12/11/2023 0 Comments Y committed reviews![]() Cassady, a forgotten literary figure with more passion for creativity then progress in writing, would later become the character to drive the bus in Ken Kesey's, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. The beginning of the movie screams to Cassady's life, and shows the audience a Marlon Brando type character that had strong ties with folks like, Allen Ginsberg and Jake Kerouac. The best thing about this movie is the opening scene, where Neal Cassady is doing more daydreaming and dancing then he is working on his writing. Otherwise, the cinematography, the music, and the performance of Thomas Jane are terrific. The plot would have been stronger if it had focused on Cassady's 1950s relationship with other historical figures, like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, instead of his romances with random women. ![]() Accordingly, a lot of viewers will find the film's unorthodox style off-putting. Background music is mostly jazz with some blues thrown in. And the tone alternates between silly and philosophical. Jump cuts can be jarring for viewers expecting a smoothly flowing, linear plot. Plot structure seems deliberately chaotic, frenetic, loose. It's shot partly in color and partly in B&W. Cassady's offbeat personality is mirrored in the film's offbeat style. As presented in the film, he is a cross between James Dean and Jim Morrison. But Cassady was a quirky kind of guy, a rebel, a nonconformist, fun loving, with a restless energy, a person constantly on the move, both physically and philosophically. Set in the 1940s during one notable period of Cassady's life, the film is mostly a character study of Cassady (Thomas Jane), and his relationship with other people in his life, including his friend Harry (Keanu Reeves) and various romantic interests, the central one being Joan (Claire Forlani). To appreciate this film the viewer needs either to be in a jazzy, rebellious sort of mood, or have some interest in Neal Cassady, an American who figured heavily in the development of the "beat generation" of the 1950s.
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