[jazzy instrumental music]
♩ ♩
[deep breath in and out]
[horns honking]
[tires squeal]
- There you go.
- I first met Dean not long after my father died.
I'd just gotten over a serious illness
That I won't bother to talk about
except that it really had something to do
with my father's death
and my awful feeling that everything was dead.
- "Let's go for a drink," says my buddy, Sal.
But I show up, and guess what.
No Sal Paradise.
A boring, brooding mute has been inserted in his place.
- What's there to talk about exactly, huh?
The book I'm not writing?
Or the inspiration I don't feel?
- True, but these are temporary worries.
Life is long and wondrous and strange.
Look at me, Sal.
I'm full of inspiration.
My mind is a veritable echo chamber of epiphanies.
Dig it.
"The air is dark.
"The night is sad.
I lie sleepless, and I groan."
- I'll get you another beer.
- Bravo, very nice, Carlo. - Chad.
- I've been looking all over town for you hoodlums.
- How you doing, man?
- Listen, remember that, uh, jailbird friend of mine
from Denver?
The one who stole 500 cars?
The one I've been raving about?
- He didn't think we really believed that, did he?
The first reports of Dean came to me though Chad King,
who'd shown me and Carlo a few letters from him,
written from a Colorado reform school.
- Come on, man.
Let's go.
The great Dean awaits.
- Dean had arrived in New York.
He had just married a 16-year-old chick
named Marylou.
- Come on, gentlemen, one more.
[woman moaning]
[knocks at door]
[woman moaning]
- Well, look who's at my doorstep,
old Chad King!
- Oh!
- How's it going, cowboy?
I'm Sal.
- Sal.
Strong grip.
- Uh- - Yes, yes, yes.
Sal and Carlo, the writer pals-
I've heard all about you gone cats.
- We're here to orient you into the Nietzschean ways
of the big, bad city.
- And smoke your weed, of course.
- Well, yes, we got plenty of that.
Marylou, why don't you get on the ball
and make us some coffee?
My writer friends are here.
Come on in.
- Hey, hey.
- ♩ Cry to hear ♩
♩ Folks chatter ♩
♩ And I know you cheat ♩
♩ Right or wrong ♩
♩ Don't matter ♩
♩ When you're with me... ♩
- Yes?
You'll never get this one.
♩ Yip roc ♩
♩ Heresy ♩
♩ Kibisinee akay buba ♩
♩ Alaha mish uhmo, vontay ♩
♩ Yip roc ♩
- That's not a song.
- ♩ Heresy ♩
♩ Alowmish way, alowmish vontay ♩
♩ Lowmish voodoomore ♩
♩ Yip roc ♩
♩ Heresy ♩
- Slim Gaillard.
- Yes, yes, yes, Slim, it is.
- Dean, but some of us
need the occasional doughnut to survive.
- Ah, the occasional doughnut.
I just love this gal.
♩ Yip roc ♩
♩ Heresy ♩
♩ Kibisinee akay buba ♩
♩ Alaha mish uhmo, vontay ♩
Wake up.
Chad King.
♩ Alowmish way, alowmish vontay ♩
♩ Lowmish voodoomore ♩
♩ Yip roc ♩
- Thanks.
- ♩ Blowbiby shibop, vontay ♩
♩ Yip roc ♩
♩ Heresy ♩
♩ Kibisinee akay buba ♩
♩ Alaha mish uhmo, vontay ♩
- You know, I never met a girl before
who could roll tea.
- Oh, yeah?
- ♩ Yip roc ♩
♩ Heresy ♩
- He taught me.
- Taught you well.
[laughter]
- [sighs]
- The day before my father died,
he took hold of my hand, and he looked at it.
And he said,
"You got no calluses, Sal.
That's 'cause you don't do any real fucking work, boy."
- Oh, yeah?
[sighs]
Yeah.
[exhales]
My old man's still lost,
just wandering the hobo streets of Denver like...
like shit.
[exhales sharply]
To the old men.
- Yeah.
To the good,
old, dead,
demented men we love.
- And to the West.
[glass clinks]
[ethereal music]
♩ ♩
- It wasn't only because I was a writer
and needed new experiences
that I wanted to know Dean more,
but because somehow he reminded me
of some long lost brother.
In the West he spent a third of his time
in the pool hall
a third in jail
and a third in the public library.
And although he was a con man,
he was only conning because he wanted so much to live
and to get involved with people
who'd otherwise pay no attention to him.
He was conning me, and I knew it.
And he knew I knew.
This has been the basis ofour relationship.
I began to learn from him
as much as he probably learned from me.
[engine turns over]
[tires squeal]
[jazz saxophone music playing]
- Hey, hey!
[crowd shouting and whooping]
♩ ♩
- There's a cat who can really bend his girl, man!
♩ ♩
- Whoo.
- Whoo!
♩ ♩
[lively percussion]
♩ ♩
[cheering]
- Do you even know what we witnessed right there, Sal?
That tenor man has "it."
You see?
He starts with the first chorus,
then lines up his ideas,
rises to his fate, and then suddenly,
somewhere in the middle of the chorus,
he gets "it."
Everybody looks up and knows.
Time stops.
He has to blow across bridges
and come back with such infinite feeling
for the tune of the moment that everybody knows
that it's not the tune that counts but "it."
- "it man," can I buy you that drink?
- Make that three.
I'll buy you one.
- All right. - All right.
Thanks.
What's your name, man?
- [chuckles]
They want to know my name.
- [singing indistinctly]
- Shh.
- Mm.
- Hey, baby.
I got some of my boys from work.
- Hi, boys from work.
- Howdy.
- So...
[chuckles] Where was I?
So this whorehouse...
there's this monkey at the door.
So you, you place your bet in the cage, you know,
and the monkey rolls the cage around,
and the dice roll out.
And if you win, you get the girl for free,
but if you lose to that monkey,
you gonna get your backside birched...
[all laughing]
By the monkey!
Now that's evolution.
"Sodom and Gorilla."
[all laughing]
I'm telling no lie.
[laughing]
- That's cool.
Come in, man.
[speaking French]
- How do you do, ma?
- Hello.
- Well, you look just like her.
- Come on, man.
Where's Marylou?
- Oh, man.
We get into a big ruckus, so she calls the cops on me.
And then she whores a few bucks together
and heads back to Denver.
- Whore, really?
- Yeah.
You know, I'm planning on heading back too.
- When?
- Soon, with Carlo.
- [chuckles]
- Anyways, before I go, I absolutely have to learn
how to write from you.
- Well, I'm honored, man, but-
- Show me how, all right?
I want to learn.
Teach me.
[jazz music playing]
♩ ♩
- Hey.
- I was walking down 125th street,
and suddenly, I stopped.
I looked at everything in amazement.
It was like I'd just woken up from a dream
that had lasted my whole life,
and I realized that God isn't somewhere
out there in heaven.
He's right here...
- Yes. - In the dirt.
He's an ape like us.
- Buh!
[screaming and screeching]
- And I shambled after as usual
as I have done my whole life,
after the people that interested me,
'cause 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
but burn, burn, burn,
like roman candles across the night.
