What Happened to Kerouac?

Starring:Jack Kerouac
Studio: Shout Factory
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Description
What Happened To Kerouac? is a lively and revealing investigation into the personal history and creative process of Jack Kerouac - father of the Beat Generation, author of "On The Road" and pivotal figure of the fifties countercultural revolution. This portrait shows us what happened when fame and notoriety were thrust upon an essentially reticent man whose influence is still felt all over the world.

Features Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William Burroughs, Steve Allen, William Buckley, Charlie Parker, Neal Cassady, Carolyn Cassady, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure and Gary Snyder

Description

What Happened To Kerouac? is a lively and revealing investigation into the personal history and creative process of Jack Kerouac - father of the Beat Generation, author of "On The Road" and pivotal figure of the fifties countercultural revolution. This portrait shows us what happened when fame and notoriety were thrust upon an essentially reticent man whose influence is still felt all over the world.

Features Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William Burroughs, Steve Allen, William Buckley, Charlie Parker, Neal Cassady, Carolyn Cassady, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure and Gary Snyder

Directed by Richard Lerner & Lewis MacAdams
Produced by Richard Lerner
Music by Thelonious Monk

Customer Reviews:

Made me fall in love with Jack Kerouac.......2007-02-27

Strange for me to say that this made me fall in love with Jack Kerouac, because that's sort of egotistical because I realize that, aside from the alcoholism, he and I dealt with some similar issues. Watching the footage of Jack Kerouac reading his work, I felt instinctively that there was a deep aspect of himself that related to me. I'm not saying I'm anywhere nearly as talented of a writer as he was. I'm not delusional. I just felt that I was almost watching footage of myself, his mannerisms, his expressions, his face even. I have been told I bear a slight resemblance to him. Perhaps not too surprising because he was of French-Canadian descent and I descend from a region of Italy that at one point was part of France.

Anyway, in an attempt to make this review at least a little helpful to someone besides myself, I will say that it's excellent. It's not at all clinical, like some documentaries can be. It is very informal and gives you a sense of sitting and personally talking with the people who knew Jack Kerouac. And, as others have said, those who knew him do not at all come across as being in awe of him and, thankfully, they are not attempting to canonize him or make him in to an icon. If anything, they make it obvious that he was a very tortured man, like many writers I suppose, held on to his sanity merely through his writing. Actually, his daughter says that. The first time she met him he was already toward the end of his life, a drunk, and he was sitting in a chair watching the Beverly Hillbillies. She says he had few words because "I suppose the only way his feelings came out was through his writing."

Probably the most startling revelation to come from this video is that Jack Kerouac, the man whose writing inspired the hippie generation, considered himself a conservative Republican Catholic. In footage of his 1969 interview with William Buckley, Kerouac indicates that he supported the US war in Vietnam. Later in the Buckley program, Kerouac scolds a young hippie by saying, "You make yourself famous by protesting. 'Down with this, down with that.' I made myself famous by writing." It's really amazing footage because the young hippie defers to Kerouac, saying, "Well, you're a great poet. In fact it's your fault...." The clip cuts off before the young hippie explains what he faults Kerouac for, but I think we all know what he was going to say. The exchange between Kerouac and the young hippie comes across as the exchange between a father and his misbehaving son. Ironic, because it was Kerouac himself who was is so drunk that he is almost falling out of his chair.

Toward the end of the video, Kerouac's priest says that Kerouac lived like a monk and was actually a mystic. Kerouac, says the priest, didn't fear going to hell. He feared going to heaven.

Makes Me Think Who Cares!.......2007-02-12

I turned this documentary off half way through. I didn't find it interesting and I didn't enjoy the interviews. I bought it for my cousin who was doing a term paper on Jack Kerouac and he wondered after watching half the DVD if he wanted to write on such a boring person. But, anyone who knows anything about Kerouac knows he was not boring, he was facsinating! Look elswhere if you want to know more. As a matter of fact try reading a book by or about him.

Primary Source A-Go-Go. .......2007-02-04

A major element in determining the worth of a documentary lies in the quality of the evidence it presents, and, regarding Jack Kerouac, you can't do much better than what the filmmaker does here. The opinions of Ginsberg, Burroughs, Snyder, Corso, Huncke, DiPrima, an ex-wife and daughter are proffered which gives the film tremendous weight and legitimacy. Their observations concerning Jack's character and personality are highly revealing. It is a sad tale, and, if one of the interviewees can be believed, this is a writer who did not believe in suicide so he resolved to drink himself to death which is exactly what he did. Personally, I felt pain gazing at the numerous clips from Firing Line which appeared about a year before he died. He appears to be about 15 years older than he was, and in such a stupor that one longs to hit the fastforward button. Of course, doing so would be dishonest and this documentary is anything but that.

Interesting, but sad, tale of a largely wasted talent........2006-03-06

"What Ever Happened to Kerouac?" is a documentary now available on DVD about sporadic creativity enshrouded in decadence, degeneracy, and decay. It impressionistically recounts the adult life of Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), the literary beat of the "beat generation."

The "Beats" (circa 1948-1960?) are sometimes cast as proto-hippies: Bohemian; anti-establishment; aflame with the exotic and taboo; worshippers at the Dionysian fount of creativity; nonconformists-now nihilist, now visionary; poets of the absurd and the profound; idolizers of Charlie Parker's jazz. Theirs was gut-existentialism and "Beat Zen," Hindu cosmology and nuclear eschatology. "To be Beat," wrote Kerouac, "was to be at the bottom of your personality looking up." Beat was birthed by the misfits, the downbeat, the offbeat-not by the poor urchins who could manage no more than sleeping in parks and begging money, but by the artistic urchins who gave a voice to their rebellion and (somehow) got published.

