Alt Film Guide : On The Road Trailer Reaction

Alt Film Guide : On The Road Trailer Reaction

As to be expected, the just released trailer (see below) for Walter Salles' On the Road looks classy — beautiful, subdued cinematography by Eric Gautier — and offers believable performances by a strong cast that includes Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, and Kristen Stewart. The film's target audience is clearly not the popcorn-eating Cineplex crowd; else, the trailer wouldn't have featured any old typewriters or lines such as "the only people that interest me are the mad ones. The ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, desirous of everything at the same time. The ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing."

In fact, the most interesting aspect of the On the Road trailer is that, unlike most movie trailers out there, it gives words the same emphasis as images. To say that's because it's based on a book — Jack Kerouac's — is nonsense. Just look at the trailers for myriad other novel adaptations, from Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to the Robert Pattinson vehicle Bel Ami. Their focus is on the images, whether those are of sweeping vistas and action scenes, or the faces of the actors involved in the drama (or comedy, as the case may be). Note: I have nothing against images. Just look at the above photo. That one image says 1,000 words — or more, depending on how wild your imagination is.

Anyhow, although I'm sure there have been more, right now I can think of only one other trailer of a film adaptation of a literary work that placed a strong emphasis on words: Fred Zinnemann's 1977 drama Julia, starring Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave, and based on Lillian Hellman's (highly fictionalized) autobiographical book Pentimento.

Wrapping this up: when I post my list of "most eagerly anticipated 2012 releases" — hopefully I'll get that done before December 31 — On the Road will definitely be there. The film, by the way, still doesn't have a US distributor. If The Weinstein Company (or some other savvy distributor) gets this one, don't be too surprised if On the Road and its talent become key 2012/2013 awards-season players.

In addition to Hedlund, Riley, and Stewart, On the Road features the following: Man of Steel's Amy Adams, Melancholia's Kirsten Dunst, A Dangerous Method's Viggo Mortensen, Effie's Tom Sturridge, Ideal's Danny Morgan, Elysium's Alice Braga, and Get Him to the Geek's Elisabeth Moss. Additionally, Hustle & Flow's Terrence Howard and Boardwalk Empire's Steve Buscemi apparently have cameos in the film. The Motorcycle Diaries' José Rivera penned the screenplay adaptation. Brokeback Mountain's Gustavo Santaolalla composed the score.

Source => Alt Film Guide / Via => Gossip Dance