Beat

2000
R
1h 33m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

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.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.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.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.4/10

1.6K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

Videos1

Trailer 1:42

Beat

Photos17

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Storyline

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Trivia
The trailer shows scenes not in the final version of the film. These seem to include scenes with Jack Kerouac and others from New York appearing only in brief flashback in the film. As well, a scene of William Burroughs reading a newspaper story to Joan about a fire at a zoo. The phrase "and the hippos were boiled in their tanks" which comes from this story was the title of the unpublished novel by Kerouac and Burroughs about the David Kammerer murder.

Quotes
Joan Vollmer: So, do they have ruins down in Guatemala?
William S. Burroughs: It's all ruins. Or it all will be, given enough time.
Joan Vollmer: Ah, just like people.
William S. Burroughs: Yes. But people decay more promptly than Mayan temples.

Connections
Version of Le Festin nu (1991)

Soundtracks
Amor de Juventud
Music and Lyrics by Ramón Ayala
Performed by Ramón Ayala

User reviews31

Featured review

6/10

Courtney Love makes this worth seeing

This is a film drenched in a palpable sadness: the sadness of being gay in the 1950s; the sadness of being a woman in the 1950s; the sadness of being anything out of the ordinary in the 1950s. But I've been rereading a lot of Kerouac lately, and I don't think it would be a stretch to say that the whole Beat Movement was propelled by sadness.

This is also an intriguing film, though I wouldn't call it a great one. Anyone interested in the Beats should see it. But if you don't know the back story of these characters, I can imagine that much of what they do doesn't make a lot of sense.

I thought Courtney Love gave a remarkable performance, surprisingly nuanced, aided by her off center beauty. In Kiefer Sutherland's defense, I'm not sure even Bill Burroughs could play Bill Burroughs. And I wish Kyle Secor and Ron Livingston could have traded roles. I thought Secor captured Allen Ginsberg's manic charisma better, to the extent that when he was on screen, I felt like he and not Livingston, was actually Ginsberg.