- Bus number 21,
service from Albany and Poughkeepsie
with intermediate stops,
is now arriving at door number three.
[camera clicks]
- Bus number 847 will now board
on the south side of the terminal...
- Let's see.
For you.
And I'll keep this one.
Sal, Sal, Sal.
West-orooni.
- To the West-orooni.
Don't forget to write, Carlo.
- Don't do anything I wouldn't do.
[somber music]
♩ ♩
- "Alas, alas, Sal.
"It's not me- I'm drunk-
"but my soul talking direct soul language,
"so to speak to my deepest blood brother
"and holy goof
"That's you.
"And to be formal and analytical about it
"let me objectify the characteristics
"I miss the most of you.
"Number one, your conversation.
"Number two, your brotherly smile, man.
"But I shall go on,
"so to close and get the gist Denver waits for you.
"Carlo in his damp grotto and clowned misery-
"to use the paradox of expression-
"waits for you, so get on it.
"Be quick and hurry to me, no delay.
"Long dash.
"Bring Paradise to Denver.
"And I love you as ever.
"Dean.
Drunk."
[ethereal music]
♩ ♩
- With the coming of Dean Moriarty
began the part of my life
you could call "My life on the road. "
Before that I'd often dreamed of going West
always vaguely planning but never cutting out.
I was a young writer trying to take off.
[exhales]
[upbeat instrumental music]
♩ ♩
- 43 "W," 83 degrees...
♩ ♩
- Now what species are you?
- Traveler.
Appreciate the lift.
- It might be your last.
I'm freighting dynamite.
You're looking for that toe?
They amputated it this morning.
You can't smoke, but you can drink in this car.
- All right.
Thanks.
- Follow me.
I'm right behind you.
- Did it hurt?
- I don't recommend it.
[insects chirping]
- Oh, shoot, I got to take me a piss.
- A truck with a flat board at the back
with about six or seven boys sprawled out on it.
- Piss call!
[tapping]
- Whoo-whee!
Here we go!
- Yelled the kid in the baseball cap.
- We been riding this son of a bitch
since Des Moines!
- These guys never stop.
Every now and then, you have to yell for piss call.
Otherwise, you have to piss off. the air
and hang on, brother.
Hang on.
[laughter]
- ♩ She's the prettiest little thing ♩
♩ You ever seen ♩
♩ I got a pretty little girl ♩
♩ She's sweet 16 ♩
♩ She's the prettiest little thing ♩
♩ You ever seen ♩
all: ♩ Oh, I got a pretty little girl ♩
♩ She's sweet 16 ♩
♩ She's the prettiest little thing ♩
♩ I ever seen ♩
[ethereal music]
♩ ♩
- Thanks a lot, guys.
[indistinct chatter]
[bell clanging]
[baby crying]
I hope you're not paying rent on this place.
[chuckles]
- Oh, my angel-headed Sal is here at last.
- Oh, good to see you.
- You too.
I got off work a half hour ago,
and at that time,
Dean is screwing Marylou at the hotel.
Then at 1:00 sharp,
he goes from Marylou to Camille, the new girl.
Of course, neither knows what's going on,
but he screws her once,
giving me time to arrive at 1:30.
Then we go out for our unfinished business
until 6:00 in the morning.
- Unfinished business?
- Dean and I are trying to communicate
with absolute honesty and completeness
everything in our minds.
We do it on Benzedrine.
And then at 6:00, he goes back to Marylou
and spends the rest of the day running around,
trying to sort out the necessary papers
for the divorce.
But all Dean wants to do is go back to San Francisco
and marry Camille.
It's sick.
- And I bet she's incredibly ugly.
- Like Helen of Troy with a fucking brain.
- [scoffs]
[laughter]
- What are you doing?
- [whispers] Camille really hates me right now.
- Why, Sal.
[both chuckling]
Yes, you've arrived.
You finally got on that old road, didn't you?
- I did.
Hello. - Look here, Camille.
It's my good buddy, Sal, from New York.
- Sorry for not getting up, Sal,
but I wasn't expecting company at this hour.
- No, I'm sorry.
L-I should leave.
- It's Sal's first time in Denver,
and I think it's absolutely necessary
for me to take him out
and fix him up with a girl.
- Right now?
- I should be back no later than 3:14
for our hour of reverie, darling.
- Works all day, runs around all night.
He never eats. He never sleeps.
- Ain't she something?
- The man thinks he's Superman.
- Yeah, as I said, not 3:00, but 3:14.
Now are we straight
in the most wonderful and deepest depths
of our soul, dear darling?
- [chuckles]
Is he offering me a choice?
- I don't think he's offering you a choice, no.
- [laughs]
Yes!
Let's go to work, babies.
- So now that you're sleeping with half of Denver,
are there any girls left for me?
- Well, now, listen here, Sal.
I know a girl named Rita,
and Rita cannot wait to meet you.
We'll go there at once.
- I thought we were gonna talk.
- Yes, yes, after.
- You want to know my true nature at this moment?
I'm one of those people who goes around,
showing his cock to juvenile delinquents.
Oh, these Denver doldrums.
- Isn't he the finest, smartest fellow in the world?
[indistinct conversation]
[man coughing]
- Whatever you want.
Carlo, wait up!
Voila.
[jazzy music]
♩ ♩
Darling.
- [chuckles]
Bless me father, for I will sin.
Hmm.
♩ ♩
- Yum, yum, yum.
- Mm-hmm, it's nice to have you boys.
[rhythmic percussive music]
- [chuckles]
- What's so funny, my boy?
- [chuckles]
- Check my pulse.
- Round twosie, here we go.
♩ ♩
it happens.
- My hands.
[chuckles]
- Oh-ho, it does.
[laughter]
♩ ♩
[laughter]
[indistinct conversation]
- The lobster was filled with guilt.
[indistinct conversation]
- Is that-
- [laughs]
[moaning and grunting]
- [chuckles]
I thought he said she was my girl.
- Nothing for you or me, Sal.
Everything and everyone
for that faithless bitch!
- [giggles]
Guess who I hear.
Carlo.
- [laughs]
- Come on.
- No. - Come on.
- No, no... - Come on.
- No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!
Sal!
No, no, Sal!
[grunts]
[laughter]
- [grunts]
- Sal, come on!
[all laughing]
- [laughs]
[kissing and moaning]
- Are you being honest with me in the bottom of your soul?
- Now, why do you bring that up again?
- Because it's the one last thing I need to know.
- [chuckles]
Poor Sal always wants to sleep.
- [chuckles]
- ♩ Oh, the waitin'♩
♩ Anticipatin'♩
- Now I'm finishing up my degree here in Denver.
- Dean told me you do, uh, set design?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
That's interesting.
- The one I enjoyed most designing
was Desire Under the EIms.
It's a great play.
- Yeah.
- Eugene O'Neill.
- Yeah, I know it's Eugene O'Neill, Carlo.
Thank you.
- There's like a rusty nail
scratching across my goddamned spinal cord.
- Dean, I've Got the World on a String.
- Yes, you do.
