For a certain sort of restless literary young person, reading “On the Road” is practically a rite of passage. Jack Kerouac’s rambling, propulsive 1957 novel, a semi-autobiographical account of crisscrossing the country, has mesmerized generations of readers with its call to a countercultural life and its portrait of America.
Kerouac’s book, and the romance of the open American road, is the subject of Ebs Burnough’s documentary “Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation” (in theaters), which crams too much into its run time but not without cause: There’s just a lot to cover. Burnough, a former White House deputy social secretary and senior adviser to Michelle Obama, is working along three major lines of inquiry here.
The first surveys Kerouac’s biography: his early life (did you know his first language was French?), his years as a young man and a Beat poet, and his late dissipation and too-early death at 47 due in part to alcoholism and cirrhosis — especially tragic for a man who seemed so bent on a life of freedom. The actor Michael Imperioli occasionally narrates sections from the book to lend its flavor throughout.
The second thread explores the influence of “On the Road” on writers, actors, storytellers and artists today, among them Jay McInerney, Josh Brolin, Natalie Merchant, Matt Dillon, W. Kamau Bell and many more.
The film’s third strand follows several Americans who are, in their own ways, following in Kerouac’s footsteps. Diana, a retiree, is headed on a road trip to spend time with her estranged father near the end of his life. Amir, a high school senior, is getting ready to leave his home in Philadelphia to journey south for his first year at Morehouse College in Atlanta and thinking a lot about his own ancestors’ migrations. And then there are Tenaj and Faustino Melendreras, newly living the empty-nest life and documenting their travels while wondering what the future holds for them and their relationship.
Their stories are woven into the larger narrative, contemporary examples of the spirit of resistance to conformity that “On the Road” represents to many readers. That’s the larger goal of the film: to get at how something in Kerouac’s youthful, audacious, at times rambling novel has elevated it to mythological levels. McInerney suggests it is the origin, in some way, of the road story, of “jumping in a car and heading west.” Bell says it is “a contender for the great American novel.” Brolin says that when he read it, he thought, “These are interesting people, and I want an interesting life.”
There’s an immense romance to the story, but it’s also a product of its time. A white man like Kerouac could reasonably expect to be safe on that road, but Black men like Burnough or Bell, or Beat women like Kerouac’s biographer and friend Joyce Johnson, who appears in the film, would have faced very different challenges. Despite our best aspirations and loftiest ideals, the road is not even for everyone in America.
All of these considerations are wrapped into “Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation,” which aspires to be a portrait of the country refracted through this one book and its legacy. The film does not fully succeed, though that’s a tall order for anyone. Too many things need wrapping up by the end, so the concluding rhythm drags. There’s just too much to say, and that always leads to saying less than you might want. I suspect that if you haven’t read “On the Road,” the constant assertions of its romance and inspiration might start to feel a bit like protesting too much — telling, not showing.
But for superfans, “Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation” will play like a party, and probably drive the repeat reader right back to the book. What’s true about “On the Road” — like most books with broad appeal to those still in the throes of youthful idealism — is that when you return to the text, you encounter not just the book but also yourself, who you were when you first read it and all the selves you’ve been in the meantime. Even if you haven’t hopped in a car or a train and struck out for another coast, that’s a journey worth taking.
Alissa Wilkinson is a Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005.
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