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| Kerouac and Neal Cassady |
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| Kerouac with Joyce Johnson in the background |
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| Joyce Johnson |
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| W. Kamau Bell |
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| Josh Brolin |
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| Natalie Merchant |
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| Matt Dillon |
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| Kim Jones |
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| Jean-Christophe Cloutier |
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| Diana Langley |
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| Faustino and Tenaj Melendreras |
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| Amir Staten |
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| Diana Langley and dog |
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| Director Ebs Burnough |
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| Kerouac at typewriter |
KEROUAC’S ROAD: THE BEAT OF A NATION C USA Great Britain
(91 mi) 2025 d: Ebs Burnough
My heart resides in a
typewriter, and I don’t have a heart unless there’s a typewriter somewhere
nearby, with a chair in front of it and some blank sheets of paper. ―Jack
Kerouac, Atop an Underwood: Early Stories
and Other Writings, 1999, a compilation of more than sixty previously
unpublished works
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 who never yawn or say a
commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles
exploding like spiders across the stars. —Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957
Apparently shown on American Airline flights, this is not
your typical look at Jack Kerouac, author of the youth culture novel On the Road, published in 1957, though
it was written in 1951, revised several times, recalling his reckless
adventures of the postwar late 40’s, literally waiting years to get published,
so by the time the book became a best seller, and the author instantly famous
at the age of thirty-five, he was no longer that youthful adolescent figure he
once was, making fame extremely awkward for him, as he simply could not see
himself as an ambassador for youth, which may have contributed to his notorious
drinking problem, dying at an early age of 47.
While Kerouac is the focal point, a countercultural hero who worshipped
the American Dream, appealing to those longing for freedom and adventure, yet viewed
more than half a century later, his influence is more recognized today,
something he would probably never have believed, as it crosses through many
cultural boundaries that didn’t even exist back then. Directed by a gay black man who previously
made THE CAPOTE TAPES (2019), which also dealt with another famous white male
writer, the openly gay Truman Capote, with a variety of comments offered here from
different perspectives, it’s not really the book that people are mentioning, or
the personal influence from having read it, as it’s more about how youth
culture has really been defined by the book, creatively rebellious and
artistic, breaking free from conventional norms, leaving the nest of your
parent’s house, where there’s a certain freedom in exploring what’s out there. There’s a bit of a disconnect in the way
traveling on the road in live-in camper vans is just not the same as hitchhiking
on the open road, a liberty not available to most, as it would be much harder and
more dangerous for gays, women, and blacks, so for the director the open
question was how to broaden the road for all the people who couldn’t do it in
1957 and make it more inclusive. The
book seemed to be an organic, undiluted product of America, yet part of a life
cycle, viewed as a way to reach a particular destination to somewhere else,
where the author starts out so young and hopeful, where it’s a bit like a
caterpillar morphing into a butterfly, as there’s a transcendent process taking
place, with adolescence followed by the new experiences of young adulthood and
being on your own for the first time, which is not always positive. While there are recurring figures that
include actors Josh Brolin and Matt Dillon, the always insightful musician
Natalie Merchant, who sang “Hey Jack Kerouac” 10000 Maniacs - Hey Jack
Kerouac YouTube (4:10), yet was inspired to write a new song for the film, “In
the Land,” which plays over the end credits, and former friend and composer David
Amram, Kerouac scholar Ann Charters, Québécois scholar Jean-Christophe
Cloutier, editor of the original French writings of Jack Kerouac, novelist Jay
McInerney, East Bay culture commentator and political provocateur W. Kamau
Bell, host of United Shades of America, British
fashion designer Kim Jones, who has a complete collection of his works, Kerouac’s
former girlfriend and author Joyce Johnson, yet also just ordinary folks in
contemporary verité storylines like Amir Staten, a young black student
graduating from his private school in Philly to begin his journey attending
Morehouse College in Atlanta, bi-racial and politically opposite empty-nester
couple and frequent road travelers Faustino and Tenaj Melendreras, and queer 68-year
old Diana Langley making a road trip to visit her estranged 91-year old father
who all but ignored her after causing a lifetime of trauma.
Hoping to introduce new audiences to the book, the real
stand-outs are Natalie Merchant, who views Kerouac through a misogynistic lens,
Joyce Johnson’s vivid personal reflections, with some excellent family
background information provided by Ann Charters, so viewing this from a woman’s
point of view is radically different, yet feels essential, while the black or queer
road traveler’s take from the comfort of their cars is a distracting detour
that just doesn’t work, as they have literally nothing to do with Jack Kerouac. If that’s not bad enough, there is an
offscreen voice rendition by Michael Imperioli of The Sopranos fame, a supposed Kerouac devotee reading various
passages of the author’s writings, but they are not easily delineated from the voices
of the rest of the film, instead getting jumbled into the mix, and really
carried very little emotional weight.
