On the Road (15)

I'm quite lonely guys..

I think what Shawn is trying to say is that the movie is as much a piece of fiction as the book that the movie is named after is. Does that make sense? It's just Salles' version instead of Kerouac's. I just didn't want Shawn to be putting words in my mouth. I'm sure the movie is fine on its own but to discount the influence of Kerouac's words is like saying Salles was there and Kerouac wasn't.

Shawn, don't get mad because you were criticised, with a good reason. You know nothing about the Beats, you're obsessed about a censored book based on fictional characters, It's really amusing how you rely in your own fantasies when the movie focuses in the real characters because they actually existed, for your disgust. Deal with it. On the road the film is really great and there is nothing you can do about it.

Thanks Keaoin for setting me straight. You see, I was under the impression that this movie was based on a book called On the Road by a writer named Jack Kerouac. I was completely unaware that Hedlund had spent time with the real Cassady, learning his idiosyncratic nuances and behavior tendencies. Now that I know that this movie is "real" I can understand why my expectations should be altered to accept the realness of this film adaptation...ooops....reliving of actual events as they really happened as witnessed by the cast and crew of On The Road (the movie...not to be confused with Jack Kerouac's wildly fantastical and historically inaccurate lesser piece of bullshit known as a novel). Walter Salles, having been present for all of the events of the MOVIE-that's actually true-he was present for the whole movie...but more importantly having actually lived as both Kerouac and Cassady in a previous group think life- can now show us exactly what happened so that we, the uninformed audience, can experience the reality of the Salles/Keroac/Cassady symbiosis without that Kerouac guy exaggerating like he does. Wow. I hope the K Stewart handjob scene is as real as the time she gave one to Salles because only that could carry the authentic stamp of REAL realness of handjob free love. Oh wait, that was a different movie. Was that Snow white movie real too or just a cheap knock off of what really happened? I'm losing track of reality Keoin. What's real again? What I experience and transfer to typed posting or what Salles directs into being having been best buddies with Burroughs. Wasn't he in Drugstore Cowboy? I think that was fake too. I mean Burroughs was fake. He overdid the real William Burroughs. The real William Burroughs looks more like Aragon or that naked russian dude who knife fights gangsters in showers. Hey did you know that Eastern promises is just the retelling of the story of Moses (which is real! John Salles was there) but instead of Isrealites we get Russians. Watch it in that context. No, seriously. But be for warned. I think the movie is a piece of fiction. And there's no handjobs.

To the ignorants, like Saown above, whining here, you have to know that Garrett Hedlund is playing Neal Cassady, the real person, not the stereotyped madman of the book Keroyac wrote, The film is about the real guys, not the adolescent onanistic dream figures you guys want. So get your things right before talking bs.

Excellent suggestion to re-release 'Heart Beat'. And don't forget to read my HB review on database ...

I have yet to see the film myself but have read ON THE ROAD once a year for ten years, have read the origonal scroll adaptation several times and love listening to the 50th anniversary audiobook as read by Will Patton (not a fan of the Matt Dilllon version) and the only real critique I have based on the limited trailer shots I've watched is Hedlund's moment of self reflection. Based on that moment alone I'm sure I won't like the movie. Here's why: Anyone who understands the Cassady/Moriarty persona knows that he does not possess that kind of calm even kiel self reflection. He has moments of self reflection that are delivered in a transparent con-man style but he does not possess the manicured and tamed delivery that Hedlund gives. Moriarty is a manic saint who can't stop long enough for self reflection and that is why Sal follows him. Because he is Beatific. He's not human. He rarely makes eye contact that doesn't involve his body continually moving. I see Hedlund's shots as brooding and worst of all pre-determined. If you can't be the Moriarty/Cassady that Sal/Kerouac describes then we have no reason to ride along. It's what On The Road is about. But according to internet hits and articles I've read this movie is about Kristen Stewart and a topless handjob in a car.

Like the book a great ride. Not perfect but beautifully shot with fantastic music. I liked it a lot

I can't wait for the film but with the film version of Big Sur also due, no one has come close to Nick Nolte's Neal Cassady in the much-forgotten Heart Beat ( though the film once graced a Time Out front cover!). It will be interesting to see that now most, if not all ( not Carloyn Cassady ) of the major protagonist are dead which has hampered depictions of them in other films, and after all of the time spent getting this to the screen, whether it will be worth it or not.

Could not wait to walk out. Smug, self-congratulatory, awful. Cringeworthy.