Beatific Vision
by SweetHotAngel | created - 26 Aug 2017 | updated - 26 Aug 2017 | PublicHeres a list of films about the Beat Generation to give you an idea what was going on with those counter culture poets, authors, thinkers, and just folk living in an anti-establishment way in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. I'm listing these in alphabetical order.
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1. Beat (2000)
R | 93 min | Drama
Two murders that shaped the lives of several college students who went on to become some of the most influential writers of the Beat Generation.
Director: Gary Walkow | Stars: Courtney Love, Kiefer Sutherland, Lisa Sheridan, Patricia Llaca
Votes: 1,615
The early days centering on Lucien Carr, Joan Vollmer, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Boroughs, starting and ending with tragedies.
2. Big Sur (2013)
R | 81 min | Drama, Romance
A recounting of Jack Kerouac's three sojourns to the cabin in Big Sur owned by his friend, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
Director: Michael Polish | Stars: Jean-Marc Barr, Kate Bosworth, Josh Lucas, Radha Mitchell
Votes: 2,103 | Gross: $0.03M
Another of Jack Kerouac's self narrative novels.
3. Heart Beat (1980)
R | 110 min | Drama
The life and friendship among the icons of the Beat Generation: Neal Cassady, Carolyn Cassady, and Jack Kerouac.
Director: John Byrum | Stars: Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, John Heard, Ray Sharkey
Votes: 741
This one is about the love triangle of Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and Carolyn Cassady. Ginsberg is fictionalized as Ira.
4. Howl (2010)
R | 84 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
As Allen Ginsberg talks about his life and art, his most famous poem is illustrated in animation while the obscenity trial of the work is dramatized.
Directors: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman | Stars: James Franco, Todd Rotondi, Jon Prescott, Aaron Tveit
Votes: 13,407 | Gross: $0.62M
The story of Allen Ginsberg greatest poem and how he came to be a Beat and the trial for the poem as obscene.
5. Kill Your Darlings (2013)
R | 104 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs.
Director: John Krokidas | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, Michael C. Hall, Ben Foster
Votes: 41,234 | Gross: $1.03M
Another retelling of the very early days in 1944 centering on Allen Ginsberg and the tragedy of Lucien Carr and David Kammerer.
6. Naked Lunch (1991)
R | 115 min | Drama, Mystery
After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally kills his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in a port town in North Africa.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands
Votes: 56,648 | Gross: $2.54M
William S. Borroughs' great work but mixed with a fictionalized version of Borroughs writing it.
7. Neal Cassady (2007)
Not Rated | 80 min | Biography, Drama
The story of what happened to Neal Cassady after Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" came out. Deals primarily with Neal's relationship to his fictional alter-ego, Dean Moriarty.
Director: Noah Buschel | Stars: Tate Donovan, Amy Ryan, Glenn Fitzgerald, Chris Bauer
Votes: 220
Another telling of Neal Cassady's life, this time during his involvement with Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters in which he drove the magic bus, Further, for the group as they traveled the country attempting to raise consciousness.
8. On the Road (2012)
R | 124 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Young writer Sal Paradise has his life shaken by the arrival of free-spirited Dean Moriarty and his girl, Marylou. As they travel across the country, they encounter a mix of people who each impact their journey indelibly.
Director: Walter Salles | Stars: Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Amy Adams
Votes: 43,297 | Gross: $0.72M
Jack Kerouac's great stream of consciousness novel about the Beats with Neal Cassady fictionalized as Dean Moriarty and Kerouac as Sal Paradise.
9. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Adventure, Comedy | Announced
A road movie based on on Tom Wolfe's book of the same name, in which author Ken Kesey takes a cross-country trip to see the World's Fair in New York. Much LSD is ingested.
An "In Production" (at the time of this list) film about the Merry Pranksters based on Tom Wolfe's seminal new journalism book about the adventures of Ken Kesey and his troupe and their acid tests.
10. The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997)
R | 92 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
In 1946 Denver, an aspiring writer who enjoys irresponsible adventures with his friend writes a letter about his life before and after the suicide attempt by his sad, commitment-seeking girlfriend.
Director: Stephen Kay | Stars: Thomas Jane, Keanu Reeves, Adrien Brody, John Doe
Votes: 2,445 | Gross: $0.05M
A dramatic version of Neal Cassady's letter to Jack Kerouac about his experiences around the attempted suicide of his friend Joan Anderson.
11. The Subterraneans (1960)
89 min | Drama
A love story between two misunderstood new bohemians who don't even understand themselves.
Director: Ranald MacDougall | Stars: Leslie Caron, George Peppard, Janice Rule, Roddy McDowall
Votes: 344
Another novel that's a fictionalized version of Jack Kerouac's and his fellow Beats' lives with a shocking interracial love affair is toned down in this adaptation that still was the first film to take the Beat Generation seriously instead of as a stereotype.
12. Who'll Stop the Rain (1978)
R | 126 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A Vietnam veteran gets conned into helping an old Marine friend smuggle drugs into the country but ends up having to go on the run with his friend's wife when the deal goes sour.
Director: Karel Reisz | Stars: Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld, Michael Moriarty, Anthony Zerbe
Votes: 3,282
An adaptation of Robert Stone's novel, a fictionalized version of Neal Cassady as the character Ray Hicks.
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