The "beat scene" refers to the Beat Generation - (Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Cassady, William Burroughs et al) a group of literature savvy writers from the 40's & 50's whom often identified with society's cast-off's. I think it was Kerouac (forerunner of Beat writing) who referred to the word Beat as those who had been "beaten down and relegated to the margins of society". Basically anything non-mainstream. Not to be confused with beatniks, somehow that term came around and usually refers to the bongo-drumming-beret,black turtleneck-wearing-daddy-o's...which was not all what Beat writers were like. They were however, keen on jazz and poetry readings but not in that garb.
I'm a big fan of Kerouac et al and glad to hear of this movie based on Neal Cassady, who was a central figure in Kerouac novels. Thomas Jane potrayed his character exactly as how I had imagined.
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grateful301
16 years ago
CosmiKismet is pretty accurate. One of the lesser known Beats (Herbert Huncke) picked up the term "beat" from one of his readings, and Kerouac mentioned it to John Clellon Holmes, another writer. Holmes wrote an article called "This Is the Beat Generation." And it held from there, the beatniks were the poseurs, those who wanted to be Beat but were too affected to really get what it was really about.
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dhmason6155
15 years ago
Kerouac got the word "Beat" from "beatific" in the Bible, meaning holy or saintly. The Bible and his Catholic upbringing were big influences on him.
"Well, how was it?".
"It was degrading, humiliating, emasculating... and somewhat enjoyable".
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