- ♩ Came out all grins ♩
♩ They said "Buck up, my boy ♩
♩ "You should shout withjoy ♩
♩ You're the daddy of a pair ofbouncin' twins"♩
♩ No more waitin'♩
♩ Anticipatin'♩
♩ Rock-a-bye ♩
♩ I'm a daddy now ♩
[jazz music playing]
♩ ♩
- Come on.
Don't tell me you New York intellectuals don't dance.
- ♩ I've got the world on a string ♩
♩ Sitting on a rainbow ♩
♩ Got the string... ♩
- ♩ Around my finger ♩
♩ Oh, what a world ♩
♩ What a life ♩
♩ I'm in love ♩
♩ ♩
- ♩ I've got a song... ♩
- You didn't say you had a nice voice.
- I don't have a nice voice.
- ♩ I can make the rain go ♩
- Yeah, you do.
- Thanks.
- ♩ Anytime I move my finger ♩
- Are you staying in Denver very long?
- ♩ Lucky me ♩
♩ Can't you see? ♩
- I got the feeling I won't be staying very long.
- Yeah.
Not enough hours in the day.
- ♩ Life is a beautiful thing ♩
- Right.
Both: ♩ What a world ♩
♩ What a life ♩
♩ I'm in love ♩
[scat music playing]
♩ ♩
- "Assuming for yourself the sorrow of my body.
"Thus, when you solace me in my desire,
"I held your body and lay beside it sleeping,
feeling the pain of your own inward fire."
- "Weeping myself to hear your silent weeping."
- Has Dean read this?
- I've gotten so crazy over Dean
that all his stupid friends call me "Carlo in Wonderland."
Clever, huh?
- Oh, yeah.
- They don't understand.
This is the first time actual sex
has been part of my relationship with a man.
This is how you love.
And I'm not in fucking Wonderland.
I know it's not a man he wants.
I've even told him we can take sexuality out of it.
Just...
Be with me, man.
Hold me.
Just call me.
And he always promises.
"Yes, Carlo.
"Yes, man.
"Mm, I'll call you.
I'll call you."
Who the fuck am I kidding?
I can't even call what I feel heartache.
It's too banal.
Melancholy is too languorous.
Grief is closest.
I'm 21.
By the time I'm 23,
I'm going to write one great poem.
Then it's all over for me.
Sal.
I'm leaving.
I'm going to Africa.
A la Rimbaud non?
I'm gonna jump ship at Dakar.
I'm gonna smoke opium.
And I'm gonna pick up dark, mysterious men.
- [chuckles]
- And they will love me.
[glasses clink]
- To Africa.
[ethereal music]
♩ ♩
Home in Missoula.
Home in Truckee.
Home in Opelousas.
Ain't no home for me.
Home in old Medora.
Home in Wounded Knee.
Home in Ogallala.
Home I'll never be.
♩ ♩
Uh, excuse me, miss,
but I can't seem to find an empty seat anywhere.
May I?
- If you wish.
- I'm Sal.
- Terry.
[soft instrumental music]
♩ ♩
[bugs buzzing]
[workers grunting]
♩ ♩
- [chuckles]
[indistinct chatter]
No tienes hambre?
[people speaking in Spanish]
[crickets chirping]
[whispers] You want to love me now?
[moaning and breathing heavily]
- Cesar: 120.
Matilde: 110.
Terry: 115.
- Terry.
- Sal: 105.
- Sal.
- Maria: 115.
- You growin' roots?
- Jasmine: 110.
[somber music]
♩ ♩
- The harvest is ending,
and it's getting much colder in the nights.
I can feel the pull of my own life
calling me back.
I still have a book to write.
Terry and I bitterly decided we'd have to leave.
She was supposed to come to New York in a month
with her brother
but we both knew she wouldn't make it.
- [whispering] We screw one more time.
Then you leave.
♩ ♩
- See you in New York, Terry!
♩ ♩
[water rushing]
[wind whistling]
[coughs]
[engine revving]
Wait!
Thanks.
[speaking French]
- [speaking French]
[piano glissando]
- ♩ I used to love you ♩
♩ But it's all over ♩
♩ All over ♩
- Ma, on behalf of Nin and I, I just wanted to say...
[in French] Your cake is fantastic!
- [laughs]
Thank you!
Hey, hey, hey.
- Listen to this:
"General Douglas MacArthur bans kissing
on the streets of Tokyo."
Who does that puritanical old fart think he is?
- Sal!
[horn honking]
- Ho, ho, ho!
Oh, hello, merry, merry!
- Dean, I'll be goddamned!
You're early, man. - Yeah, well...
- Shit.
Who's in the car?
- Oh, it's Marylou and my good pal, Ed Dunkel.
[chuckles]
Anyways, we need a place to clean up immediately, man.
We're dog-tired.
- Sure.
How'd you get here so fast?
- Man, that Hudson goes.
- Yeah?
Where'd you get it?
- Uh, bought it out of my savings.
I've been working as a brake man on the Southern Pacific,
making 400 bucks a month.
And guess what.
I'm a father now.
- What?
You and Marylou?
- No, not Marylou. Camille.
I annulled Marylou and hitched up with Camille,
and now we have a sweet little Amy
and a nice little pad in 'Frisco.
But as God is my witness,
Marylou is the only honey cunt I'll ever love.
- [laughs]
That makes perfect sense.
[knocks]
- Dunkee!
Dig this, Sal, crazy cat gets married
and dumps his wife off in Tucson.
- Come in.
Come in.
- Holy shit.
- We really appreciate this, man.
There's no heater in that California car.
- We haven't eaten in 30 hours.
- Or slept in a bed since Denver?
- Well, we don't have a penny, one.
- No good times on the Dean express, huh?
- [laughs]
- Well, there's lots of food inside for everybody.
- Oh, great, thanks.
- Look at all them books.
- Hi. - Hey.
- How are you, Marylou?
- I'm fine.
But I got to tell you how nice it is
to see a sane face.
- Well, uh, sane is a very relative term
around here, kid.
- Yum, yum, yum, yum.
Ma, to repay your gregarious hospitalities
and all the trimmings on this fine day
of holiday giving,
I will drive you and Sal up to old mad New York
so you won't have to pay for a train.
How about that, ma?
- Okay.
[clattering]
- Sorry.
- [sighs deeply]
You don't know that feeling, man.
I stole a .38, and I sat in the car,
gun to my temple for 14 hours, Sal,
trying to pull the trigger, and I couldn't do it.
And I'm sweating.
I'm nauseous, and Camille finds me this way,
and I beg her to do it,
to kill me.
And she couldn't, man.
[sighs deeply]
I don't know what's wrong with me.
I do all these dumb things,
and I think in all these distorted ways, you know.
I'm burning up.
[sighs deeply]
Scared I'm gonna lose all the wisdom
I ever learned, Sal.
Now I see a girl, and I just...
you know, I just tremble all over,
and I get lost.
Like a couple weeks ago,
I meet this black boy, right, and he's 25,
and he's staying with his sugar mama.
And we're digging some great music,
and we're getting hot.
And then I meet the greatest gone gal, Suzie, right?
Oh, Suzie.
Now I swear she's a virgin.
So I take her back to the black boy's place,
and three hours later, she's getting a little drunk,
and the greatest show in the world starts, you know?
She does this dance first.
She takes off her panties.
