Year: 1999
Directed by: Chuck Workman
Written by: Chuck Workman
Johnny Depp playing: Jack Kerouac
Plot
Traces the Beats from Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac’s meeting in 1944 at Columbia University to the deaths of Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs in 1997. Three actors provide dramatic interpretations of the work of these three writers, and the film chronicles their friendships, their arrival into American consciousness, their travels, frequent parodies, Kerouac’s death, and Ginsberg’s politicization. Their movement connects with bebop, John Cage’s music, abstract expressionism, and living theater. In recent interviews, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kesey, Ferlinghetti, Mailer, Jerry Garcia, Tom Hayden, Gary Snyder, Ed Sanders, and others measure the Beats’ meaning and impact.
USA 23 January 1999 (Sundance Film Festival), New Zealand 18 July 1999 (Wellington Film Festival), USA 15 October 1999 (limited), Argentina 15 April 2000 (Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema), Japan 7 April 2001 (Tokyo)
Opening Weekend
$16,821 (USA) (29 August 1999) (1 Screen)
Gross
$360,895 (USA) (21 May 2000)
$342,580 (USA) (19 March 2000)
$336,183 (USA) (27 February 2000)
$149,837 (USA) (26 September 1999)
$24,771 (USA) (29 August 1999)
Weekend Gross
$1,610 (USA) (21 May 2000) (2 Screens)
$1,892 (USA) (19 March 2000) (3 Screens)
$941 (USA) (12 March 2000) (2 Screens)
$4,237 (USA) (27 February 2000) (4 Sceens)
