HEART BEAT
US, 1980, 105 minutes, Colour.
Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, John Heard, Ann Dusenberry, Ray Sharkey, Steve Allen, Tony Bill, John Larroquette.
Directed by John Byrum.
Heart Beat is based on a memoir by Carolyn Cassady - about her husband Neil and their close friend Jack Kerouac who wrote On The Road about their travels and way of life in the '40s - a best-seller of the late '50s and the beatnik precursor of change and the emerging drug culture of the '60s. This slow moving film shows how myths are created - Carolyn says that their celebrity was not for what they did but that they did it first. The trendsetters of 1960 glamorised it. Nick Nolte is a convincing oaf (but not beatnik hero). Much more could have been done with John Heard's Kerouac. Sissy Spacek is an effective Carolyn. Offbeat. Written and directed by John Byrum, who made the interesting Inserts.
1. The title and its indication of sentiment, its reference to the Beatnik movement? How well did the film combine these two elements?
2. Jack Kerouac and his reputation in the United States, the popularity of On The Road? Audience interest in seeing the characters, the author, what was behind the novel? Its influence in the late '50s and 1960? The move to permissiveness, drug culture? The aftermath of the '60s?
3. The film as based on Carolyn Cassady memoir? The narrative, focus, Carolyn's voice-over comments? Her portrait of Neil and Jack? Seeing them from the outside, from relationship with them? A detached as well as a committed observer? Her sharing in the experiences, her approval of their lifestyle, her own conventionality?
4. Jack Kerouac and his novel and reputation? Carolyn's comment that the popularity and celebrity was not for what they did but that they did it first? How true was this? The character sketch of Kerouac - observed from the outside rather than from within? His compulsiveness to write, his creativity? His home in New York and relationship with his mother? The attachment to Neil and the experience of travel? Observing Nell and Stevie? Sharing their style? A taken for granted permissiveness on the road? The life in San Francisco? The decision to write and doing it on the long roll? The collage of his applications for publication, encounters with publishers and secretaries, rejection? The friendship with Dick and the meeting with Carolyn? His love for Carolyn and the pain of losing her? Neil's leaving him behind? His years of wandering around the world, the glimpses of him at work, on the ship? His decision to return - and seeming weaker? Being caught up with Nell and the drinking and the girls, returning home to the attic? His decision to stay with Carolyn and the children? His adapting to suburban domestic way of life? The enjoyment of life with Neil? Growing the marijuana? The reaction of the neighbours? The possibility of his settling down with Carolyn and the decision for his work to be published? The influence of Ira (Alan Ginsberg and his beatnik poetry)?
5. The publication of the book, the decision to go to New York, his reaction to becoming a celebrity, his awkwardness on the TV shows, his being feted by interviewers? His going downhill, drinking? Inability to cope with fame? His final visit to Carolyn and his regrets? Kerouack's literary achievement? Interest in him as a person?
6. Neil and his friendship with Jack, prison and reformatory background, the roaming, uncommitted type? His general good humour and carrying others along with it? Picking up Stevie and his infatuation and sexual relationship with her? Being on the road and moving across America and experiencing it - and stealing from sleeping gas-owners? The prospect of San Francisco? The meeting with Dick, the friendship with Carolyn? Her moving in? His leaving Stevie and hurting her? The relationship with Carolyn? Leaving Jack and taking Carolyn? The friendship with Ira and his visit to San Francisco? Ira's declaration of love for Neil? Slum dwelling, squalor? Carolyn's pregnancy and her discovering Ira and Stevie with Neil? His decision to settle down, working on the train - and the humorous treatment of this? The importance of having a house in the suburbs? His agreement with buying the house? His reaction to the Bendixes? Trying to adapt to suburban domestic life? Jack's return and his taking the opportunity to break out? Friendship with Jack, absence from home, the menage a trois? The response to Jack's becoming a celebrity, his inability to look at the TV shows?
7. The sequence of his being in the cafe in San Francisco, the trendiness of the cafes and the poetry reading? The drug discussion with the black man and the irony of his being busted? The prison experience and Jack's not helping him? The decision to travel, moving with hippie groups? The final phone call to Carolyn? How credible was Neil as the model for Dean Moriarty in On The Road - sufficiently free spirit? Or romanticised by hindsight?
8. Carolyn and her background, style, manners, dress? Her friendship with Dick and her decision not to marry him? Her art studies? The attraction to Neil? Friendship with Jack? Moving in, visiting the galleries, sharing their way of life? Her opting for Neil? Her reaction to Stevie, Ira and his homosexuality? Her pregnancy and her joy in children? Her wanting to have the house in the suburbs? Her becoming a San Francisco housewife? The growing family and the comic touches with the domestic scenes? Her relying on Neil and yet leaving him free? The growing exasperation with him as symbolised by the meals with the Bendixes and their reaction after each meal? Jack's return and her warm response to him, his supplying the affection and love which Neil could not? The setting up of the menage a trois and her being comfortable in it and the ironic presentation of the room arrangements etc.? Her response to Jack's success - letting him go, watching him on television? The importance of his final visit to her? Her memoir and her perception of the characters?
9. The importance of suburbia - the credits sequence and the atmosphere of World War Two and the end with the atomic bomb? The American hopes after the war and private homes for everyone? The ironic touch of showing the little boxes? The transition from the On The Road style to suburbia? The reaction against it to the beatnik ways of San Francisco and permissiveness in the suburbs? The Bendixes and their conventionality - manners, moral attitudes, social involvement e.g. with the school? Their conversation and reaction after each visit? Caricatures illustrating suburbia?
10. The character sketch of Stevie and her relationship with Neil, on the road, her love for Neil? His leaving her? Chance encounter and her prostitution? The on and off liaison with her?
11. Ira and Alan Ginsberg and the beat poets? Lifestyle, literary background, eccentricity? The proclaiming of poetry in the cafe, the social assertion and criticism? Ira's homosexuality and relationship with Neil?
12. How well did the film show the transition from the '40s to the '60s? What had happened in the United States? The changing of the American dream? Surfacing of attitudes already there? Why the celebrity for Jack Kerouac and the others? Their almost ordinariness becoming legend and made an unreal myth? The film indicating that the reality was far less than the myth?