She leaves on her dress, and she stands on her head,
and she does the splits, you know?
And she's screaming the whole time,
"I want your cock," right, and "I need your cock."
And she goes over next to the bed.
She spreads the black boy's knees open,
pulls out his big, black beauty,
starts chugging on that, going on that thing,
really going at it.
Spreads the black girl's knees open,
starts going down on her big, black hairy muff,
you know, and gets on the bed
and does a whole nother miraculous splits, you know?
Comes over to me, swallows me up,
grabs the black boy's ears, pulls him down on her.
Black girl grabs me,
and it's a goddamn four-way orgy, Sal.
It goes on for four fucking hours.
[laughing]
- [laughing] God.
- Yeah.
[sighs]
Yeah.
[wind whistling]
- Coming up next
Mike Sullivan covers the weather for your...
[mechanical whirring]
- Getting to some low...
- Stop.
[clanking]
[mechanical whirring]
- [speaking French]
Huh?
- [in French] As President Truman said
"We have to cut down on the cost of living."
[upbeat jazzy music]
♩ ♩
- Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
Man, oh, man,
we must absolutely find some time for kicks
in New York!
Carlo's back from Africa.
We all get to see Carlo
first thing in the morning, darlings!
♩ ♩
- Lady, you shouldn't let your son
drive that fast in these conditions, hmm?
You're in my state.
You slow down.
- [clears throat]
I'll pay you back every cent, ma.
- Oh, you're fucked now, Dean.
- [laughs]
- But all I'm saying in the sincerities of my soul
is that I miss you, darling,
and I'll be right back in those arms.
- Look I got your postcard from Denver.
Do you think I'm an idiot?
I know Denver means Marylou.
- Marylou who?
- [sighs]
- Come on, sweet cakes.
You know there are certainties our minds can grasp.
- Oh, shut up.
I never want you back.
Don't you dare come back here ever.
[line clicks]
[jazzy bass music]
♩ ♩
- This is the new and complete Dean,
grown to his own definition of maturity.
I say to myself, "My God he's changed. "
Fury spits out of his eyes
when he tells of things he hates.
Great glows of joy replace this when suddenly he gets happy.
Every muscle lives to twitch and go.
- Sal!
♩ ♩
- Yeah?
- Phone for you.
- Thanks.
Hello?
- Sal Paradise?
Bull calling you from New Orleans.
- Bull Lee, how the hell are you?
- Well we have ourselves a situation
that needs immediate rectifying.
I've got a girl down here just showed up on my doorstep.
This Galatea Dunkel's
looking for some clown named Ed Dunkel.
And I don't know who the hell these people are.
- Galatea and Ed are friends of Dean's from Denver.
- Ah, shit, Dean?
[sighs heavily]
Well, she wants to talk to you.
Make it fast, would you?
The telephone cartels don't do this for free.
- Hello, it's Galatea.
Is Ed there?
- Uh, Ed's fine, but he's sleeping.
- Well would you please tell him
to come and get me?
Mr. Lee and his wife don't seem all that happy
to have me around.
And I should kill Ed for what he did to me,
dumping me here like this.
And he's simply got to come and get me as soon as he can.
[whispering] 'Cause God help me,
these people are mad.
They're mad.
- Well, we'll be there right after New Year's.
- [sighs]
Thank you.
- Mm-hmm.
[upbeat jazzy music]
- ♩ Dynamite ♩
[scat singing]
♩ ♩
♩ Hot ginger Hot ginger ♩
♩ Dynamite ♩
♩ Dynamo, dynamite, oh, dynamite ♩
[scat singing]
♩ ♩
- I'm telling you, she's cross-eyed.
She's not looking at you. It's me!
[both laughing]
- I was 20 days at sea in the doldrums,
when I decided to kill myself.
And then I realized that, shit,
I haven't written a fucking suicide note.
I'm going over, you know-
searching my mind for the right words,
and then I saw all of the crew
coming out onto the deck.
And I couldn't jump anymore. - Right.
- But in that moment,
I resolved to follow my heart and to live...
- Yeah.
- To experience the wisdom of life...
- Yes.
- Mad with ecstasy and vengeance and truth.
I'm glad I did,
because otherwise, I would have missed out
on this amazing pot.
- [laughs]
- So on that- on that note,
everybody move their feet like you feel something,
like you're alive!
- Like we're alive.
- And on that, I want us to raise our glasses
to being alive...
- Yeah.
- To living and to life!
All: To life!
[cheering and glass clinking]
[frenetic jazzy music]
All: ♩ Salt peanuts, salt peanuts ♩
♩ ♩
♩ Salt peanuts, salt peanuts ♩
♩ ♩
♩ Salt peanuts, salt peanuts ♩
♩ ♩
♩ Salt peanuts, salt peanuts ♩
♩ ♩
[cheers and applause]
♩ Salt peanuts, salt peanuts ♩
♩ ♩
♩ Salt peanuts, salt peanuts ♩
♩ ♩
♩ Salt peanuts, salt peanuts ♩
♩ ♩
♩ Salt peanuts, salt peanuts ♩
♩ ♩
[crowd whistles and claps]
♩ ♩
[crowd roaring]
♩ ♩
[crowd shouts]
- [panting]
- Whoo-hoo!
[cheering]
♩ ♩
all: Seven, six, five, four,
three, two, one!
Happy New Year!
[all cheering]
- 1949!
- Sal, Happy New Year!
- Love you as ever, Sal.
- Forever, man.
- Love you. - Love you.
- Cheers!
[all cheering]
Whoo!
Hell of a night.
[shouting and cheering]
- Thanks.
- Sal, I have something to ask of you, very important.
- Mm-hmm?
- And I wonder how you'll take it.
We're buddies, aren't we?
- [chuckles]
Yeah?
[door creaks]
- Sal said yes, my darling.
- Sal, that's great.
Well, hop in. The water's fine.
What?
- [laughs]
Fuck, I can't do this.
- Come on, man, you promised.
- Do you really want to do this, Marylou?
- [scoffs]
- She thinks it's swell.
- [laughs]
What?
- Now, come on, now.
We just have to all goddamn relax.
- [sighs]
Dean, can you go wait in the kitchen?
Like, now, please?
- Honey, he just wants to see what it would be like.
I told him that I wouldn't do that
with any guy but you.
Well, you can still change your mind.
[thudding and groaning]
- Very nice.
[Marylou groaning]
[moaning]
[groans]
- Write that down.
- I got it.
[dramatic percussive music]
♩ ♩
We were leaving confusion and nonsense behind
performing our one noble function of the time:
move.
New Orleans and old Bull Lee, then West.
It'd take all night to talk about old Bull Lee.
Let's just say now he was a teacher
and he had every right to teach
because he spent all his time learning.
♩ ♩
- ♩ Such things dear ♩
♩ That I long for are few ♩
♩ Just give me a sailboat ♩
- Now listen, darling.
- ♩ And you ♩
- You know that I'm capable of everything at the same time,
and I have unlimited energy.
So now, when we get back to San Francisco,
we must absolutely go on living together.
I know just the place for you to live.
I'll be home every night
and be at Camille's by the morning.
We've done it before.
See, she'll never know.
