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On the Road (2012 film)

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On the Road
Theatrical poster
Directed byWalter Salles
Screenplay byJose Rivera
Produced byFrancis Ford Coppola
Rebecca Yeldham
Nathanael Karmitz
Charles Gillibert
StarringSam Riley
Garrett Hedlund
Kristen Stewart
Kirsten Dunst
Viggo Mortensen
Amy Adams
CinematographyÉric Gautier
Music byGustavo Santaolalla
Production
companies
Distributed byIFC Films/Sundance Selects (USA)[2]
Lionsgate (UK)
MK2 (France)
Release dates
  • 23 May 2012 (2012-05-23) (Cannes Film Festival, France)[1]
  • 21 September 2012 (2012-09-21) (United Kingdom)
  • 21 December 2012 (2012-12-21) (United States)
Running time
137 minutes (Cannes) / 124 minutes (Toronto International Film Festival)[3]
CountriesBrazil
France
United Kingdom
United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25 million

On the Road (French: Sur la route) is a 2012 film adaptation of the Jack Kerouac cult classic novel of the same name. It is a Brazilian-French-UK-US co-production,[4] directed by Walter Salles and starring Sam Riley as Sal Paradise and Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty. It is being executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola. Filming began on August 4, 2010, in Montreal, Canada, with a $25 million budget.

The story is based on the years Kerouac spent travelling the United States in the 1940s with his friend Neal Cassady and several other figures who would go on to fame in their own right, including William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.

On May 23, 2012, the film premiered in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. The film received negative to mixed early reviews after it premiered at the film festival.[5][6][7]

Plot

Following the death of his father, struggling young writer Sal Paradise embarks upon a journey across America with his friend and hero, Dean Moriarty, traveler and mystic, the living epitome of beat.

Cast

Development

Previous attempts

A film adaptation of On the Road has been in the works for years. In 1957, Jack Kerouac wrote a one-page letter to actor Marlon Brando, suggesting that he play Dean Moriarty while Kerouac would portray Sal Paradise. In the letter, Kerouac envisioned the film to be shot "with the camera on the front seat of the car showing the road (day and night) unwinding into the windshield, as Sal and Dean yak."[10] Brando never responded to the letter, and later on Warner Bros. offered $110,000 for the rights to Kerouac's book but his agent, Sterling Lord, declined it. Lord hoped for $150,000 from Paramount Pictures, which wanted to cast Brando in the film. The deal did not occur and Kerouac was angered that his agent asked for too much money.[10]

Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola bought the rights in 1979.[11] Over the years, he hired several screenwriters to adapt the book into a film, including Michael Herr and Barry Gifford, only for Coppola to write his own draft with son Roman.[12] In 1995, the filmmaker planned to shoot on black-and-white 16mm film and held auditions with poet Allen Ginsberg in attendance but the project fell through. Coppola said, "I tried to write a script, but I never knew how to do it. It's hard — it's a period piece. It's very important that it be period. Anything involving period costs a lot of money."[11] Several years later he tried again with Ethan Hawke and Brad Pitt to play Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty respectively, but this project also failed to work. In 2001, Coppola hired novelist Russell Banks to write the script and planned to make the film with Joel Schumacher directing and starring Billy Crudup as Sal Paradise and Colin Farrell as Dean Moriarty, but this incarnation of the project was shelved as well.[11] Gus Van Sant also expressed interest in making the film.

Pre-production

Coppola saw The Motorcycle Diaries and hired Brazilian director Walter Salles to direct the film.[11] Salles was drawn to the novel because, according to him, it is about people "trying to break into a society that’s impermeable" and that he wants "to deal with a generation that collides with its society."[13] At the end of 2008, he was about to have the film greenlit when the American economy collapsed and French financier Pathe wanted to make significant cuts to the $35 million budget.[12] Producer Rebecca Yeldham eralized that they could not make the film Salles had originally envisioned. However, while talking to MK2 Productions in Parish about other potential films, they asked Salles if he had any passion projects. He told them about On the Road and at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, MK2 greenlit production with a $25 million budget[12] and Coppola's American Zoetrope in association with Film4 in the U.K., France 2 Cinéma, Canal+, France Télévisions, Ciné+ and Videofilmes in Brazil.[4]

