They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”
This is a characteristic excerpt from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, one of the best novels of all time; reading this book is one of the most moving experiences I have ever had in any field of art. Intelligently multilayered and sweepingly improvisational, existential as much as subversive, aesthetically forceful and yet emotionally delicate, On the Road is the defining moment of the Beat movement, and a timeless manifestation of non-conformism.
It is far less known, however, that Jack Kerouac also envisioned a film based on the novel, which has now been made by the award-winning director Walter Salles. Similarly to the way he had followed the steps of the young Ernesto Guevara in South America in order to film The Motorcycle Diaries, Walter Salles prepared himself by tracing Jack Kerouac’s journey, interviewing Beat writers, and making a documentary titled In Search for On the Road.
The Motorcycle Diaries, Central Station, and Foreign Land, which was co-directed with Daniela Thomas, are examples of Walter Salles’ exquisite eye for road movies. As he told Michael Ordoña in the San Francisco Chronicle, “[w]hat truly interests me are stories in which the main characters’ journeys somehow mirror the transformations at play in a specific culture or country.” And in this respect, On the Road is a film I am most certainly looking forward to; the characters of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, who in the novel stood for Jack Kerouac and Neil Cassady, are played by Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund, while the supporting cast includes Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, and Viggo Mortensen.
2 comments:
I definitely want to see this film!!!!Walter Salles rules!!!!
I am glad to hear it! : )
Walter Salles happens to be one of my favourite directors. But apart from that, he is such a fine choice for On the Road, given the visual language of his road movies, his meticulous approach, and the contextual richness of his work.
Alfonso Cuarón is another favourite director of mine, and I would also be excited if he was to direct this film - but I must admit less so.
In short, it may be a great novel but in terms of the film adaptation it is the director who matters the most - and Walter Salles matters the most because the subject fits him like a glove.
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