Heart Beat

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• 1980
• 1 hr 50 mins
• Drama

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• Watchlist

Is a dramatization of the interrelationships between Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and Carolyn Robinson (who would become Carolyn Cassady), seminal figures in the beat generation of the 1950s and '60s. Already friends, somewhat straight-laced struggling writer Jack and freedom loving Neal, that freedom including in love, would meet debutante Carolyn, an art student, after arriving in San Francisco from New York, San Francisco where both Jack and Neal had hoped to fulfill their respective goals, namely a conducive place to write and a free life, respectively. Both men fell in love with Carolyn and she with them in return, but she ended up choosing Neal, despite he already having a girlfriend, teenage Stevie, an Iowan runaway, and she having a longtime potential fiancé, Dick, an old friend of Neal's. It wasn't until Carolyn became pregnant with his child that Neal placed any effort on conforming to traditional family life including marriage. That effort to conform fell flat for Neal despite loving Carolyn in his own way. So when Jack reentered their life still being in love with Carolyn, the three decided that being a throuple would meet their respective practical and emotional needs. Their relationship as a threesome would fundamentally change with the publication and success of Jack's novel, On the Road, and Neal's subsequent notoriety as being the inspiration for the novel's lead character, Dean Moriarty.