USA,
1984, 73 min
Shown in 1985
CREDITS
- dir
-
John Antonelli
- prod
-
John Antonelli
- scr
-
John Tytell, Frank Cervarich
- cast
-
Jack Coulter
Part documentary, part dramatic biography, this loving tribute to the Beat Generation’s founding father captures the essence of Jack Kerouac’s life and work, with re-enactments from his life set to corresponding passages of his prose. Jack Coulter’s readings (accompanied by a superb jazz soundtrack) amazingly reincarnate Kerouac’s own jazzy vocal rhythms. Interspersed are the often-surprising reminiscences of a lineup of Beatnik All-Stars, including Herbert Huncke, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, John Clellon Holmes, Carolyn Cassady, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and two Kerouac ex-wives. Most tellingly of all, the film opens and closes with precious footage of the moment when a mass audience first heard the beat of Kerouac’s bluesy prose—a gruff, half-embarrassed 1959 guest appearance on Steve Allen’s TV show, in which our hipster hero blows away the lameness of the medium—and of the era—with a dazzling verbal bebop solo on the final paragraphs of On the Road.
—Naomi Wise
FACTOID #336
Bing Crosby was invited several times for an onstage tribute at the Festival, reports then-director Claude Jarman, but declined the honor. “Nobody wants to see those little things that I used to do,” he modestly replied. He did attend though, with wife Kathy and their friend, Rita Hayworth.
