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On the Road (2012)

 -  Adventure | Drama  -  23 May 2012 (France)
6.1
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Ratings: 6.1/10 from 15,706 users   Metascore: 56/100
Reviews: 89 user | 207 critic | 32 from Metacritic.com

Young writer Sal Paradise has his life shaken by the arrival of free-spirited Dean Moriarty and his girl, Marylou. As they travel across the country, they encounter a mix of people who each impact their journey indelibly.

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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
...
Dean Moriarty / Neal Cassady
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Marylou / LuAnne Henderson
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Jane / Joan Vollmer
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Carlo Marx / Allen Ginsberg
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Terry / Bea Franco
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Galatea Dunkel / Helen Hinkle
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Ed Dunkle / Al Hinkle
...
Camille / Carolyn Cassady
...
Old Bull Lee / William S. Burroughs
...
Oaxacan Girl
...
Vicki
Clara Altimas ...
Newlywed Woman
Leif Anderson ...
Chevy Owner
...
Terry's Father
Edit

Storyline

Young writer Sal Paradise has his life shaken by the arrival of free-spirited Dean Moriarty and his girl, Marylou. As they travel across the country, they encounter a mix of people who each impact their journey indelibly.

Add Full Plot | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

The best teacher is experience.

Genres:

Adventure | Drama

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexual content, drug use and language | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
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Details

Official Sites:

Country:

| | | |

Language:

|

Release Date:

23 May 2012 (France)  »

Also Known As:

Na putu  »

Filming Locations:

 »

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$39,550 (USA) (21 December 2012)

Gross:

$717,753 (USA) (26 April 2013)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

| (original)

Sound Mix:

|

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1
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Did You Know?

Trivia

Based on the book 'On the Road' by Jack Kerouac written in 1951 (published in 1957). See more »

Goofs

Among Sal's books is a copy of Saul Bellow's "Seize the Day", which had not yet been published at the time of the story. See more »

Connections

Featured in Projector: On the Road (2012) See more »

Soundtracks

"Hard to Love What You Kill"
Written and Performed by Jake La Botz
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

 
Revisionist treatment with pluses and minuses
15 July 2012 | by (Paris, France) – See all my reviews

There are very few works of 20th-century American literature that can be called indispensable to our understanding of our culture. And one of these few is Jack Kerouac's On the Road. As everyone knows, it's the thinly-veiled autobiographical account of Kerouac and his friends in their pointless but exuberant adventures across America. For 50 years, it's been waiting to be made into a movie. Now, at last.

So, everyone already knows the story… well, no; chances are, if you're like me, you read the book and yet remember almost nothing of the story. The book burns through its shreds of storyline as if they were just tinder for the blaze of its energy; the real fuel is the pacing, even with all its redundancy. It's the momentum that sucks us into the breathless chaos of Kerouac's world. We come away impressed by the energy, not the content.

Film could certainly have been used to amplify this effect, but this is not that film. Instead, we have a more conventional treatment, focusing on character development. It's a nice production, with an attractive cast. But the story comes at us very differently from the book experience. The manuscript has been rewritten to add breathing space and objectivity. We see Sal Paradise, only half-formed at the start of the story, pull himself together to become a serious writer. We see the endlessly exuberant Dean Moriarity ultimately coming to grips with the progressive self- destruction attributable to his amorality, and suffering. This might be a fair reading of Kerouac's ultimate feelings about that part of his life, but it's not the feeling that Kerouac shares with us in the book. We have lost our innocence; our last chance to revisit it, even for a few hours, is taken away.

I'm not going to rage against this re-conception of the story, though, because it makes other changes from the book that might be improvements. Several episodes that were censored from the book are restored in the film. (Some discussion of this at http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/easyrider/data/BeatEros.htm). So the movie is more historically accurate, and far more sexually explicit than the book. (That could also explain its delayed US release). In one poignant scene, Carlos Marx (Allen Ginsberg) is whining to Sal about how vulnerable he feels due to his poorly-returned love for Dean. To the best of my recollection, that conversation was not in the book (please tell me if you believe otherwise), but was expressed in a private letter from Ginsberg to Kerouac many years after the fact. This kind of thing changes the emotional flow of the story, certainly, but it adds depth, too.

Few of us will actually suffer nostalgia for the gritty overindulgences of the Beats. But remember, this came at a time when society was absolutely saturated with the message that everyone should be "normal," safe, predictable. Without the tiny minority of Beats attacking that message, and specifically without On The Road to chronicle that attack, the cultural revolution of the 1960's would have been even more difficult than it was, and perhaps less effective. Good, bad, or ugly, we must embrace this story.


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Perhaps this is why it didn't work on film blameline
Why didn't anyone tell me not to watch this with my mom? alleliua
Worst movie ive seen in years.... flanaria
The last scene with Dean and Sal.. apathetic_turquoise
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On Demand Gogol_Castles
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