Had they been highlighted differently, Kerouac’s words onscreen might
have had more meaning, as there’s an unusual tenderness and compassion in how
he viewed the rest of humanity. He
explored gender, sexuality, and queerness openly in his work during a time when
it was rare to do so, and he wrote with deep empathy about marginalized people. A prodigious reader and writer, who always
thought of himself as being in the tradition of great writers who came before
him, with each novel fitting into a different segment of his life, always
centered around the idea of being a writer, the documentary includes vintage
footage of Kerouac and his Beat Generation friends, like Allen Ginsberg and
Neal Cassady, with some of the women acknowledging that they were an exclusive
boy’s club, as women were typically excluded and not well-developed in
Kerouac’s books, seen only in a subordinate role to the men’s nonstop
adventures, and while representative of the times in which they lived, his
writings are literally saturated with what many believe are demeaning sexist
and misogynistic views. Despite this, flawed
as he may be, the myth and romanticism associated with Kerouac has affected
each new generation, acting as a rite of passage for restless souls, instilling
them with a driving force for freedom in an unflinching search for the meaning
found in the chasm between idealism and reality, encouraging them to get
outside their comfort zone in pursuit of new experiences, to engage in the
world around them, whether it be life on the road, reading, poetry, or music,
especially the liberating riffs of jazz, as we are all on individual journeys,
yet at the same time desperate to be part of a community. Heavily inspired by the work of James Joyce, particularly
his autobiographical, stream-of-consciousness writing technique, one stark
image that stood out was Kerouac’s own handwritten notes on Joyce’s seminal
work, Ulysses, describing it as the
greatest book ever written, as it elevates art to previously unforeseen
heights, having a major impact on the Beats, a literary subculture movement who
were always searching for a spiritual quest for greater meaning. While barely mentioned when he was alive, it’s
also made clear that Kerouac was bisexual, where homoerotic longing is a thread
that streams through the work of the Beats, rejecting materialism in all its
forms, and conventionality, casually experimenting with drugs and sex, while
always celebrating spontaneous creative energy, with Kerouac idolizing and
channeling his manic friend Neal Cassady in a spontaneous stream-of-conscious
flurry in On the Road, with Cassady
later appearing in half a dozen other works written by Kerouac.
This is not really what anyone would expect, and there’s
only a few sequences that actually stand out, as otherwise this is extremely
dry, formulaic, and conventional, something Kerouac himself would probably have
loathed. The big surprise is that this
is not so much about Kerouac, per se, but more about what the writer signifies
in contemporary America, as the book started out with only an underground
following, but interest has grown through the decades, where it’s now part of
the mainstream, yet the film appears to be a skin-deep portrayal of Kerouac,
where you have to sift through all the extraneous material to find pertinent
information that actually matters. A symbol
of freedom, misogyny, white male privilege, and even the American interstate highway
system that brought us all closer together in the 50’s, you have to wait about
a half hour before you learn anything important about Kerouac’s life, mostly
told in a brash manner by Ann Charters, who knew him personally and wrote his
biography, revealing the loneliness behind his rebellious image while also
detailing his creative process, often drawing connections between his life and
his writing, specifically mentioning the outsider status of his conservative French-Canadian
upbringing, the closeness to his mother, as he was clearly a mama’s boy, growing
up in a working class environment, actually attending college on a football
scholarship, so he was an athlete as well. A book that inspired musicians
Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Van Morrison, Jerry Garcia, and so many others, driven
by a desire for 100% personal honesty, offering a model on how to live openly
and freely, it’s curious that the extensive body of work beyond On the Road goes unmentioned. And while this is not an idealized look at
Jack Kerouac, as his life is often complicated and contradictory, he inspires
each new generation to live in the moment, which is always a challenge,
especially with all the distractions that exist today and the obsession with
phones, but the words that he wrote still resonate and are reflected in modern
culture. One of the fundamental texts
for discovering America, while at the same time discovering yourself, it’s an
intensely realized experience that still exists on some level, as there’s
always something bigger than ourselves. When
you return to the text, you encounter not just the book but also yourself, and
who you were when you first read it, and all the iterations of your life that
have followed, providing a changing perspective as one ages. The director’s background is also
significant, a theater major at Northwestern, an actor coming from the
theatrical world of Broadway, and a political operative, as he’s the former
White House Deputy Social Secretary under President Barack Obama and Senior
Advisor to First Lady Michelle Obama in brand strategy and strategic
communications, updating the Beat movement through a modern lens, moving from
race and class to queerness and counterculture, the film explores how one book still
challenges what it means to be free in America.
It may be a different country now, stuck in dangerous times as opposed
to the postwar optimism of the 50’s, but the road map is the same, using a
composite of novels, poetry, music, and drama, even the recollecting of dreams
to evaluate that inner spirit that drives and moves people, that reflects the
essence of our being as we make the choices of living our lives.
