Heart Beat

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Heart Beat

R

Released Apr 25, 1980

1h 50m

Biography

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

20%

Tomatometer

5 Reviews

40%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Beatnik drifter Neal Cassady (Nick Nolte) shares his wife, Carolyn (Sissy Spacek), with "On the Road" writer Jack Kerouac (John Heard).

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Bruce McCabe

Boston Globe

Heart Beat, which is supposedly about Jack Kerouac and his friends in the Beat Generation, is Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice without Alice and without humor.

Apr 28, 2018

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

The characters are wonderfully well played by Nick Nolte Sissy Spacek and John Heard -- they have scenes together in which the round-robin of everyday dialogue is almost poetic -- but nobody has given their characters anything to do except to be.

Rated: 2.5/4

Oct 23, 2004

Full Review

Jesús Fernández Santos

El Pais (Spain)

John Byrum has achieved an honest film, narrated with the sobriety of the testimony, just as its characters deserved. [Full Review in Spanish]

Aug 15, 2019

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Kathy Huffhines

Sojourner

The part gives Spacek little to do and her "acting" is a series of poses in 50's dresses and hairdos.

Aug 15, 2019

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

The analysis of the beats comes across as superficial.

Rated: C+

Aug 20, 2014

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Audience Member

Takes liberties with accuracy and stretches out events beyond their actual chronology to create a love triangle between Kerouac and the Cassadys that was much more short lived in reality. Has a kind of melodrama sheen to it with dialogue that seems unlucky to have come from the mouth's of either Kerouac or Cassady.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

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John Byrum

Director

Nick Nolte

Neal Cassady

Sissy Spacek

Carolyn Cassady

John Heard

Jack Kerouac

Ray Sharkey

Ira

Ann Dusenberry

Stevie

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Synopsis

Beatnik drifter Neal Cassady (Nick Nolte) shares his wife, Carolyn (Sissy Spacek), with "On the Road" writer Jack Kerouac (John Heard).

Director: John Byrum
Producer: David Axlerod, Alan Greisman, