Kerouac, the Movie

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.

This movie reminded me of Jim Morrison's life. Key issues that came up were: getting inspiration to write, staying motivated and staying true to yourself. I liked the strings of poetry that were read and seeing some top poets talk about their experiences. All in all I thought it was an educational and fun movie to watch. If you want to understand the real definition of the Beat generation - this would be a great movie to watch. It has a documentary style, funky jazz background music and footage of Jack Kerouac. There is some philosophical subject matter which is still true today - and it makes you think about life and its purpose.

Though this is a "good movie", it did absolutely no justice to the book. If you are not a Kerouac fan or have no knowledge of him, you will most likely enjoy this movie. However, this movie is not even comparable to any of Jack's writings. I suggest you read his books to know who this man really is.