Kerouac was arguably magnificent at times-churning out rambling, but poetic prose-despite the fact that he was dubbed by one of the literati as "a Neanderthal with a typewriter." The film is appropriate punctuated by Kerouac reading chunks of prose on "The Steve Allen Show." Kerouac's work was impassioned and original; he invented a genre of continuous, spontaneous narrative seen in novels such as "The Dharma Bums" and "On the Road" which was written at high speed on a continuous sheet of paper a hundred feet long. Beat poet Allen Ginsburg called it "a magnificent single paragraph several blocks long."

But Kerouac burned bright but briefly, then burned out rapidly, because being Beat meant being a rogue. As the interviews with family, friends, and acquaintances make plain, Kerouac was a drunk (who drank himself to death), an adulterer, a drug user, and a buddy of more of the same misfits of the day such as William Burroughs (homosexual and junkie), Allen Ginsberg (homosexual and sometimes psychotic), and other assorted thieves, dopers, and thrill-seekers.

But decadence was heralded as transcendence and orgies as oracular. Cultural critic Carl Raschke notes that "Kerouac was self-consciously attempting to depict the whirl of sensation as the key to cosmic understanding, as a vehicle of liberation: though he left little distinction between the liberation of the mind and libertinism of the youthful rake and rebel."

Decadence was avant-garde, and was touted as the engine of artistry. But the gaunt, sour, bitter faces of many of his now aged or recently deceased compatriots reveal that debauchery indeed debauches-even debauches the Beats, and especially Kerouac. Handsome, lithe, and vigorous as a young man, middle age found him to be bloated and beaten beat.

Particularly pathetic are short clips of William F. Buckley's "Firing Line" in 1969. Buckley presided over the intellectual debris of a quasi-incoherent Kerouac who was asked to consider the relationship between Beats and Hippies. An unflappable Buckley gracefully withstood Kerouac's juvenile ramblings, seeking to bring coherence out of chaos. Buckley smiled knowingly. Kerouac smirked contemptuously-an appropriate Beat response, perhaps. A rummied out rebel without a cause met a conservative rebel with a cause. The juxtaposition was telling, almost painful.

Kerouac at his best may have unmasked some of the pretensions of a complacent, self-righteous, post-war America; he may have celebrated elements of life-such as bebop jazz-that were unjustly ignored by others. But he exacted too high a price. By going "on the road" he deserted the Protestant work ethic that undergirds a productive and healthy culture, exchanging postponed gratification for immediate gratification (and addiction), exchanging hard work for protracted play-and encouraged others to follow suit. His promiscuity denied the sanctity of the family. (We see several clips of his abandoned daughter reflecting on her father's life.) But Kerouac and friends corrupted more than themselves; they inspired a whole counterculture-as William Burroughs notes in the film-that both amplified and refined the Beat spirit of nonconformity, hedonism, and Eastern religious intrigue. And don't we even hear something of "the beat" in the punks?

The film reports that Kerouac said that because he was a Catholic he couldn't commit suicide, so he decided to drink himself to death (which is really gradual suicide). Although his prose drew inspiration eclectically from Buddhism, Hinduism, and just about anywhere-Beat was nothing if not unsystematic-several friends and his priest tell us that Kerouac was entranced by the crucifix, and painted pictures of Christ and cardinals toward the end. Yet no conversion was evident-only an alcoholic's eroded body, mind, and soul. It seemed he never caught the spirit of the one he could not forget. Jesus said "seek and you shall find." Jack Kerouac must have been looking in all the wrong places.

Entertaining portrait of this tragic beat poet.......2005-04-12

I think there are two types of successful documentaries. Great films regardless of subject matter (ie: Ken Burns work, Woodstock, Errol Morris's films) and documentaries that exist because of their subject matter (most of Michael Moore's films, Supersize Me, almost every musician or film star doc). This second group does not necessarily need to be a work of art to be successful. If you're a fan of the subject, you'll almost inevitably like the film.

For me, this film falls into the 2nd category. Obviously the subject matter is a no brainer. Most of Kerouac's contemporaries were still alive. His daughter and ex's talked on camera. Lots of footage of Jack himself (looking sharp and at his peak with Steve Allen; drunk, sad and near-death with Buckley). There is also lots of photos and audio of Jack with friends, fellow poets and contemporaries. I'm sure the filmmakers had to whittle down their footage to a managable length.

Another way to judge a documentary is to ask the question: What if I don't know anything about the subject? What portrait does it paint? Does it make me want to seek out more info on this person, read their books, watch their films, etc.

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I knew very little about Kerouac before watching the film. I gravitated more to the work of Charles Bukowski, which some feel (I don't) was part of the Beat movement. I knew about Kerouac and had thumbed through a couple of his books; I'd even read some of his contemporaries - a little Ginsberg - a lot of William Burroughs. But knowing little definitely qualifies me to say, yes, the film is very successful in presenting its subject in interesting ways. I will now have to dig out a copy of On The Road! What better complement can you give a movie of any kind!

The movie itself moves quickly. It has a great score (that is mostly jazz from Thelonious Monk with a little Charlie Parker) and all of the interviews are fascinating. It lacks a certain style that would have made it a great film, but the subject matter more than makes up for it. I believe that fans as well as the ignorant (me included) have an equal chance of enjoying the film.

Unfortunately there are no extra features (other than a trailer - not for this film). If any film seemed to cry out for extended interviews, complete segments featuring Kerouac or commentary from the filmmakers and even some of the personalities featured on film, this film certainly does! Perhaps its the age of the film (about 20 years) that prevented that type of material? However, the lack of features should not sway you from seeing the film.

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