♩ ♩
- Communism subjects the individual
to arrest without lawful cause.
It decrees what information he shall receive,
what art he shall produce.
[siren wailing]
On the conviction that man has the moral-
- Ed, slow down.
- Underpants.
[siren wailing]
[knocking]
- Do you guys think you can rush through here
as fast as you want 'cause you're from California?
- Don't worry, officer.
We're heading back to California.
- I need everybody to step out of that car, please.
How old are you, young lady?
- I'm 18.
- Who's that guy you're with?
- My husband.
I've got the certificate right in the back
if you want to see it.
- Who are you all in such a hurry
to see out there in California?
- My wife.
- Your wife?
This one here just said she's your wife.
- She's my ex-wife.
- What the hell you doin' with your ex-wife
if you going out to see your wife?
- That's not important- - Hey, boy!
You gonna waltz in here and tell me what's important?
That's gonna be $25 for speeding.
- Or what?
- Or I can run you in right now
and slap a special California boy charge on your ass.
- Yeah, what charge?
- Don't you worry about it, wise guy.
[laughs]
- That guy's got it so goddamn easy.
They'll out and shoot you if you complain too.
God, I wish I had a fuckin' gun.
Dunkel, you are not driving anymore.
And, Marylou, spread those knees and let's smoke some weed.
[jazzy music]
♩ ♩
- That was my father's.
It works.
♩ ♩
Thanks a lot.
♩ ♩
- Hello. I don't know.
When it comes to buying a gift or it comes to buy a present
I never have to wonder.
I never have to ponder.
If it's a wedding present
if it's an engagement present if it's a shower
if it's a husband who wants to buy a wife something,
I know exactly what to say.
I go to...
- Like President Truman says...
both: We have to cut down on the cost of living.
- Yes, yes, we do.
[folksy music]
- ♩ I was over in Aberdeen ♩
♩ On my way to New Orleans ♩
♩ I was over in Aberdeen ♩
♩ On my way to New Orleans ♩
♩ Them Aberdeen women... ♩
- I'm telling you, it's true, Sal.
I started at nine with a girl named Millie Mayfair.
That's when my old man was barbering a bit, still.
Oh honey, Marylou, if only I'd known you then,
how sweet you must have been at nine.
Hey, here's another one for you, Sal.
One time, I jumped a freight
from New Mexico clear to L.A.
And I was 11.
I lost my father along the side,
and we were staying in a hobo jungle,
and I hadn't seen him for months.
So by the time I get to L.A., I'm so starved for milk
that I get a job right in the dairy
and straight off, drink two quarts of heavy cream
and just puke.
[both laughing]
- Poor, tragic Dean.
[clicking and zipping]
[twangy music]
- ♩ I got a letter this morning ♩
♩ How do you reckon it read? ♩
♩ Said, "Hurry, hurry ♩
♩ The gal you love is dead" ♩
♩ I got a letter this morning ♩
♩ I say, how you reckon it read? ♩
♩ ♩
♩ Oh, it said, "Hurry, hurry ♩
♩ 'Cause the gal you love is dead" ♩
♩ ♩
♩ You know, I packed up my suitcase ♩
♩ Took off down the road ♩
♩ Oh, when I got there ♩
♩ She was laying on the cooling board ♩
♩ I grabbed up my suitcase ♩
♩ And I said, I took off down the road ♩
♩ ♩
[birds trilling and insects buzzing]
[knocks on door]
- Bull?
Jane?
Hello?
[gentle music playing]
♩ ♩
[whispers] Bull?
♩ ♩
Bull?
♩ ♩
Bull?
♩ ♩
- That sounds like the angel, Sal Paradise.
- How are you?
- Fair.
- Hi, Jane.
We finally brought Ed Dunkel with us.
Is Galatea home?
- Excuse me.
Lizards.
- Ed?
- Hi, Galatea.
- Get out of my sight!
You're an animal!
- Well, I guess I'll go help the missus sweep the tree.
- Ass!
You're Sal, right?
- Depends.
- Do you know what these bastards did to me?
Dean leaves his wife and baby penniless
because he wants to visit you.
And Ed, being a sheep, wants to tag along.
Only they have no money.
So Ed asks me for the money,
and I say, "I'm not giving you any unless we're married."
And Dean says, "Hey, Ed, stupid-ass, marry the broad."
- No, I do love you too- - Shut up!
So he marries me for gas fare.
And we get in the car, and Dean drives like Satan,
smoking marijuana the whole way,
and they won't even let me stop to use the ladies' room.
And when I say something about it,
they dump me in Tucson!
In Tucson!
- Come on, Galatea, I mean, Dean'll be dead someday,
and then what can you say to him?
- The sooner he's dead, the better.
- [clears throat]
Where are you going?
- Can't I watch you guys screw?
- Honey, I'm sorry, okay?
A couple of weeks, I just thought-
- You just thought what, you would just leave me here
and then-
[eerie music]
♩ ♩
- Hmm.
- "Old woman, old woman, old woman, quoth I.
"Oh whither, oh whither, oh whither, so high.
"To brush the cobwebs off the sky.
Shall I go with thee?"
- I would go with her.
- We could go together.
- What the hell has he ever done for anyone?
- Well, he drove my mother halfway across the country.
- Did he?
- Yeah.
- Ah.
Dean does not feel responsibility towards others.
He does not know the concept.
Then again, he feels others
have some mysterious obligation to support him.
- No, I'm okay, Bull.
- I find it unspeakably distasteful.
- But Dean gives everyone a damn good time
just being himself.
- He gives illusions, tricks.
[gunshot and bottle shatters]
- Maybe that's 'cause you're not seeing
what's really holy about Dean.
- [laughs] So he's a holy man now,
a religious figure in your eyes?
Oh, Paradise.
- Aren't you a pretty little bird?
- What I see in him is compulsive psychosis,
dashed with a jigger
of psychopathic irresponsibility and violence.
[gunshot and bottle shatters]
Well, young man,
I do believe the cocktail hour is upon us.
[stirring orchestral music]
♩ ♩
You know that a bat, when they suck the blood
out of things like squirrels and-
- Dad, draw a face.
You know, they got teeth, long teeth.
That's what they stick in the squirrels,
and then they suck the blood out of them.
- What's their names?
- Lorraine is a good name for a bat.
- That's Lorraine.
- Yeah, get some wings on it like that.
Ain't that right, you little beast?
- Here the toes.
♩ ♩
- In English, you got him saying,
"Fingers rummaging person in his pockets."
Celine did not write that.
He wrote, "Hands in assholes and pockets."
[grunts]
- Well, um, if you can push it away from here-
the crumbs.
- So how has it been with Ed?
- [sighs]
I don't know how to do it,
how to make him happy.
- Oh, it's simple, really, honey.
All you have to do is...
- [laughs]
- Okay, here's you.
Here's him.
Right here, palm of your hand.
I mean, with mouth, but he'll be in the palm of your hand.
The boys love that.
- You'll love it too.
I promise.
[all laughing]
- Now, something can and should be done
to eliminate the black seed of noxious effluviants
gestating in our unsuspecting gut.
I give you the orgone accumulator!
