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Heart Beat (1980)
Despite solid performances from the leads, the 1980 film Heart Beat, a look at the relationship between Beat Poet Jack Kerouac and fellow poets Neal and Carolyn Cassady, suffers due to a confusing screenplay that is trying to be two different kinds of movies but doesn't really succeed at either.
This film is an allege chronicle of three leaders of a literary movement that would become known as the Beat Generation. Jack Kerouac and Neal and Carolyn Cassady, who became friends during the 50's and 60's, perhaps too good friends, and how their feelings for each other were affected by the times but never really changed.
Director and screenwriter John Byrum (Inserts, Duets) has crafted a messy look at what is supposed to be a shocking look at a romantic triangle, supposedly made more intriguing by the fact that the participants were real life public figures at the forefront of an important movement. Unfortunately, this film, what these three people did in terms of the Beat Generation is shoved in the background in favor of an up close, sometimes a little too up close look at a very convoluted love triangle.
We are initially introduced to Carolyn, this intelligent and sophisticated woman who is initially involved with Kerouac until she meets Neil Cassaday until she finds herself developing feelings for him as well. Jack and Neil seem to be willing to share Carolyn until Carolyn comes home and finds Neil in bed with a woman and another man, which she feels is the perfect time to let him know that she's pregnant. Things get even more heated when Jack writes a book with Neil as the fictionalized central character and it becomes a bestseller. It gets even sadder when the triangle involve innocent bystanders into their triangle, oblivious of the hurt they cause them. We get an intimate look at the free love period of the 1960's, but little insight into these three influential writers from the 1960's.
Byrum's direction is not much better than his screenplay. The film moves at a snail's pace but the actors are so good you almost don't notice. Nick Nolte lights up the screen as the enigmatic Neil and the late John Heard also offers one of his strongest turns as Kerouac. As always, Sissy Spacek enchants as Carolyn, and there are some effective support from Ray Sharkey, Ann Dusenberry, and John Larroquette, but if you really want to learn about Jack Kerouac and the Cassadays, I would google them.
Despite solid performances from the leads, the 1980 film Heart Beat, a look at the relationship between Beat Poet Jack Kerouac and fellow poets Neal and Carolyn Cassady, suffers due to a confusing screenplay that is trying to be two different kinds of movies but doesn't really succeed at either.
This film is an allege chronicle of three leaders of a literary movement that would become known as the Beat Generation. Jack Kerouac and Neal and Carolyn Cassady, who became friends during the 50's and 60's, perhaps too good friends, and how their feelings for each other were affected by the times but never really changed.
Director and screenwriter John Byrum (Inserts, Duets) has crafted a messy look at what is supposed to be a shocking look at a romantic triangle, supposedly made more intriguing by the fact that the participants were real life public figures at the forefront of an important movement. Unfortunately, this film, what these three people did in terms of the Beat Generation is shoved in the background in favor of an up close, sometimes a little too up close look at a very convoluted love triangle.
We are initially introduced to Carolyn, this intelligent and sophisticated woman who is initially involved with Kerouac until she meets Neil Cassaday until she finds herself developing feelings for him as well. Jack and Neil seem to be willing to share Carolyn until Carolyn comes home and finds Neil in bed with a woman and another man, which she feels is the perfect time to let him know that she's pregnant. Things get even more heated when Jack writes a book with Neil as the fictionalized central character and it becomes a bestseller. It gets even sadder when the triangle involve innocent bystanders into their triangle, oblivious of the hurt they cause them. We get an intimate look at the free love period of the 1960's, but little insight into these three influential writers from the 1960's.
Byrum's direction is not much better than his screenplay. The film moves at a snail's pace but the actors are so good you almost don't notice. Nick Nolte lights up the screen as the enigmatic Neil and the late John Heard also offers one of his strongest turns as Kerouac. As always, Sissy Spacek enchants as Carolyn, and there are some effective support from Ray Sharkey, Ann Dusenberry, and John Larroquette, but if you really want to learn about Jack Kerouac and the Cassadays, I would google them.