On the Road

This is a movie (based on Jack Kerouac’s novel by the same name) that should be seen and enjoyed within its context and period. The Beat generation was defined by Salinger, Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac.

I admit that except for A Catcher in the Rye, I have not read any other Beat literature but the film On the Road directed by Walter Selles (The Motorcycle Diaries) compels me.

Angst, non-conformity, search for meaning, jazz, music, sex, drug use, communism et al defined the Beat generation of the 50s and so did the cold war. And its politics.

Jack Kerouac (the man who coined the term ‘Beat Generation’; doesn’t he deserve the Nobel Prize for that?) took multiple road trips with his free-spirited, hedonistic friend, Neal Cassady (played to perfection by Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund, respectively). The movie is autobiographical; he started writing and rewriting from 1948 through 1951/52, I guess. Finally, it was published in 1957.

The film was filmed in 2010 and released in 2012 but retains the period look. And what a period it was: Blissful, upbeat, beatific, and beaten up.

It makes you ponder how much of anything is enough… Everything comes at a price. And free will and choice(s)… Does that make your life richer?

Like the film shows: The best teacher is experience.