iconic people the characters are based on – Kerouac
and his famous friends, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs.
The path to an On the Road film has been littered with
failed attempts from the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, Joel Schumacher, Brad
Pitt, Billy Crudup, Colin Farrell, and Gus Van Sant, who were all attached at
one time or another. Of all the people linked to the project, it was Coppola
who has remained a constant over the years. He bought the rights in 1979 and
has managed to steer it clear of Hollywood interference, finally picking Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) to
direct. He saw it through a turbulent period where financing fell through and
actors dropped out. He finally made and released the final product in 2012 with
up-and-coming actors Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund, and, oh yeah, a young
actress you might have heard of – Kristen Stewart. On the Road debuted to a lackluster reception at the Cannes Film
Festival prompting Salles to cut 13 minutes from the film in an effort to
tighten things up and focus more on the two main characters – Sal Paradise (Sam
Riley) and Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund).
On the Road is a fictionalized account of Kerouac’s numerous journeys across
the United States between 1947 and 1950 when he met Neal Cassady, who would
become the mythical character Dean Moriarty in the book. The film begins,
literally, on the road with a shot of Sal Paradise’s feet walking on several
different roads both during the day and at night. Rather interestingly, Salles
and screenwriter Jose Rivera’s angle with their adaptation is the theme of
absent fathers and Sal and Dean’s yearning for theirs. Sal’s father dies before
he first meets Dean and Dean’s elusive father is a semi-famous hobo in Denver
who abandoned his family when his son was very young. So, the two men bond over
a common missing element in their lives. This is established early on with
Sal’s opening voiceover narration that quotes Kerouac’s original scroll
manuscript before it was edited into the book most of us know and love: “I
first met Dean not long after my father died. I had just gotten over a serious
illness that I won’t bother to talk about except that it really had something
to do with my father’s death, my awful feeling that everything was dead.” By
choosing to quote the scroll instead of the novel, Salles and Rivera are
letting fans know that they’ve done their homework and understand the source
material.
Sal meets Dean and his
beautiful young wife Marylou (Kristen Stewart) as the dynamic couple land in
New York City to meet a mutual friend. Sal is captivated by Dean’s infectious
energy and considerable charisma. Garrett Hedlund does a fantastic job of
conveying Dean’s insatiable hunger for learning and for experience. He’s
willing to try almost anything once if only for the experience. The actor
captures the mischievous glint in Dean’s eye. You can see why he is so
initially attractive to people with his dynamic and fascinating personality.
However, there are hints early on that he may not be all he’s cracked up to be,
like how he glosses over breaking up with Marylou, which was so bad that she
called the cops on him.
I will admit that when I
first heard of Hedlund being cast as Dean I wasn’t sold on the idea, but after
seeing him in the wildly uneven Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle Country Strong (2010), I could imagine him in the role. He was by
and far the best thing in that film, bringing a natural charisma that made you
want to watch him every time he came on screen. He brings that quality to Dean
in On the Road.
Once I got past the fact that
none of the actors in the film look like their real-life counterparts, I was
able to settle in and enjoy the experience. Salles wisely did not try to go for
people who resembled Kerouac and his friends (an impossible task) but rather
actors that were able to capture the spirit of the characters in the book. Sam
Riley, who was so good as Ian Curtis in Control
(2007), is fine as Sal but plays him a little too passively than he comes
across in the book. This is due in large part to the fact that Riley is often
overshadowed by the more dynamic Hedlund.
For those worried about the
presence of Twilight’s Kristen
Stewart, you have nothing to fear. Given the strong material and an equally
strong director guiding her, the actress sheds her trademark acting tics and
affectations and disappears into her character. Freed from not having to carry
a massive cinematic franchise, Stewart allows herself to have fun with the
role. She is cast wonderfully against type as the sexually hungry Marylou. Despite
her movie star status, Stewart only has a supporting role but she makes the
most of it and one hopes that a part like this is a sign of things to come for
the talented young actress.
While the film is mostly
about Sal and Dean, a few of the supporting characters get their moments, chief
among them is Carlo Marx a.k.a. Allen Ginsberg (Tom Sturridge) and a memorable
extended cameo by Old Bull Lee a.k.a. William S. Burroughs (Viggo Mortensen). A
perfectly cast Viggo Mortensen eerily channels Burroughs’ distinctive voice
including his trademark drawl as he dispenses pearls of paranoid wisdom to Sal
and Dean while Amy Adams grunges herself down as Bull Lee’s equally cryptic
wife Jane. They play well off each other and leave us wanting to see more of
this odd couple.
