User Reviews

This movie reminded me of Jim Morrison's life. Key issues that came up were: getting inspiration to write, staying motivated and staying true to yourself. I liked the strings of poetry that were read and seeing some top poets talk about their experiences. All in all I thought it was an educational and fun movie to watch. If you want to understand the real definition of the Beat generation - this would be a great movie to watch. It has a documentary style, funky jazz background music and footage of Jack Kerouac. There is some philosophical subject matter which is still true today - and it makes you think about life and its purpose.

this is quite an interesting thing to see because you just can't miss given the fascinating subject. however, if you want to see a better-done and more insightful documentary on the same subject, see "what happened to kerouac?" instead. this film is less hard-hitting and tries to play up some of the sadder aspects of kerouac's life by doing a kind of wistful routine. peter coyote's narration is abysmal. his readings of kerouac's writing unfortunately take up a lot of the screen time here. what were they thinking? maybe they thought he had some credibility 'cause he was one of the original san francisco diggers. doesn't make sense. he render's kerouac's prose & poetry lifeless with a wimpy and sighing style. if you've ever heard kerouac read his own stuff, which you get plenty of in "what happened to kerouac", you'd never want to hear anyone else read it again. i give it a 6 out of 10 merely because, as always, the interviews with jack's contemporaries that were still left alive when this thing was hobbled together, are riveting and priceless.

Though this is a "good movie", it did absolutely no justice to the book. If you are not a Kerouac fan or have no knowledge of him, you will most likely enjoy this movie. However, this movie is not even comparable to any of Jack's writings. I suggest you read his books to know who this man really is.

The King of the Beats gets a rather standard documentary treatment, complete with badly done reenactments, but it is hard to screw up such a strong subject. Filmed in the early 1980's, all the Beat writers and various hangers-on are trotted out to tell the story of the author of "On the Road," a novel that changed modern literature. Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1922 and went to Columbia University on a football scholarship. He pounded out "On the Road" in three weeks, on a giant scroll of parchment paper. He eventually married a couple of times, had a daughter he was never close to, but always wrote- and drank. When Kerouac's life finally seemed to be turning for the better (he was selling his novels), he had a small breakdown over the newfound fame and turned to the bottle. He was up to a quart of hard liquor a day, moved back in with his mother, and died at the age of 47.

The film makers utilize video of Kerouac on a couple of talk shows, and his transformation from the voice of the Beat generation on "The Steve Allen Show" to rambling angry drunk a few years later on "Firing Line with William F. Buckley" is sad to watch. What does not work here are the reenactments of Kerouac's life. Kerouac had a certain look that is hard to duplicate, although actor Jack Coulter certainly tries. The problem is the reenactments seem to have no budget, and early 1980's America does not stand in well for 1950's and 1960's America. At one point Kerouac is standing in front of a movie theater showing "Amityville 3-D," a film that would make me drink a quart of liquor a day, too. Peter Coyote, sounding like Kevin Costner, narrates and John Antonelli handles the directing chores. I will recommend the film because if you do not know Kerouac all that well, this is a safe place to start. "Kerouac" has been shown under a few other titles, and it stands as preeminent biography on its subject.