On the Road with Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats

Kerouac, like Arthur Rimbaud, is a serially rediscovered icon for successive generations of flaming youth. Coinciding with the current reawakening of interest in the cutest of the Beats, this treatment of Kerouac's life and career opens with a clip of Steve Allen in full hipster mode, jazzily tickling the ivories as he introduces and tentatively kibitzes with Kerouac, followed by clips of the usual suspects--Allen Ginsberg, W.S. Burroughs, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Readings from the author's works--and not just On the Road--figure prominently on the soundtrack, while a hushed reverence for the great man seems to dominate the overall mood. Unfortunately, a good deal of the storytelling is handled by dramatic re-enactment, a dopey but increasingly popular device in modern documentary (I suppose misty color shots of dreamy looking actors in period costumes are more fun than boring black and white still photos of actual people and events, but is Kerouac's story supposed to be fun?). Still, unless Ken Burns decides to do the Kerouac saga, this is probably about the best we're likely to see on this engrossing, mystifying and ultimately sad writer who, despite the cheap sentimentality and undergraduate poetic angst exhibited here, still fascinates. Recommended, with reservations. Aud: H, C, P. (M. Tribby)