ON THE ROAD

It’s been a bumpy trip for the film adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel ‘On The Road’. Since its publication in 1957, bringing the works of the Beat Generation to an international audience, the sprawling road trip account has evaded dramatisation, many proclaiming the book unfilmable. Kerouac’s book functions almost like stream of consciousness on paper, following the cross-country travels of Sal Paradise (a representation of Kerouac himself) and his friendship with Dean Moriarty, an enigmatic, brilliant but troubled young man who leads Sal on a trip across the American landscape and deep into the confused male psyche of the post-war era. It’s a book that sparked an entire generation of artists and has been sighted as one of the most important literary works of the twentieth century.

All this makes the achievement of director Walter Salles and screenwriter Jose Rivera all the more impressive, that their recent film adaptation of the novel is not only comprehensible but captures the thrill, the poetry and the sadness of Kerouac’s writing. The writer-director team had previously adapted the writings of the young Che Guevara into the acclaimed ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ (2004), making them the perfect team for the job. The film rambles beautifully from episode-to-episode, Sal navigating his way through the diverse and ever-changing landscapes he crosses, and a relationship with Dean and his many women constantly in flux, whilst holding the events together with Sal/Kerouac writing what will eventually become ‘On The Road’. Salles and Rivera draw from not only the novel, but from the lives of the Beat Generation themselves, creating possibly the most accurate portrait of these cult figures we’ve seen on screen so far. Salles also reunites with his ‘Diaries’ cinematographer Eric Gautier and composer Gustavo Santaolalla, who help to recreate the tone and detail of 1950s America, its earthy textures and the pervading melancholy. The cast is absolutely top-notch, led by a subtle and considered performance by Sam Riley as Sal, our gravelly-voiced narrator. Garrett Hedland practically steals the film, however, as Dean, a viscerally electrifying performance that demonstrates a talent many might not have imagined he had.