In preparation for the film, he made the documentary Searching for On the Road, in which he took the same road trip as the lead character in the novel, Sal Paradise, and talked to Beat poets who knew Kerouac.[14] He did this in order to understand "the complexity of the jazz-infused prose and the sociopolitical climate that informed the period."[12] Salles was occasionally joined by the film's screenwriter Jose Rivera in addition to spending six months reading up on Kerouac. Rivera then began writing the screenplay, producing approximately 20 drafts. Later drafts relied less on the published book and more on the original manuscript, which had been typed on a 120-foot roll of paper and kept in all the real names.[12]

Casting

In 2010, Salles had to convince the cast he had assembled in 2007 to remain committed to the project.[12] This included Sam Riley as the alter ego of author Jack Kerouac, Sal Paradise. Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady), who had been linked to the role since September 2007,[4][15] and Kristen Stewart as Marylou.[16] Salles had wanted to cast her after seeing the Sean Penn film Into the Wild but had to film her scenes before October 2010 when she started shooting The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.[12]

Kirsten Dunst was later cast as Camille.[17] By the first week of August 2010, Viggo Mortensen and Amy Adams had joined the cast, Mortensen for the role of Old Bull Lee (William S. Burroughs) and Adams as the character's wife, Jane (Joan Vollmer).[18] English actor Tom Sturridge has been cast as Carlo Marx (Allen Ginsberg), poet and friend to both Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty.[19]

Salles has reunited with some of the crew members whom he worked with on The Motorcycle Diaries, including producer Rebecca Yeldham, screenwriter José Rivera, director of photography Eric Gautier, production designer Carlos Conti, and composer Gustavo Santaolalla.[20]

Before filming began on August 2, 2010, in Montreal, Canada,[4][21] the entire cast underwent a three-week "beatnik boot camp," according to Stewart, which involved reading literature pertaining to the Beat Generation[22] and was led by Kerouac biographer Gerald Nicosia. He played an audio interview that was recorded in 1978 with Lu Anne Henderson, Neal Cassady's wife, on whom the book’s character Marylou is based.[23] To give the cast an idea of the kind of film he envisioned, Salles screened Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless and John Cassavetes' Shadows.[12]

Principal photography

Filming began on August 4, 2010, in Montreal, Canada.[24] After a month of filming in Montreal, the production shoot footage in Gatineau, Quebec, on August 17,[25] which stands in for Denver, Colorado, in 1947.[26] The film shot for five days in the middle of October 2010 in and around Calgary, Alberta.[27] The production also shot in New Orleans for a month and then returning to Montreal to wrap the final scenes.[28] The production shot for a week in early December 2010 in San Francisco.[29] Salles originally wanted to shoot in Mexico for several weeks but with the escalating drug wars there, very little was filmed and the production moved to Arizona instead.[12] In addition, the production also shot in Argentina and Chile with actor Garrett Hedlund at one point filming a scene in which he drove a 1949 Hudson Hornet in the Andes during a blizzard, wearing goggles and screaming out his window while director Walter Salles sat in the passenger seat holding a camera, with another camera mounted on the front of the car.[30]

Hedlund has described filming as "quite a guerilla shoot. At times, there’s just been two handfuls of crew members around us and it’s a very quiet situation."[31] Cinematographer Eric Gautier shot several scenes with a handheld camera, and Salles encouraged the cast to improvise and "to make scenes flow and have a rhythm," said Hedlund.[30]

Distribution

Theatrical distribution rights in North America were sold to AMC Networks with IFC Films and Sundance Selects releasing it theatrically and Lionsgate bought the United Kingdom distribution.[2]

The website of IFC Films confirmed that the United States release date for the film will be on December 21, 2012. It is simultaneously being released theatrically as well as on IFC Films video on demand service.[32]

Screenings

On the Road was screened on May 23 at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. A shorter version of the film, running 124 minutes, will be shown on September 6, 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival.[3]

Reception

Cannes reaction

Kristen Stewart, Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst promoting the film at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

