By Glenn Erickson
Heart Beat
Cast & Crew
Read More
John Byrum
Director
Nick Nolte
Sissy Spacek
John Heard
Ray Vitte
Garth Eliassen
Film Details
Also Known As
Heartbeat
Genre
Biography
Drama
Release Date
1980
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 49m
Synopsis
Director
John Byrum
Director
Cast
Nick Nolte
Sissy Spacek
John Heard
Ray Vitte
Garth Eliassen
Luis Contreras
John Hosetter
Stephen Davies
Ann Dusenberry
Kent Williams
Lloyd Sunshine Parker
John Larroquette
Jenny O'hara
Sharon Lee
Steve Allen
Himself
Tony Bill
Ray Sharkey
Terence H Winkless
Candy Brown
Juliana Tutak
Tom Runyon
Mary Margaret Amato
Don Brodie
Margaret Fairchild
Marcia Nasatir
Mickey Kelly
Susan Niven
Crew
Al Alberts
Song Performer
David Axelrod
Associate Producer
Hank Ballard
Song
Hank Ballard
Song Performer
Gary Baxley
Stunts
Joanie Blum
Script Supervisor
Lorrie Brown
Assistant Art Director
John Byrum
Screenplay
David E Campbell
Sound
Dennis Capps
Assistant Director
Carolyn Cassady
Book As Source Material
Dianne Crittenden
Casting
Sammy Fain
Song
Jack Fisk
Production Designer
Mary Ford
Song Performer
James Globus
Photography
Bob Greenfeld
Researcher
Alan Greisman
Producer
Richard Hashimoto
Production Manager
Jimi Hendrix
Song Performer
Jimi Hendrix
Song
Edouard F Henriques
Makeup
Eric Jenkins
Editor
William B. Kaplan
Sound
Gary B Kibbe
Camera Operator
Laszlo Kovacs
Director Of Photography
Jonathan Lapidese
Assistant Editor
Eugene Lockart
Song
Len Lookabaugh
Key Grip
Vivian Mcateer
Hair
Gary Moskowitz
Researcher
Aaron Neville
Song Performer
Jack Nitzsche
Song
Jack Nitzsche
Music
Patricia Norris
Costume Designer
Les Paul
Song Performer
Art Pepper
Music
Robert Pettis
Sound
Edward Pressman
Executive Producer
John T Reitz
Sound
Shorty Rogers
Music Arranger
Thomas Roysden
Set Decorator
Buffy Sainte-marie
Song
Peter Samish
Other
William P Scott
Assistant Director
Ernest Seitz
Song
Gary Seybert
Props
Michael Shamberg
Producer
Bobbi Smith
Location Manager
Douglas Stoll
Location Manager
Randy Tepper
Photography
William Tepper
Executive Producer
The Four Aces
Song Performer
Paul Webster
Song
Film Details
Also Known As
Heartbeat
Genre
Biography
Drama
Release Date
1980
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 49m
Articles
Heart Beat
Hollywood never figured out how to capitalize on the beat craze of the 1950s, as shown in MGM's embarrassing attempt to adapt Jack Kerouac's The Subterraneans (1960). With its theme being the rejection of societal moral values, Kerouac's beat novel On the Road (1957) was by definition unacceptable to the Production Code. No major Kerouac- inspired productions came along until 1980, when Orion distributed writer-director John Byrum's Heart Beat. The film examines the rebel attitude of the beats by concentrating on the three-way romance of Jack Kerouac (John Heard), his best friend Neal Cassady (Nick Nolte) and Neal's wife Carolyn (Sissy Spacek); it is based on her book Heart Beat: My Life with Jack and Neal. Recounting the period when Kerouac was writing On the Road, Byrum takes an almost nostalgic look at a movement that was perhaps a creation of the media: Carolyn Cassady stated that Jack Kerouac couldn't possibly live up to his own reputation. We mostly see the trio burdened by the same bourgeois values as straight people, sorting out jealousies and resentments as well as simply trying to make a living. Like many nonconformists, the trio discovers that dropping out and not playing the game does not change the rules by which they are invariably judged. Byrum's screenplay doesn't enlarge the scope of the story to include many of Kerouac's contemporaries, the hipster cohorts that helped defined Kerouac's appeal. Although Ray Sharkey plays an Alan Ginsberg-like character and Ann Dusenberry is vibrant as a young runaway and drifter, Heartbeat has difficulty making a larger statement about society. Instead of the 'cool jazz' of the author's writings, Byrum offers satirical criticism of '50s conformism, providing a response to the question put to Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953): 'What are you rebelling against?' Critics were eager to discuss Heart Beat in the context of the much debated author, but found the film too constricted. Critic Stephen Farber wrote that the dialogue strains for literary sophistication, and that everything seems far too clean to be an accurate look at the beatnik life. In reality Carolyn Cassady had a vibrant life of her own in the arts. We don't really understand why she puts up with her ingrate husband and lover's frequent betrayals and desertions. Sissy Spacek's career took off in the same year in Michael Apted's Coal Miner's Daughter, while Nick Nolte enjoyed intermittent big hits like 48 Hrs. (1982). John Heard and Ann Dusenberry proceeded to the cult gem Cutter's Way (1981).
By Glenn Erickson
By Glenn Erickson
Heart Beat
Hollywood never figured out how to capitalize on the beat craze of the 1950s, as shown in MGM's embarrassing attempt to adapt Jack Kerouac's The Subterraneans (1960). With its theme being the rejection of societal moral values, Kerouac's beat novel On the Road (1957) was by definition unacceptable to the Production Code. No major Kerouac- inspired productions came along until 1980, when Orion distributed writer-director John Byrum's Heart Beat. The film examines the rebel attitude of the beats by concentrating on the three-way romance of Jack Kerouac (John Heard), his best friend Neal Cassady (Nick Nolte) and Neal's wife Carolyn (Sissy Spacek); it is based on her book Heart Beat: My Life with Jack and Neal. Recounting the period when Kerouac was writing On the Road, Byrum takes an almost nostalgic look at a movement that was perhaps a creation of the media: Carolyn Cassady stated that Jack Kerouac couldn't possibly live up to his own reputation. We mostly see the trio burdened by the same bourgeois values as straight people, sorting out jealousies and resentments as well as simply trying to make a living. Like many nonconformists, the trio discovers that dropping out and not playing the game does not change the rules by which they are invariably judged. Byrum's screenplay doesn't enlarge the scope of the story to include many of Kerouac's contemporaries, the hipster cohorts that helped defined Kerouac's appeal. Although Ray Sharkey plays an Alan Ginsberg-like character and Ann Dusenberry is vibrant as a young runaway and drifter, Heartbeat has difficulty making a larger statement about society. Instead of the 'cool jazz' of the author's writings, Byrum offers satirical criticism of '50s conformism, providing a response to the question put to Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953): 'What are you rebelling against?' Critics were eager to discuss Heart Beat in the context of the much debated author, but found the film too constricted. Critic Stephen Farber wrote that the dialogue strains for literary sophistication, and that everything seems far too clean to be an accurate look at the beatnik life. In reality Carolyn Cassady had a vibrant life of her own in the arts. We don't really understand why she puts up with her ingrate husband and lover's frequent betrayals and desertions. Sissy Spacek's career took off in the same year in Michael Apted's Coal Miner's Daughter, while Nick Nolte enjoyed intermittent big hits like 48 Hrs. (1982). John Heard and Ann Dusenberry proceeded to the cult gem Cutter's Way (1981).
By Glenn Erickson
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States Winter December 1, 1979
Released in United States Winter December 1, 1979