Captures the vibratory atmospheric atoms
of the life principle.
Folks get cancer 'cause they run out of orgone.
Come on!
You got to try it with me.
Put some juice in your bones.
I'm telling you.
I always rush up and take off 90 miles
to the nearest whorehouse.
[chortles]
All right, oh, hey, look at that.
See how big he got?
See that?
Not an inch of cancer.
Let's crank her up.
[echoing voice] Don't let the cocksuckers get you down!
- Looks like a fucking closet.
[ethereal music]
♩ ♩
- The purity of the road
the white line in the middle of the highway unrolled
and hugged our left front tire as if glued to our groove.
- Dunkel, Dunkel, who's gonna shepherd you now?
- Here are a couple bucks for you.
- Oh, you don't have to do that, Bull.
- It's all right. It's only money.
- Thanks.
- Don't forget to write.
- I won't.
Bye, Dodie.
- Dean, you keep her out of the ditch.
[car engine turns over]
[engine revving]
- And zoom went the car
and we were off.again for California.
[upbeat percussive music]
♩ ♩
- Hey, listen to this one, Sal.
"Not caring for their lives, is it?
"Why, what in the world is there that we should care for
"if it's not our lives,
the only gift the Lord never offers us a second time?"
♩ ♩
What do you think about that one, Sal?
- Welcome.
I'll be right with you.
- Thanks.
[jazzy music]
♩ ♩
[zipping]
- [whispering] Can't you wait till we're in 'Frisco?
- I don't care.
Dean's gonna leave me anyway.
- When are you gonna go back to Denver?
- I don't know.
I don't know what I'm gonna do.
I could go back to my fiancé.
- Fiancé?
- He's a sailor.
He's been away a while.
He's nice.
- That's good.
- I wish Dean wasn't so crazy now.
- You could be wishing that the rest of your life.
- [sighs]
I just want a house, a baby,
you know, something normal.
I really do want that.
[ethereal music]
♩ ♩
- I just had a great idea.
You guys are gonna love it.
[all moaning and panting]
[tires squealing]
Oh, Marylou.
- [giggles]
- [moans]
[jazzy music]
♩ ♩
[crickets chirping]
- How much money you got, kid?
- Well, nothing.
But I got an aunt, an aunt in Tulare, California.
She owns a grocery store.
As soon as we get there, I'll have money for y'all.
- Yes, yes, we all got aunts.
Well, let's go, jump in back.
Let's see the aunts and the uncles
and the grocery stores all the way across the road
to get our kicks.
- What's up, man? - Sal.
- Hey, Marylou.
- Hi, Alfred.
- Hot damn.
I left Bakersfield in a travel bureau car,
left my guitar in the trunk of another.
It never showed up.
Guitars and cowboy duds.
- How much you got?
- How much you want?
- Hold on to your girdles!
[engine revving]
- [squealing]
[horns honking]
[truck horn blaring]
Yes, yes, yes!
[thunder rumbling]
[rain pattering]
- ♩ Have my finger on the trigger ♩
♩ So long ♩
♩ Seems like I'd shoot again by now ♩
♩ So hard ♩
♩ When you can't stand the sound ♩
♩ I gathered your remains ♩
♩ Cleaned up the stains ♩
♩ I took care ♩
♩ For we once were friends ♩
♩ But it's hard ♩
♩ When you're burnin' in a-hell ♩
♩ And it's hard enough to be in love ♩
♩ And it's hard ♩
♩ Ain't it hard ♩
♩ To love what you kill? ♩
[bell dinging]
- [whispers] All right.
- Go, hurry.
Really, you better make it to Camille's
in time for dinner so she can feed your lazy ass.
[engine turns over]
[tires screeching]
Do you see what a bastard he is?
- By the end of the week, darling.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
[footsteps tapping]
- I'll have someone come downstairs to reception...
[both breathing heavily]
[grunting and gasping]
- [moaning]
Don't, don't, don't stop.
Don't stop. Don't stop.
[gasping]
[train rumbling]
- Get out of the street! I'm driving!
- "Darling Sal I'm going back to to Denver
"to my fiancé, the sailor.
"No more road for me.
"Thanks for an amazing night my sweet lover.
"Why don't you kick Dean in the ass
"if you ever see him again?
I love you. "
[jazzy percussive music]
♩ ♩
[horns blaring]
[indistinct conversation]
- [panting]
- Yoshi.
Burnabel.
Rodriguez.
Luigi.
[ominous percussive music]
♩ ♩
[knocks on door]
- Sal?
Shit, no.
Oh.
[laughs]
- How the hell are you, man?
- Oh, better than you, my boy.
Have you eaten these last few months?
- [chuckles] Not as much as you, fat ass.
Family man, huh?
- Yeah.
- [chuckles]
How's Camille?
- She's good.
She's just resting.
- Where's the Hudson?
- Eh.
Man, it's so beat,
I had to leave it on Market Street
for the vultures.
- Oh, shit.
And Marylou?
- That dumb little box married one of her sailors.
- [laughs]
- And he's threatened to kill me
if he finds me,
so I'm gonna have to defend myself and kill him
and go to San Quentin for life.
That'll be the end of me.
- Oh, come on.
[chuckles]
- How's your ma?
- Still waiting for that 15 bucks you owe her.
- [chuckles]
Yeah, one day.
[sighs]
And guess what.
I'm gonna be a father again.
- Really? - Yeah.
The sweet little Amy,
she can stand alone for 30 seconds.
She's 22 pounds and 29 inches long,
and I found out that she's 31 1/4% English,
27 1/2% German,
27% lrish, 8 3/4% Dutch,
7% Scotch, and 100% wonderful.
Yes.
[baby crying]
[guys laughing]
- [speaking indistinctly]
[baby coughing and wailing]
- Shh, shh, shh.
[baby crying]
- Ah, heebie-jeebies.
We got to find ourselves some kicks.
[door rattles]
[sighs]
Sal's here.
- I heard.
- He wants to take me out to hear some music.
You wish to come?
- Who's gonna stay here and take care of Amy?
- All right, then, I'll just go.
[sniffs and clears throat]
- Dean.
Don't make yourself feel better by asking me along.
- I'll be back in a little bit.
Sal.
By Marylou's cunt, it can't be!
- What?
- That's $1.10 a ticket and a dime each for the jackets.
- Can I hear a "vouchii"?
All: Vouchii!
- Can I hear a "sharooni mo, mo, mo, mo, mo"?
All: Sharooni mo, mo, mo, mo, mo!
- You left out one "mo."
Let me hear that last "mo"-mo!
All: "Mo!"
[jazzy music playing]
- No way.
- ♩ Yip roc ♩
♩ Heresy ♩
[singing nonsense language]
All: ♩ Yip roc ♩
♩ Heresy ♩
- Oh, vootimoo.
[singing nonsense language]
All: ♩ Yip roc ♩
♩ Heresy ♩
- [singing nonsense language]
♩ Yip roc!
♩ Heresy ♩
[singing nonsense language]
♩ ♩
- Play it, Slim! - Look at that!
Slim knows time, Sal!
He knows time!