Early reviews of On the Road were mixed to negative. The film has a 40% "rotten" rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes.[33] In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy praised the film writing, "While the film’s dramatic impact is variable, visually and aurally it is a constant pleasure. Eric Gautier’s cinematography is endlessly resourceful, making great use of superb and diverse locations".[34] McCarthy also spoke highly of Hedlund's performance saying, "Although the story is Sal/Kerouac’s, the star part is Dean, and Hedlund has the allure for it; among the men here, he’s the one you always watch, and the actor effectively catches the character’s impulsive, thrill-seeking, risk-taking, responsibility-avoiding personality."[34] Entertainment Weekly magazine's Owen Gleiberman wrote, "The best thing in the movie is Garrett Hedlund’s performance as Dean Moriarty, whose hunger for life — avid, erotic, insatiable, destructive — kindles a fire that will light the way to a new era. Hedlund is as hunky as the young Brad Pitt, and like Pitt, he’s a wily, change-up actor".[35]

Kristen Stewart's performance garnered mixed reviews with critics stating, "Stewart as Marylou completes the awkward threesome for a large part of the film and whilst there is little for her to do here she also makes very little out of what she has to work with,"[36] and that Stewart "flatters to deceive, offering brief moments of passion...criminally underplaying a character in Marylou who is supposed to burn with energy."[37] However, New York magazine's Kyle Buchanan wrote, "Certainly, there's nothing regrettable about Stewart's performance here: It reestablishes the promising character actress last seen in Into the Wild and held captive as Twilight's leading lady for years,"[38] and Todd McCarthy said, Stewart "is perfect in the role."[34]

In her review for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis criticized the film saying, "Mr. Salles, an intelligent director whose films include The Motorcycle Diaries, doesn’t invest On the Road with the wildness it needs for its visual style, narrative approach and leads. This lack of wildness – the absence of danger, uncertainty or a deep feeling for the mad ones – especially hurts Dean, who despite the appealing Mr. Hedlund, never jumps off the screen to show you how Cassady fired up Kerouac and the rest".[39] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian felt that the film was a "good-looking but directionless and self-adoring road movie", and that it had "a touching kind of sadness in showing how poor Dean is becoming just raw material for fiction, destined to be left behind as Sal becomes a New York big-shot. But this real sadness can't pierce or dissipate this movie's tiresome glow of self-congratulation".[40] Finally, Time magazine's Richard Corliss had a problem with Salles' approach to the material: "Though there’s plenty of cool jazz in the background, the movie lacks the novel’s exuberant syncopation — it misses the beat as well as the Beat. Some day someone may make a movie worthy of On the Road, but Salles wasn’t the one to try. This trip goes nowhere".[41]

Awards and nominations

List of Accolades
Award / Film Festival Category Recipient(s) Result
65th Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or Walter Salles Nominated

