On The Road

This is the long-awaited film version of Kerouac’s famous road trip novel, which I finally managed to watch on DVD – there was no discernable local theatrical release I could find.  Sam Riley plays Sal Paradise (Kerouac), Garrett Hedlund (Tron Legacy) plays Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady), Viggo “Aragorn” Mortensen plays Old Bull Lee (William S. Burroughs, author of The Naked Lunch), Kristen (“Bella”) Stewart plays Mary-Lou (Dean GF #1), and Kirsten Dunst plays Camille (Dean GF #2).  There’s even Elizabeth Moss (aka Peggy Olson from “Mad Men”) as Galatea Dunkel.  Here she doesn’t have to do any ad copy for sexist clients, just bitch about her husband abandoning her at Old Bull’s place.

            This story ranks up there with The Great Gatsby as a perennial favorite of high school English teachers, I have my theory as to why (assuming my impression as to its popularity is accurate).   Rock journalists love Keith Richards, as we well know.  Keith has done all the things we’d love to do and lived to tell the story – and even outlived many other rock musicians (Elvis, Michael Jackson, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Janis, Jimi, Jim Morrison, etc.).   So with regard to him, I think the rock journalists hold him in awe: “those who can’t, teach.”  And with On The Road you have a similar deal as with my observation on Star Trek: Kirk is who male Trekkers wish they were, Picard is who they actually are.  Here, Dean is who all those English teachers wish they had been, whereas Sal is closer to who they actually were at that age – but hey, Sal is Kerouac himself, so don’t feel too badly. 

            Now on to the movie review.  Funny, I’ve seen Walter Salles’ other movies (“Central Station”, “Motorcycle Diaries” and “Paris Je T’aime”) but this didn’t register to me that it was one of his films.  I suppose my take on directors is, if the technique is so bizarre that you notice it (e.g. Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers”), the guy screwed up somehow.  So Salles did a good job on this one.

This movie had far more bisexuality and men kissing than the book had (though less male-on-male romping than Ser Loras Tyrell in “Game of Thrones”).  Mind you, I didn’t read the book back in high school, I read it very recently.  I can imagine the movie people arguing, “well, Kerouac kept it all out so as not to offend the squares when he published the book [written in 1951 but not published until 1957, and even then after some struggle and difficulty], but that’s what actually happened.  Now that we’re in 2012 and people aren’t so uptight about these things anymore, we can more accurately portray what really happened.”  But this was a novel – a work of fiction loosely based upon Kerouac’s own experiences. 

            So as unpleasant as I found that element of the story, I’ll concede it’s probably closer to portraying the aggregate of experiences which the group did back then.  They smoked pot.   They crossed the country by bus, car, hitch-hiking, etc.  When they drove themselves, Dean was behind the wheel terrifying whoever they picked up with his maniac driving, this back when cars had shitty brakes and suspensions – and no seat belts.  When suitable female companionship was not available, they jumped in bed with each other, or engaged in MMF threesomes as the whim and opportunity arose.   Ultimately the whole thing was each person’s surrender to sensuality and hedonism, pushing tolerances to the limits, of which Dean’s was probably the highest.  Getting back to the high school English teachers, the novel gives the rest of us a chance to live vicariously through these characters.  [“Don’t try this at home.  These are professional beatnik novelists.”]

            Then again, maybe someone should recreate the experience again.  And by that I don’t mean, cross America on back roads in Hudsons or buses, necessarily.  Not an exact slavish recreation of the 1949 experience, but a recreation based on existing circumstances.  Take Amtrak or Greyhound.  Take I70 or I80.  Take ecstasy or LSD, which weren’t around for Dean and his buddies to enjoy in 1949.   As per The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, the Kesey road trips in Furthur in 1964 were their On The Road for that time, especially since Neal Cassady was driving the bus, and thus was a common element of both; at that time not only was LSD available, it was still legal.  Now that bisexuality is more accepted, it’s optional in the 2013 version because we’re not out to shock anyone anymore – bring along Marilyn Manson & Eminem?  Surrender again, but in the world as we know it now, with the Internet and iPods.  Every generation should have its On The Road, not just the beatniks of the late 40s or the hippies of the early 60s.