An Odd Odyssey

In 2021 I closed my review of Ebs Burnough’s debut documentary, the 98-minute “The Capote Tapes,” stating: “I anxiously anticipate this gifted filmmaker’s next film”. Now, the wait is over, as the new doc by this former White House Deputy Social Secretary and Senior Advisor to Michelle Obama is being released. Like the excellent “The Capote Tapes”’ portrait of Truman, Burnough’s latest, “Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation,” is about a troubled, iconic novelist who was corrupted by capitalist society’s celebrityhood and had same sex relationships.

From Homer’s “Odyssey” to “Oz” to “On the Road,” from Telemachus to television and beyond, the epic trek has been at the heart of much mythic storytelling. Jack Kerouac created one of the enduring works of fiction about journeys, and Burnough’s nonfiction film is in part a biopic about the Beat Generation author of 1957’s “On the Road.” The documentary includes vintage footage of Kerouac and his Beatnik comrades, like Allen Ginsberg. There are also original interviews with artists such as: Matt Dillon, Josh Brolin, novelist Jay McInerney, 10,000 Maniacs’ Natalie Merchant, who sang “Hey Jack Kerouac”; comedian and commentator Kamau Bell; a biographer; an academic; former friend and composer David Amran; and ex-girlfriend Joyce Johnson.

However, for some reason, Burnough takes a detour on the road less traveled. Throughout the film he interjects by inserting three sets of rather dull, ordinary people who arguably have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Kerouac. Burnough is compelled to incessantly disrupt the flow of this otherwise compelling (BTW, a word the director said nobody uses any more in a post-screening Q&A) biopic with the uninteresting, out-of-place stories of these very boring individuals. Their unwelcome interruptions are completely distracting and gratuitous, as these run-of-the-mill characters only tangentially relate to Kerouac, in the sense that they are on their own personal journeys; two of the three interlopers are frequent flyers on the highways.

In the post-screening discussion and Q&A moderated by L.A. Times film critic Mark Olsen Burnough defended his decision to include these figures who don’t know Jack (so to speak), saying that there had already been biopics about Kerouac. It’s true that there indeed have been documentaries about the author, including 1984’s “Kerouac, The Movie” and 1986’s “Whatever Happened to Kerouac?” But that was 40 years ago and I’ve never seen them or others I may not be aware of. (I did see 2011’s “Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search for a Kool Place” co-directed by Alex Gibney, but Kerouac is not the focus of that documentary about the Merry Pranksters.) There have also been feature films about Kerouac and adaptations of his novels, including 1980’s “Heart Beat,” which, copacetically, was also on Turner Classic Movies the night I saw “Kerouac’s Road.” Call it Kerouac kismet!

As far as I know, none of these fiction films, including the long-awaited big screen version of “On the Road” in 2012, were hits, so I don’t think that the market is exactly overflowing with easily accessible films about the life story of the so-called “King of the Beats.” I grew up about three miles from where Kerouac wrote “On the Road,” and in addition to having read that, I also read “The Subterraneans.” I for one would have liked to learn more about this enigmatic scribe, instead of having the film frequently taking its eye off the ball. Burnough touches upon some of the fascinating aspects of Kerouac’s personality and life, including his veiled bisexuality, the fact that the man renowned for restlessly wandering around the continent was a mama’s boy (his journeys may have been attempts to break free of her?), his alcoholism, which led to an early death, etc. But rather than pursue these fascinating strands in depth, Burnough wastes his time on the peregrinations of the aforesaid nondescript figures, who have little if anything to add to the main story.

You may disagree and think these characters are relevant and interesting; that’s your prerogative. But I’ll add one thing, which is that in the post-screening Q&A, Burnough revealed that one of those individuals was a MAGA conspiracy theorist, although you’d never know this from the film, as the director, a former Barack Obama apparatchik, edited all that out. Documentaries are a form of reporting, and from a journalistic point of view, some may find Burnough’s cutting the Trumpian dialogue out to be eyebrow-raising. Especially given that at the end of his 47 years, Jack was reportedly spewing Archie Bunker-type opinions in 1969.

A fan of Kerouac, Michael Imperioli of “Sopranos” fame voices readings of the author’s writings in “Kerouac’s Road.” The documentary also has one of the best jump cuts ever in movie history: To illustrate the subversive role Kerouac played as an oppositional voice to mainstream materialistic, corporate culture, “Kerouac’s Road” cuts from 1956’s “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit”’s Gregory Peck as a PR hack and discontented businessman to the countercultural Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda on the road in their motorcycles in 1969’s “Easy Rider.” Very clever cut!

Those unfamiliar with Jack Kerouac may enjoy the biographical details shed by this film, in between the meanderings of those fellow travelers, who either distract from the main story or make it more relevant, depending on your perspective about this odd odyssey. “Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation” started its theatrical release Aug. 1. And so, the Beat goes on.

NOT SO FUN FACT OF THE REVIEW: “The Subterraneans” appears to be the first screen adaptation of a book by Kerouac, who is depicted in it by George Peppard, while Jack’s lover Mardou Fox, who is Black in his novella, is portrayed in the movie by White Frenchwoman Leslie Caron. Seems like the silver screen wasn’t quite ready for an inter-racial romance in 1960 – but our man Jack was.

Ed Rampell is a film historian and critic based in Los Angeles. Rampell is the author of “Progressive Hollywood, A People’s Film History of the United States” and he co-authored “The Hawaii Movie and Television Book,” now in its third edition. His new novel is “The Disinherited: Blood Blalahs.