Heart Beat (1980)

Director:

John Byrum

Writer:

John Byrum

Stars:

Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, John Heard

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nick Nolte	...	Neal Cassady
Sissy Spacek	...	Carolyn Cassady
John Heard	...	Jack Kerouac
Ray Sharkey	...	Ira
Ann Dusenberry	...	Stevie
Margaret Fairchild	...	Mrs. Kerouac
Tony Bill	...	Dick
Mary Margaret Amato	...	Waitress
Kent Williams	...	Ogden
Susan Niven	...	Ogden's Secretary
Marcia Nasatir	...	First Receptionist
Mickey Kelly	...	Second Receptionist
Luis Contreras	...	Mexican Junkie
Sharon Lee	...	Blonde in Car
Stephen Davies	...	Bob Bendix

Storyline

---

Plot Keywords:

female nudity | 1950s | independent film

---

Taglines:

They shocked us. They outraged us. They didn't do anything wrong. They just did it first.

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 September 1980 (France)

Also Known As:

Bicie serca

Filming Locations:

Rockwell Defense Plant - Bellflower & Imperial Highway, Downey, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Further Productions, Orion Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jack Kerouac's only child, Jan Kerouac, was an extra.

---

Soundtracks

"THE TWIST"
Performed by Hank Ballard
Courtesy of Gusto Records, Inc.

User Reviews

Cassady would have liked Nolte's interpretation of himself!

Not exactly a biopic but rather a potpourri loosely based on Carloyn Cassady's memoires and Jack Kerouac's autobiographical novel 'OnThe Road'. A tad too neat and tidy for me, and I did miss many of the very specific jazzy references and descriptions in the book as soundtrack. And that's not pardonable! On the other hand, they added some soundtrack which was not fitting at all. Shame. Usually a great actress, Sissy Spacek was less impressive as a figure of the so called 'Beat Generation'. She seemed to me too bourgeois and not quite in character. I haven't read Caroly's memories though and in Jack's book she's one of the many important but rather peripheral characters.

However! having had cast Nick Nolte as Neal Cassady and John Heard as Jack Kerouac was a bullseye in my opinion. I imagined the two lads exactly this way whilst reading the book. Great interpretations and chemistry. Gorgeous cinematography by Laszlo Kovacs, but maybe I'm being too patriotic :-) Despite all my criticism, I definitely recommend it to those who read the book, you'll pick up the references with a smile.