On the Road2012
On the Road (2012)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Beautiful to look at but a bit too respectfully crafted, On the Road doesn't capture the energy and inspiration of Jack Kerouac's novel.
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Movie Info
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Cast
as Dean MOriarty/Neal Cassady
as Sal Paradise/Jack Kerouac
as Marylou/LuAnne Henderson
as Camille/Carolyn Cassady
as Old Bull Lee/William S. Burroughs
as Jane/Joan Vollmer
as Carlo Marx/Allen Ginsberg
as Terry/Bea Franco
as Ma Paradise
as Galatéa Dunkle/Helen Hinkle
as Ed Dunkle/Al Hinkle
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Critic Reviews for On the Road
All Critics (147) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (64) | Rotten (83)
It's not a wreck of a movie; it's not a sleek race car either. But there's heat to be felt here.
Walter Salles's warm but strangely staid adaptation of a piece of literature that was never meant to be tamed as cinema.
"On the Road" is something of a sprawling mess, but then so is the novel.
It took more than half a century, but Jack Kerouac's autobiographical cult novel of bohemian youth in postwar America has reached the screen in wonderful form.
Against all odds, a surprisingly effective movie.
In Salles, screenwriter Jose Rivera and company's effort to get the details right, they only get so far. And it's not quite far enough.
Audience Reviews for On the Road
Salles follows closely the heartbeat and structure of the iconic novel to capture the wild spirit of the Beat Generation, to which he is more than faithful, and so this is an exciting collection of road anecdotes revolving around the friendship between Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady.
Super Reviewer
Sal Paradise goes on the road with Dean Moriarty and company. This film is less than the sum of its parts. In his effort to get the feeling of the Beat Generation, director Walter Salles has some quick edits and some free-wheeling music and some of the lines lifted from Kerouac's novel - all cinematic tricks that should work, but yet there's still something staid about this film. Perhaps it's the gravelly voiced Garrett Hedlund, who seems more focused on the image of Sal than the character, or perhaps it's the hackneyed shoe-horn of a script. Or perhaps Kerouac was never meant to be adapted. Overall, it was worth a shot, but this is one book-to-film adaptation that missed the mark.
Super Reviewer
The best teacher is experience. Good movie! The cinematography is outstanding, and it is a sight to behold, beautiful landscapes, a smooth, delicate filmic texture. Overall, the film is light on plot. It's mostly character study and exposition. However, that's On the Road. The film is based on a Kerouac stream-of-consciousness novel. It's about his hero worship with Dean and the ultimate disillusionment he feels with him. The conflict and resolution isn't your typical climax and ending of a film. Shaken by the death of his father and discouraged by his stalled career, writer Sal Paradise goes on a road trip hoping for inspiration. While traveling, he is befriended by charismatic and fearless Dean Moriarty and Moriarty's free-spirited and seductive young wife, Marylou. Traveling across the American southwest together, they strive to break from conformity and and search the unknown, and their decisions change the very course of their lives.
Super Reviewer
On the Road Quotes
| Old Bull Lee/William S. Burroughs: | Dean does not feel responsibility towards others. He does not know the concept. Then again, he feels others have some mysterious obligation to support him. |
| Old Bull Lee/William S. Burroughs: | Dean does not feel responsibility towards others. He does not know the concept. Then again, he feels others have some mysterious obligation to support him. |
| Sal Paradise/Jack Kerouac: | We were performing our one and noble action of the time- move. |
| Sal Paradise/Jack Kerouac: | ...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... |
| Sal Paradise/Jack Kerouac: | 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. |