(Note: This text was originally published on July 13, 2012).
Jack Kerouac fans and On The Road die-hards are biting their nails raw as they wait to face a couple of hours of the book’s silver screen adaptation. A few hours that summarize a book written in three weeks, featuring a romance inspired by a seven-year trip. A trip that came about to change the mindset of an era, and never really ended.
Dear Kerouac-loving friends, here is a heads-up: Walter Salles didn’t butcher the adaptation. It must have been a tough job… and the result won’t be the best movie of your life. It’s not a masterclass in acting or screenwriting either. The payoff comes with the sensations. If you keep an open mind, you might just find some pretty good complements to your own trip there.
What blows your mind right away is the sound. Not the sound of insane, sweat-drenched, bebop-fueled parties driven by descriptions that swing like jazz solos. Kerouac did that flawlessly, and no image or music can kill that buzz. What hits heavy are the sounds of footsteps on the asphalt. The heavy breathing. The sex. The rain and the wind. The crying, the anger, the joy. The roar of the car engine cutting through the highway. Something that only cinema can deliver… and it works. You realize this within the first five minutes of the film.
You’re left completely disarmed by this new world opening up inside a piece of your emotional memory that you guard so closely: a book.
Dear friends who aren’t fans of Kerouac, haven’t read On The Road, or have no clue what this movie is about other than the fact that the girl from Twilight appears in it. Here is a heads-up: this is a slow-burning movie. Slow. Like a long road trip. Landscapes come and go, and the boredom of a lifetime (usually summarized on a blank page) is traded for an empty highway. Kerouac’s long descriptions and inner thoughts are replaced by giant, silent shots. No dialogue. Just the hangover of youthful euphoria trying to make sense during the quiet moments. You, my dear friend who has no idea what you’re getting into, also need to keep an open mind. Those “boring” parts say a lot about the story you are watching.
Fans and non-fans alike, a new question hangs in the air: was the charming Dean Moriarty (or Neal Cassady) the very first victim to suffer and get lost in the pursuit of absolute freedom? Today, we suffer from this same illness through the sheer overload of information invading our daily lives; telling us how to live well, have everything, travel, conquer the world, do what we love, make money, live and survive on playful illusions. The Beat Generation went looking for self-discovery, new experiences, and raw sensations. They lived under a technocratic system, their lives neatly scheduled, while simultaneously discovering the early ripples of Eastern culture (which made a massive difference for a young American back in the ’40s) and being guided by a thought that leaves us bewildered today: to know it all, to live it all, to have it all. Is that even possible?
Trailer: