The 2012 film On the Road , directed by Walter Salles, is the first feature-length adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s seminal 1957 beat generation novel. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola, the film attempts to capture the restless, jazz-infused energy of a generation searching for "it" across the American landscape. Plot Overview

Why You Should Watch It Now

By the time Salles took the helm, digital cinematography had caught up to Kerouac’s "spontaneous prose." The film needed to move fast—literally. The story follows Sal Paradise (Kerouac’s alter-ego, played by Sam Riley) and Dean Moriarty (the iconic Neal Cassady, played by Garrett Hedlund) as they crisscross America from the cold lofts of New York to the humid jazz dens of New Orleans and the dusty vistas of Mexico.

The film takes place in the late 1940s and early 1950s, a time of great social change and cultural upheaval in America. Sal, a young writer from New York, meets Dean, a charismatic and free-spirited friend from Denver, and they quickly become inseparable. Dean's passion for life and his desire for adventure inspire Sal to leave his mundane life behind and join him on a series of road trips across the country.

(Sam Riley), an aspiring New York writer whose life is transformed by the arrival of Dean Moriarty

Mixed Reviews

: Critics generally praised the visual style and Garrett Hedlund's energetic performance. However, some felt the film struggled to translate Kerouac’s internal, stream-of-consciousness writing style into a compelling narrative structure.