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Poster for On the Road

On the Road

"The best teacher is experience."

2012 · 2h 22m · R Adventure, Drama
Directed by Walter Salles

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Overview

Sal Paradise is a young writer whose life is shaken and ultimately redefined by the arrival of Dean Moriarty, a free-spirited, fearless, fast talking Westerner and his girl, Marylou. Traveling cross-country, Sal and Dean venture out on a personal quest for freedom from the conformity and conservatism engulfing them in search of the unknown, themselves, and the pursuit of “it” -- the pure essence of experience.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
47%
Tomatometer
Fresh

It's not a wreck of a movie; it's not a sleek race car either. But there's heat to be felt here.

Tom Long, Detroit News
Rotten

Walter Salles's warm but strangely staid adaptation of a piece of literature that was never meant to be tamed as cinema.

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
Fresh

"On the Road" is something of a sprawling mess, but then so is the novel.

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Fresh

It took more than half a century, but Jack Kerouac's autobiographical cult novel of bohemian youth in postwar America has reached the screen in wonderful form.

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Fresh

Against all odds, a surprisingly effective movie.

Ty Burr, Boston Globe

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