MovieChat Forums > On the Road (2012) Discussion > Was there this much sex in the novel?

Was there this much sex in the novel?

posted 11 years ago by TheMysteriousLady
2 replies | jump to latest

I read it a few years ago and I recall there being some implied sexual content, but nothing to write home about. So I rented the movie for my dad, who is slightly Puritanical, I must admit, but who'd just read the book and was interested in seeing how it was adapted.

Uhhhh.... bad idea.

He gave me his review ("pornography") and I thought he was overreacting. He wasn't totally off base:

Two pretty graphic threesomes; 1 very vividly described threesome; road head; a double handjob; gay prostitution; a brothel orgy; and probably a dozen or so scenes of just regular old sex.

I thought the film had its merits (the cinematography was spectacular, so was a lot of the acting...), but the sex was overkill, even for me.

[–] davannacarter 11 years ago

Jack Kerouac, who wrote the novel, experienced A LOT of sex during his life. I had to capitalize "a lot" because it truly was a whoooooole lot. I'm a huge fan of the Beat Generation. Not only have I read books by Beat writers, I've also read their bios. I've actually read three bios of Kerouac and am now on his 4th. He had LOTS of sex. Again, I must capitalize because on the book I'm reading Barry Miles' "Jack Kerouac--King of the Beats" references to Jack's sex life are peppered throughout the book. If you read the biography of the Beats you'll quickly realize sex was a HUGE, HUGE part of their lives. You can't make a movie about the Beats without depicting sex.

You can't make a movie about Las Vegas without depicting casinos. And you can't make a movie about the Beats without depicting sex. That's how big sex was in the lives of the Beats. That's one of the reasons why they were so popular, because they were frank and open about their sex lives.

[–] 11 years ago

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