I love this book. I adore it. I’m a raving Kerouac fan – you could say that I shamble after Sal Paradise the way he always shambled after people who interested him. So, of course, I was and am dead set against this film being made this way.
Now, there are a lot of reasons – one, I think that most of the acting cast are wrong considering that the book’s cast of characters aren’t just based on Kerouac and his genius/idiot friends, the original scroll actually used their names, names you’re probably familiar with if you’re a fan of ‘beat’ literature: Jack Kerouac (Sal Paradise), Joan Vollmer (Jane), William S. Burroughs (Old Bull Lee), Neal Cassady (Dean Moriarty), Carolyn Cassady (Camille), Allen Ginsberg (Carlo Marx), Luanne Henderson (Marylou), Hal Chase (Chad King) and a dozen more.
Because of this alone I think the casting should be re-thought and cast, instead, for the real person each character was meant to portray. It’s absolutely annoying that they’ve made the film this way, add that to the fact that the trailer, below, suggests that the 1940s escapades happened in the late 1950s – somehow.
But, strangely, I’m compelled to rethink my argument. While I already hate the film, because it looks stupid, pretentious and *wrong*, it’s still a film I haven’t seen. And, as any avid reader knows, if you grow up with a book that’s adapted for the screen you already have a clear picture in your mind of the characters and no casting will do it justice.
I’ll likely see it, because I think you need to give something a shot before dismissing it (though I was right about hating Twilight, Ringer, The Vampire Diaries, The Secret Circle and Jersey Shore – granted, that last one was a given) and try to go into it with an open mind. I guarantee I’ll be back to bitch my head off about it, though!
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