Five decades after it was first published Jack Kerouac's seminal beat novel On the Road" finally finds its way to the big screen in a production from award-winning director Walter Salles (" Motorcycle Diaries") starring Sam Riley (" Control Brighton Rock") Garret Hedlund (" Friday Night Lights") Kristen Stewart (" Twilight") Kirsten Dunst Amy Adams & Viggo Mortensen. Sal Paradise (" Sam Riley") a young innocent joins his hero Dean Moriarty (" Garrett Hedlund") a traveller & mystic the living epitome of Beat on a breathless exuberant ride back & forth across the United States. Their hedonistic search for release or fulfilment through drink sex drugs & jazz becomes an exploration of personal freedom a test of the limits of the American dream. A brilliant blend of fiction & autobiography Jack Kerouac's exhilarating novel swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America racing towards the sunset with unforgettable exuberance poignancy & autobiographical passion. One of the most influential & important novels of the 20th century " On the Road" is the book that launched the Beat Generation & remains the bible of that literary movement. Jack Kerouac (1922-69) was an American novelist poet artist & part of the Beat Generation. His first published novel " The Town & the City" appeared in 1950 but it was " On the Road" published in 1957 that made Kerouac famous. Publication of his many other books followed among them " The Subterraneans" " Big Sur" & " The Dharma Bums". Kerouac died in Florida at the age of forty-seven. " The most beautifully executed the clearest & the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as "beat"' The New York Times ' Pop writing at its best. It changed the way I saw the world making me yearn for fresh experience." (Hanif Kureishi " Independent on Sunday"). "" On the Road" sold a trillion Levis & a million espresso machines & also sent countless kids on the road." (" William Burroughs")."