Sal Paradise is a young writer whose life is shaken and ultimately redefined by the arrival of Dean Moriarty, a free-spirited, fearless, fast talking Westerner and his girl, Marylou. Traveling cross-country, Sal and Dean venture out on a personal quest for freedom from the conformity and conservatism engulfing them in search of the unknown, themselves, and the pursuit of “it” -- the pure essence of experience.
Cinematography
Eric Gautier shoots American landscapes like they're trying to seduce you.
Acting
Hedlund's Dean: exhausting, magnetic, impossible to look away from.
Director
Walter Salles
Garrett Hedlund
Dean Moriarty / Neal Cassady
Sam Riley
Sal Paradise / Jack Kerouac
Kristen Stewart
Marylou / LuAnne Henderson
Amy Adams
Jane / Joan Vollmer
Tom Sturridge
Carlo Marx / Allen Ginsberg
Danny Morgan
Ed Dunkle / Al Hinkle
Alice Braga
Terry / Bea Franco
Elisabeth Moss
Galatea Dunkel / Helen Hinkle
Kirsten Dunst
Camille / Carolyn Cassady
Viggo Mortensen
Old Bull Lee / William S. Burroughs
Steve Buscemi
Tall thin salesman
Terrence Howard
Walter
Joe Chrest
Virginia Cop
Sarah Allen
Vicki
Kim Bubbs
Laura
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kerouac's actual scroll manuscript was displayed at premieres; the film took decades to greenlight because the estate feared Hollywood would sanitize the queer content.
Salles previously directed 'The Motorcycle Diaries'—compare how both films aestheticize young men discovering themselves through others' suffering.
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