On the Road

On The Road is a 2012 adventure drama film directed by Walter Salles. It is an adaptation of Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel On the Road and stars an ensemble cast featuring Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart, Alice Braga, Amy Adams, Tom Sturridge, Danny Morgan, Elisabeth Moss, Kirsten Dunst, and Viggo Mortensen. The executive producers were Francis Ford Coppola, Patrick Batteux, Jerry Leider, and Tessa Ross. Filming began on August 4, 2010, in Montreal, Quebec, with a $25 million budget. The story is based on the years Kerouac spent travelling the United States in the late 1940s with his friend Neal Cassady and several other Beat Generation figures who would go on to fame in their own right, including William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. On May 23, 2012, the film premiered in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. The film received mixed early reviews after it premiered at the film festival. The film also premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival in September. Plot In 1947 New York, on the day his father is buried, Sal Paradise is out with his friend Carlo Marx who is, like him, an aspiring writer. They're invited by mutual friend Chad to meet Dean Moriarty, a young car thief from Denver, and Dean's 16-year-old wife Marylou. Sal and Carlo befriend Dean, smoking marijuana with him and visiting a jazz nightclub where they meet saxophonist Walter, who also befriends them. Sal teaches Dean how to write before Dean leaves for Denver with Carlo. After much contemplation, writer's block, and a solemn visit to his father's grave, Sal decides to join his friends in Denver and embarks on the road for the first time. There, Sal meets Camille, an art college student for whom Dean is divorcing Marylou. Carlo starts to question his sexuality, and Carlo and Dean start an affair. Carlo, Sal, Camille, and Dean visit a bar where Dean plays "I've Got the World on a String" on the jukebox, and Camille bonds with Sal. Carlo tells Sal he thinks he might be gay, and he plans to travel to Africa. Sal leaves aboard a bus and meets Terry. The two travel to California, where Terry works on cotton fields with her family while Sal helps. Sal and Terry have a brief affair before Sal, realizing he isn't made to work in the fields, heads back home.