References

  1. ^ "Sur la route - released". AlloCiné.fr. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  2. ^ a b Kilday, Gregg (May 8, 2012). "Cannes 2012: Garrett Hedlund and Kristen Stewart's On the Road Acquired by IFC Films and Sundance Selects". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2012-05-24. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ a b "On the Road". Toronto International Film Festival. Retrieved 2012-08-28. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  4. ^ a b c d Kemp, Stuart (May 6, 2010). "Kristen Stewart goes On the Road". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2010-05-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ "2012 Official Selection". Cannes. Retrieved 2012-04-19.
  6. ^ "Cannes Film Festival 2012 line-up announced". Time Out. Retrieved 2012-04-19.
  7. ^ "On the Road". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2012-05-24. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ a b c d e Goldberg, Matt (August 13, 2010) "First Image of Kristen Stewart in Walter Salles' On the Road; Steve Buscemi, Elisabeth Moss, Alice Braga, Terrence Howard to Co-Star", Collider.com. Retrieved 2010-08-16
  9. ^ Moreault, Éric (August 12, 2010). "Marie-Ginette Guay incarne la mère de Jack Kerouac au grand écran". Le Soleil. Retrieved 2010-08-18. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  10. ^ a b Martelle, Scott (June 4, 2005). "On the road again". The Age. Retrieved 2010-11-30. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  11. ^ a b c d Mottram, James (September 12, 2008). "The long and grinding story of On The Road". The Independent. Retrieved 2010-07-12. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Galloway, Stephen (May 9, 2012). "How On The Road Slashed Kristen Stewart's $20 Million Paycheck and Finally Made it to Screen". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2012-08-29. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  13. ^ Ealy, Charles (May 19, 2008). "Our Man in Cannes: Latin American movie bonanza". Austin360.com. Retrieved 2008-05-21. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  14. ^ Romney, Jonathan (May 18, 2008). "Woody Allen banks on three beauties to woo critics at Cannes". The Independent. Retrieved 2008-05-21. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  15. ^ Lesnick, Silas (September 27, 2010). "Garrett Hedlund Talks TRON: Legacy". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 2010-09-27. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  16. ^ "Kristen Stewart to star in Jack Kerouac story". USA Today. May 5, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  17. ^ Hopewell, John (May 12, 2010). "Dunst joins Stewart On the Road". Variety. Retrieved 2010-05-13. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ Fleming, Mike (August 4, 2010). "Amy Adams Joins Viggo Mortensen For 'On The Road' Trip". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2010-10-23. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  19. ^ Schwartz, Terri (August 11, 2010). "Robert Pattinson's Pal Tom Sturridge Joins Kristen Stewart In On The Road". MTV News. Retrieved 2010-08-12. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  20. ^ Keslassy, Elsa (May 7, 2010). "Salles, Coppola finally hit The Road". Variety. Retrieved 2010-05-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  21. ^ Sperling, Nicole (May 6, 2010). "Kristen Stewart squeezes Walter Salles On the Road in between Twilight duties". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-05-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  22. ^ Vena, Jocelyn (June 17, 2010). "Kristen Stewart 'Genuinely Nervous' To Film On The Road". MTV News. Retrieved 2010-06-18. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  23. ^ James, Scott (April 14, 2011). "Trepidations Aside, On the Road Becomes a Movie at Last". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-04-20. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  24. ^ Vary, Adam B (August 4, 2010). "Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams join On The Road". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-08-04. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  25. ^ Soloman, Karen (August 17, 2010). "Hollywood comes to Gatineau to film On the Road". CTV News. Retrieved 2010-08-18. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  26. ^ Lawson, Catherine (2008-08-17). "Shooting of Kristen Stewart film On the Road comes to Hull". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 2010-08-18. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  27. ^ Volmers, Eric (2010-10-09). "Alberta opens its doors to The Hobbit". Calgary Herald. Retrieved 2012-05-31. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  28. ^ Kelly, Brendan (August 18, 2010). "Kristen Stewart On the Road in Montreal". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 2010-10-24. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  29. ^ Sabatini, Joshua (2010-12-08). "On the Road filming begins in SF". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 2010-12-09. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  30. ^ a b Keegan, Rebecca (2011-02-04). "Garrett Hedlund on 'On the Road': 'Jazz, women and drugs'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-02-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  31. ^ Radish, Christina (2010-09-27). "Garrett Hedlund Exclusive Interview TRON: Legacy; Plus an On the Road Update". Collider.com. Retrieved 2010-09-28. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  32. ^ Template:Url = http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/on-the-road
  33. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/on_the_road/
  34. ^ a b c McCarthy, Todd (May 23, 2012). "On the Road: Cannes Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2012-05-24. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  35. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (May 23, 2012). "On the Road". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2012-05-24. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  36. ^ http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2012/05/23/cannes-2012-on-the-road-movie-review/
  37. ^ http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/reviews/cannes-review-on-the-road-walter-salles-is-a-failed-attempt-to-adapt-the-unadaptable-sgall.php
  38. ^ Buchanan, Kyle (May 23, 2012). "The Sexual Remaking of Kristen Stewart". New York. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
  39. ^ Dargis, Manohla (May 23, 2012). "Cannes Film Festival: An Early Look at On the Road". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-05-24. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  40. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (May 23, 2012). "On the Road". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2012-05-24. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  41. ^ Corliss, Richard (May 23, 2012). "Kerouac's On the Road Comes to Cannes: Where's the Beat?". Time. Retrieved 2012-05-24. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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