Heart Beat

Considering all the comment about the "beat generation" US literary movement of the 1950's and 60's, it seems there's not much film examination of it. The only book of Kerouac's to be filmed so far was the confusing "The Subterraneans" in 1960, not an obvious candidate. This 1980 film is the only biopic of which I'm aware that follows the Kerouac/Neal & Carolyn Cassady saga. It's spotty and doesn't communicate a great deal of what "beat" literature claimed to have accomplished (if indeed anything WAS accomplished), but Nolte was born to play the role of Neal C., which performance alone seals the value of this film. The Cassadys were muses that helped generate Kerouac's impetus to write, and the rest is history.