To say that On the Road plays like a collection of
highlights from the book is not a criticism as the source material is episodic
in nature. That being said, Salles’ film is made by and for fans of Kerouac’s
novel, possibly alienating the uninitiated. For fans of the novel, your
enjoyment of the film will probably be based on how many of your favorite
passages made it into the final version as the ones that do are translated
quite faithfully with significant chunks of Kerouac’s prose spoken verbatim in
the frequent voiceover narration.
For me, it was great to see
some of my favorite passages from Kerouac’s novel realized in the film, like
Sal’s ride to Denver on a flatbed truck with a hobo by the name of Mississippi
Gene and a hitchhiker named Montana Slim that is pretty much the way I imagined
it, right down to Gene singing that great little blues song with everyone
joining in all photographed during dusk by cinematographer Eric Gautier. None
of these characters are identified in the film but fans of the book will
recognize them immediately. This scene shows the camaraderie among fellow
travelers. Another favorite bit is a brief scene that demonstrates Dean’s
amazing ability to park cars on a dime while living in New York. Salles also
manages to capture the energy and vitality of be-bop jazz in a sequence early
on where Sal and Dean go see a jazz saxophone player in action (Terrence Howard) and we see Dean lost in the music, lost in the beat.
Salles’ film accurately
depicts the initial rush of excitement that most of the characters experience
with Dean and how this eventually gives way to anger and disappointment when he
invariably lets them down in some way. For Sal, it’s disillusionment as Dean
turns out not to be the mythic Western hero figure he had imagined but an
irresponsible man who does what he wants, oblivious of how it might affect
those around him and yet he still loves him like a brother because of the
intense bond they developed on their adventures crisscrossing the country. Jose
Rivera’s screenplay doesn’t shy away from showing Dean’s poor treatment of
women, like how he neglects his wife Camille (Kirsten Dunst) and baby for
trivial “kicks,” going out to a jazz club with Sal. The film also shows how he
repeatedly cheats on her with Marylou and vice versa, eventually abandoning
both. On his path for the ultimate thrill, he leaves a path of failed marriages
and destroyed friendships. For Dean, nothing must get in the way of his
voracious appetite – be it drink, drugs, women or the open road. He is the
quintessential free spirit, a restless soul that burns like the roman candles
Sal compares him to.
As far as films directly
about the Beat Generation go, On the Road
is best one to date. That’s not saying much when its competition consists
mostly of failed efforts like Heart Beat
(1980), The Last Time I Committed Suicide
(1997) and Neal Cassady (2008), which
were made by people who understood little about the Beats. Sure, there have
been the rare exceptions that got it right, like Naked Lunch (1991) and Howl (2010),
but I’ve always felt that the two best unofficial Beat Generation films were
Robert Rossen’s adaptation of The Hustler
(1961) and Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private
Idaho (1991). The former managed to capture the run down, “beat” feeling
that is often conveyed in Kerouac’s novels, while the latter brilliantly
captures the allure of the open road and the search for a missing parental
figure, in this case a mother. At that point in their respective careers,
Rossen and Van Sant would have been ideal directors to tackle On the Road.
The attention to period
detail is fantastic, from recreating 1940s New York City to the famous ’49
Hudson that Sal and Dean drive across the country. Right from the get-go,
Salles immerses us in this time period with the help of jazz music from the
likes of Slim Gaillard, Dinah Washington, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie.
The sets, locations, outfits and music all work together to provide us with a
glimpse of that time as seen through Kerouac’s eyes. Rather interestingly,
Salles and Rivera don’t shy away from the sex in On the Road as we see Dean with a variety of sexual partners over
the course of film as does Sal, which includes his brief relationship with
Terry, (Alice Braga), a beautiful Mexican woman he meets in California. The
Beat writers were very passionate people and this included their sex lives.
The care and detail applied
to every scene clearly demonstrates that this was a passion project for
everyone involved. On the Road is not
some sterile, impersonal studio film, but rather one made by people with a real
affinity for the source material. Salles’ film captures the energy and
excitement of Kerouac and his friends who shared a passion for literature and
jazz. They lived for the moment, giving into their wildest urges as one
sometimes does at that young age where you have your whole life in front of you
and feel indestructible. They are the “mad ones” as Kerouac calls them in his
book. This is certainly not a film for everyone and rightly so. What it does is
perfectly capture the essence and spirit of the novel. It does this so
faithfully that it may alienate the uninitiated but so be it. At least Salles
has the conviction to pick a specific angle and go for it, making definite
choices along the way instead of playing it safe.
I'm very glad to hear you enjoyed it. It's a tough one to get right and I've been looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time. Your write up is very encouraging!
ReplyDeleteBrent Allard:
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'd be curious to know what you think when you finally get a chance to see it. Good or bad, it's just great to see someone finally bring this to the big screen. As a whole, I think they got it right.