♩ ♩
[cheering]
♩ ♩
- [singing nonsense language]
♩ Yip roc ♩
♩ Heresy ♩
[singing nonsense language]
♩ Yip roc ♩
♩ Heresy ♩
[lips blowing]
[cheers and applause]
Ah, thank you.
But most important...
My "sharooni mo" loves ya!
[applause]
But goodness.
Oh, my goodness.
You are the bee's knees.
Want to take you home and wake up with fleas.
[laughter]
Please, say hello to my future ex-wife.
[laughter and applause]
[upbeat jazzy music]
♩ Yip roc, ajayre, ajay ♩
[laughter]
- Hey, Camille.
Congratulations on the baby.
If you- - Sal, excuse me.
Dean, I need to talk to you.
- [sighs]
- I want you to get out.
Just go, just get out. - Now, honey-
- No, you said you were gonna take care of us
and you were done fooling around.
I know that look on your face, Dean.
You're bored.
You're sick of me,
and you're sick of work and the baby-
- Hey, I want to-
- I just want you to take your friend
and get out of my house.
[baby crying]
Do you realize how much I've given up for you?
[crying]
I never want you back!
I never want to see you again!
[baby crying]
- I'll see you very soon, I promise.
- Don't you dare lie to her too.
You're a liar.
Liar.
Liar!
[crying]
[door creaks and clicks]
- I realized as we racked our brains
for where to go and what to do,
that it was up to me.
[glass clinks]
I counted my money showed it to Dean,
and said "Come to New York with me. "
"Let's go to Denver first " he said.
"This time, we must absolutely find my father Sal. "
[indistinct conversation]
- Your signature here.
- We're taking the semi-pristine Chrysler
to Kansas.
Along with yourselves,
there's a nice young married couple.
We share the gas expenses equally among the five of us.
Are we all copacetic on that score, gentlemen?
- Yeah.
- ♩ Yes, I'm mean and evil ♩
♩ But you know... ♩
- ♩ Stand out in buttons and bows ♩
♩ ♩
♩ I'll love you in buckskin ♩
♩ Or skirts that I've homespun ♩
♩ But I'll love you longer stronger ♩
♩ Where your friends don't tote a gun ♩
♩ My bones denounce the buckboard bounce ♩
♩ And the cactus hurts my toes ♩
♩ Let's vamoose ♩
♩ Where gals keep using those silks and satins ♩
♩ And linen that shows ♩
♩ And I'm all yours in buttons and bows ♩
[knock on door]
- Hola.
- I'm very glad you have accepted my invitation
to a few drinks after that perilous journey.
- Oh, no prob, amigo.
- Thank you.
[glass clinks]
- Oh, whiskey.
- [sighs]
I like young men like you.
You probably don't believe it,
but, um, truth is,
I really don't like girls.
- Just gonna go to the bathroom.
Excuse me.
- Mm-hmm.
Tell you the straight deal.
I sometimes had to survive the streets of Denver
by working far into the night.
- Yes, I can appreciate-
- "Never leave a customer unsatisfied."
I had that tattooed on my ass.
- Perhaps there'll be some money involved.
- Oh, yeah?
[glass clinks]
[heavy breathing]
[grunts]
- Ugh, Jesus.
- You see?
Give 'em what they secretly want,
and they just panic.
- And here you go, club, extra mayo.
- Thank you.
- Enjoy.
- Look, I did it for us, man.
I got 20 bucks off the old fag.
[somber music]
♩ ♩
My old man, a little guy, Moriarty,
known in these parts as "the Barber."
- Moriarty?
No, never heard of him.
- Sorry, son, I ain't seen your old man
in I don't know how many years.
♩ ♩
- Yeah, not around here, not for a while.
- Yeah.
- Here's what's gonna happen.
Right when you think you're never gonna see him again,
someone's gonna come and tap you on the shoulder,
looking for a dime or a pint,
and you're gonna turn around and be face-to-face with him.
- Yeah, that would be real nice, brother.
♩ ♩
[jazzy percussion]
♩ ♩
- How long have we known each other?
- Five years?
- Five pretty good years.
- Who are we now?
- Who are we, yeah?
- Who are we now?
- Ah, a simple question.
- Are you gonna tell us, Carlo?
- I know I'm 23.
- Mm-hmm.
- I know that I rely on my friends and my family
for money.
- [chuckles]
Join that club, please.
I know I will.
- I know there's no gold at the end of the rainbow.
There's just shit and piss,
but to know that, that makes me free.
♩ ♩
- The fight to expose Communists
and the dukes and the kooks of the Kremlin
who have been and still are...
♩ ♩
- With custom, with moral code,
and with law
the town or city in which you live
has laws which control you.
There are state laws,
and the federal government in your name...
♩ ♩
- Mexico, huh?
Damn, Sal, that's big.
- Well, you know, I've been thinking.
I never been south.
- Shit, Sal.
We haven't talked straight in a long time.
- Yeah, I know.
- Yeah?
Well, you see, man?
The older you get,
those troubles just keep piling up.
Look at this.
- [chuckles]
- That's Joanie.
Look at that smile too.
Ain't she gonna break some hearts?
- Yeah.
She's beautiful.
- Did I tell you Marylou's pregnant?
- Well, if it speaks French Canadian,
it's a complete coincidence.
[both laughing]
[horn honks]
I'll leave you to it.
- Thanks for the visit.
- I'll write you.
- Yeah, I know you will.
- Take care, buddy.
- Go get 'em.
Hey, Sal.
Now you know I habla Ia Español don't you?
[upbeat acoustic guitar music]
♩ ♩
- The road ran straight as an arrow
like driving across the world and into the places
where we'd finally learn ourselves
among the essential strain
of basic, primitive, wailing humanity
that stretches in a belt
around the equatorial belly of the world.
♩ ♩
- [speaking Spanish]
- Gracias.
- Sir, sir?
Do you like it? 60 pesos.
[speaking Spanish]
- No, gracias.
- [speaking Spanish] - Hey, kid.
You got any "mari-ju-ana"?
- Marijuana?
- Si. - Si si si si.
Si.
[speaking Spanish]
Those are my brothers, my sister,
and my grandmother too.
- Oh, shit.
[chickens clucking]
- [speaking Spanish]
[speaking Spanish]
- Huh.
Your ma could learn a few lessons
from this kid's grandma.
A man of word.
Victor,
this is the biggest bomber of tea
I have ever smoked.
[lighter clicks]
What's his name?
- Thomas.
- Thomas? - Thomas.
[laughter]
- Thomas?
[laughter]
"El Paraiso. "
- [speaking Spanish]
[speaking Spanish]
- [speaking Spanish]
- [in Spanish] Welcome to Paradise!
- Hola. - Hola.
Welcome to Paradise.
Do you like girls?
[speaking Spanish]
[wild mambo music]
♩ ♩
- ♩ Ah, yah, ah ♩
♩ Yah, ah ♩
♩ Yeah ♩
- Dean was so stoned
he didn't know what to start with,
girls or mambo.
♩ ♩
The drums were mad.
The mambo beat is the conga beat from Congo.
[woman moaning and gasping]
More mambojambo.
Chattanooga de mambo.
Mambo numero ocho.
♩ ♩
[jazzy music]
♩ ♩
- Mucho, mucho love.
