Kerouac, the Movie (1985)

Director:

John Antonelli

Writers:

John Antonelli (writer)
Frank Cervarich (writer)

Release Date:

6 September 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography | Drama

Tagline:

"It's like being in the car with Kerouac and Neal Cassady" -Denver Post

Plot:

Jack Kerouac was a Beat Generation writer who took the nation by storm upon the publication of his novel On the Road...

Plot Keywords:

Reenactment | Beat | Writing | Novelist | Freeloading

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Peter Coyote	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Cindy Alwan
David Andrews	...	Dean Moriarty
Leon Benedict	...	Father
William S. Burroughs	...	Himself (novelist)
Carolyn Cassady	...	Herself (novelist)
Ann Charters	...	Herself (Kerouac biographer)
Sam Charters	...	Himself (jazz historian)
Jack Coulter	...	Jack Kerouac
Robert Creeley	...	Himself (poet)
Michelle DeFors
Kurt Deibel
Lawrence Ferlinghetti	...	Himself (poet)
Allen Ginsberg	...	Himself (poet)
Seth Goldstein	...	Young Kerouac
John Clellon Holmes	...	Himself (novelist)
Herbert Huncke	...	Himself (writer)
Joyce Johnson	...	Herself (novelist)
Seymour Krim	...	Himself (writer)
Michael McClure	...	Himself (poet)
Gilbert Millstein	...	Himself (writer, book reviewer)
Armand Morissette	...	Himself (priest, friend) (as Rev. Armand "Spike" Morissette)
Edie Kerouac Parker	...	Herself (wife)
Jerold Pearson	...	Henry Morley
Diane Potter
Patti Potter
John Rousseou	...	Japhy Ryder
Carl Solomon	...	Himself (poet)
Patrick Turner	...	Lucian Carr
Stanley Twardowicz	...	Himself (artist)
Wendell Walker
Michael Warner	...	Ship Mate
Ron Wills
Adam Wolf

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Lowell, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Daybreak Films

Movie Connections:

Features "Firing Line" (1966)

this one's not the best of its kind

this is quite an interesting thing to see because you just can't miss given the fascinating subject. however, if you want to see a better-done and more insightful documentary on the same subject, see "what happened to kerouac?" instead. this film is less hard-hitting and tries to play up some of the sadder aspects of kerouac's life by doing a kind of wistful routine. peter coyote's narration is abysmal. his readings of kerouac's writing unfortunately take up a lot of the screen time here. what were they thinking? maybe they thought he had some credibility 'cause he was one of the original san francisco diggers. doesn't make sense. he render's kerouac's prose & poetry lifeless with a wimpy and sighing style. if you've ever heard kerouac read his own stuff, which you get plenty of in "what happened to kerouac", you'd never want to hear anyone else read it again. i give it a 6 out of 10 merely because, as always, the interviews with jack's contemporaries that were still left alive when this thing was hobbled together, are riveting and priceless.