"On The Road" – Film – Questions Before

So tonight, hopefully, is the night.  I finally see the film version of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road.  Afterwards, I suspect, I’ll feel extremely silly about all the postings I’ve done in anticipation of seeing it.  For, after all, how many people care the slightest bit about it?  Though some folks have been waiting fifty-plus years for this.

For the record, here are some of the things I’ll be watching for in the film.  If you’re a Kerouac fan, you might care too.

Watching for:

How much of the film is based on the scroll version rather than the finished book?

An overall theme.  In the book, Sal and friends sense someone walking towards them.  At the end of the book, an old man with long white hair walks past Kerouac in a parking lot and says, “Go moan for man.”  Is anything like this included in the movie?

Is Dean Moriarty presented as a new American saint, an irresponsible sociopath, or…?

The relationship between Mary Lou and Camille.  Kristen Stewart has suggested that her character (Mary Lou) is the pivot of the film.  But the novel exists in a tension between the two.

What is the role of Carlo Marx?   One film reviewer has said:  “Lose Carlo!”  Is Carlo a true prophet?  A true poet?  A bore?  Pretentious?

How do they handle that brothel scene in Mexico…?

Speaking of Mexico—How does the film portray minorities in general?  More specifically, Mexicans and Blacks?

What about sexism?  Do men utterly run the show?

How are the 1940s presented?  How well does the film represent the 1940s, and does it matter?  Though the book is set in 1947-51, most people associate it with the mid-to-late 1950s, when the book first appeared. 

How homo- or bi-sexual is the book?  How sexual is the relationship between Sal and Dean?

How does Old Bull Lee and family come across?  Funny??  Disturbing?  Simply weird?

Does the film include Sal’s vision, in San Francisco, of reincarnation and nonlinear time?

How does the film deal with Sal’s relationship to his mother?

How is America presented?

Does Dean care about anything besides sex and kicks?

How many people and events are cut out of the movie??

That’s it for now—we’ll see how I feel afterwards.