[all chattering indistinctly]
Victor, you're one cool cat, and we owe you.
Are you ready for more?
'Cause Mexico City is that holy place for more.
- [laughs]
- You're the best. - Gracias, thank you.
♩ ♩
[horn honks]
- Look at this traffic, Sal.
Everybody just goes!
[horns honking]
Dig those faces, Sal.
I want to be one of them!
[indistinct chatter]
- Now we got to eat this.
[indistinct conversation]
- Gracias.
- What's up, man?
- [speaking Spanish]
- Up here in the city, see, how much?
We got so much, we're rich.
[growling and gasping]
[growls]
[children laughing]
- [speaking Spanish]
- [clucking]
- It looks just like us.
See, they're brothers.
[both laughing]
[indistinct chatter]
- What is it?
- [speaking indistinctly]
[heavy breathing]
- All the friends, all the amigos...
[heavy breathing continues]
[somber music]
♩ ♩
[groaning]
- [in French] "Traveling is very useful. "
- Prends soin de ta mère.
- [in French] "The rest is just disappointment and tiredness. "
- To the good, old, dead,
demented men we love.
- To the west... to the west.
- To the west.
"You got no calluses, Sal."
[coughing]
- [in French] "This voyage of ours is an imaginary one. "
[baby crying]
- C'est oublié.
I'll never be able to kill myself.
- And I am at your immediate disposal...
immediate disposal...
- Because you've crushed all the poetry
you had in you.
Take a close look at yourself
and the degree of rottenness you've come to.
- You can't deny the blood guilt.
You're white.
White.
White!
[faint breathing]
- Poor Sal got sick.
Poor Sal got sick.
Dysentery, man.
Now, listen, if you can hear in your sickness, my boy.
I got my divorce with Camille down here,
and I got to get back if the car can hold up.
- All that again?
- All that again, good buddy.
I got to get back to my life.
Wish I didn't have to go.
[sighs]
Yes, yes, yes.
I got to go now, old fever Sal.
Good-bye.
[knock on door]
[door rattles]
- Mm, pour toi.
- Merci.
- "I would rather go mad
"go on down the track to Mexico,
"heroin dripping in my veins,
"eyes and ears full of marijuana,
"eating the god Peyote
"on the floor of a mud hut on the border...
"rather jar my body down the road
"crying by a diner in the western sun;
"Rather crawl on my naked belly over tin cans in Cincinnati;
"rather drag a rotten rail road tie
"to a Golgotha in the Rockies;
"rather crowned with thorns in Galveston,
"nailed hand and foot in Los Angeles,
"raised up to die in Denver
"pierced in the side in Chicago,
"perished and tombed in New Orleans,
and resurrected somewhere on Garret Mountain. "
[jazzy music]
♩ ♩
- Hey.
- Sal?
Is that you, man?
- Hang on a minute.
What are you doing in New York, man?
- [breathes raggedly]
Dear Sal.
I came on the rail road pass, old, hard bench coaches,
crossing rail roads,
long, long awful trip, five days and nights,
just to see you, Sal.
- Are you all right?
How's Camille?
How are the babies?
- [sighs]
- "Dear Dean.
"It's the end of the first half of the century.
"Welcome with love and kisses
to spend the other half with us."
"We all wait for you.
Camille, Amy, and little Joanie."
That's great.
- Yeah.
We still haven't talked of Mexico and us leaving
and the fever of last year, but we don't-
- Hey, Sal, we got to go, man!
- We don't have to talk about that right now.
- No.
- Hey, uh, hey, Sal.
For Christ's sake,
Duke Ellington ain't gonna wait.
- Yeah, just give me a minute, Remi.
They're all waiting.
- Do you think, uh, you can give me a ride
to East 14th?
I want to spend as much time
with my boy as possible, you know?
- [sighs]
Man, I-I wish I didn't have tickets
to this concert.
- Yeah.
[sighs]
- Bye, Dean.
- Hey, Sal.
Love you as ever.
[jazzy music]
[indistinct conversation]
- ♩ Oh, I... ♩
- Dean, I'll be goddamned.
You're early. - Yeah, well...
I was in reform school all the time.
I was like a young punk asserting myself
- Flowers...
In the bed bed in the room, room in the house,
house in the yard yard in...
- She takes off.her panties. She leaves on her dress.
And she stands on her head and she does the splits.
"I need your cock. "
- The only people that interest me are the mad ones,
mad to live, mad to talk...
- [speaking indistinctly]
- Then go flying off. to the West Coast
and come crashing down to Earth.
- "And the sound of the wild tin man's blowing the horn
across the way from me."
Yeah.
- Bless me father for I will sin.
- Man, I just love women.
- I just want a house. - Ah, shit Dean.
- Baby.
- Sal I've come to ask you to teach me how to write
before I take off.
- ♩ And it's hard ♩
♩ Ain't it hard ♩
♩ To love what... ♩
- That Hudson goes.
Hey Sal.
I love you as ever.
[somber music]
♩ ♩
[typewriter clacking]
- So in America,
when the sun goes down
and I sit in the old broken-down river pier
watching the long, long skies of New Jersey
and sense all that raw land
that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge
over the West Coast
and all of that road going
and all the people dreaming and the immensity of it
and in Iowa, I know by now
the evening star must be drooping
and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie,
which is just before the coming of complete night
that blesses the Earth, darkens all rivers,
cups the peaks, and folds the final shore in,
and nobody nobody knows what's gonna happen to anybody
besides the forlorn rags of growing old
I think of Dean Moriarty.
I even think of Old Dean Moriarty
the father we never found.
I think of Dean Moriarty.
- Can you hear me now?
But anyway
tonight also, I wrote a song called "On the Road. "
I'm just reading what I wrote all night.
There are better things coming than what I wrote all night
coming straight from the mind to the voice,
with no hand intervening.
♩ Left New York 1949 ♩
♩ To go across the country without a dad-blame dime ♩
♩ Montana in the cold cold fall ♩
♩ Found my father in a gambling hall ♩
♩ Father father where have you been? ♩
♩ I've been out in the world since I was only 10 ♩
♩ "Dear son," he said "Don't worry about me"♩
♩ "I'm about to die of pleurisy"♩
♩ ♩
♩ Cross the Mississippi ♩
♩ Cross the Tennessee ♩
♩ Cross the Niobrara ♩
♩ Home I'll never be ♩
♩ Home in old Medora ♩
♩ Home in Truckee ♩
♩ Apalachicola ♩
♩ Home I'll never be ♩
♩ Better or for worse ♩
♩ Thick and thin ♩
♩ Like being married to the little woman ♩
♩ God loved me just like I loved him ♩
♩ I want you to do the same just for him ♩
♩ The worms eat away ♩
♩ But don't worry watch the wind ♩
♩ The worms eat away ♩
♩ But don't worry watch the wind ♩
♩ So I left Montana on an old freight train ♩
♩ The night my father died in the cold cold rain ♩
♩ Rode to Opelousas ♩
♩ Rode to Wounded Knee ♩
♩ Rode to Ogallala ♩
♩ Home I'll never be ♩
♩ ♩
[deep breath in and out]