Director: Ebs Burnough
Writer: Eliza Hindmarch
Stars: David Amran, W. Kamau Bell, Josh Brolin
Synopsis: Explores Kerouac’s “On the Road” through today’s lens, as celebrities and travelers reflect on authentic experiences in our digital age, echoing the novel’s timeless search for genuine connection.
America. This name evokes many details; lately, it’s been more negative than positive, but it still holds its allure and mystery in the collective consciousness of people everywhere. Sometimes, we need a reminder of why we love this contradictory continent and why it will always carry its mystical and magical resonance in outsiders’ hearts. Ebs Burnough’s latest documentary, Kerouac’s Road, is one of those Americanophile works meant to reinforce the mental image of America at its core — a single, endless road of travel, with no settling down or permanent residence.
To this day, Jack Kerouac’s novel “On the Road” is still an important piece of literature. For one thing, Kerouac wrote it with truth, ambition, and curiosity for the Americans of his generation. And because it has been rooted in its times and the locality of its setting; the American road, stretched as far as the eye can see and beyond.
Burnough interviews celebrities, famous writers, and theorists, but also Kerouac-like travelers who only care about the road, not the destination. His interviews with the roadies not only define what America means to them, but also their perceptions of the road, poverty, and what home means to different people. Burnough chooses a diverse group of travelers and drivers; people who refuse to settle and their stories are both interesting and thought-provoking.
One of the things I -ashamedly- just discovered through the documentary was that Kerouac was a son of French-Canadian immigrant parents. It makes it really sad when we observe through the documentary how this man who has felt like an outsider to America; the only country he has known, is considered one of the quintessential American writers, one of the writers who are heralded as the “voice of America.” This country has been built on immigrant shoulders and through their sweat and hardships, and now it strays so far off from the core of its origins. There are also many other interesting parts like speculations about his sexuality, his complex relationship with his mother, his stance on war, religion, and social issues.
As far as a documentary goes, Kerouac’s Road is conventional, playing it safe. There are passages narrated from Kerouac’s writings. There are interviews with celebrities who represent the masculine car trope in our minds. There is minimal presence from the director -save for a few laughs or his voice asking questions- and the subjects have enough room to express and exist without forced directorial intervention, especially the regular people. Would it have benefited from Burnough’s complete disappearance? Absolutely. Unfortunately, when the curtain is lifted to reveal his voice questioning the subjects, it doesn’t turn into a companion documentary to The Motorcycle Diaries. Instead, it falls back into its banal state as Burnough’s project explores America through Kerouac, and vice versa. But if his voice had been completely cut out, this could easily have become a travel vignette suitable for a modern photo album on social media, rather than constantly reminding us that it’s a traditional Kerouac documentary.
The question remains: is a Kerouac documentary too cliché for our current times? Yes, the topic has been made and remade, done and adapted multiple times. There could be some problematic or outdated aspects of the source material. But the question at the core of it remains lively and relevant. What does it mean to set sail on the open highway? What does it mean to want to find oneself in a society that is not originally one’s own?
Kerouac’s Road nails that nihilistic experience of existing in a rootless world. It tackles the American dream through the perspective of an immigrant who, in his attempt to understand a country that once felt foreign to him, has etched his name forever into its mythos.
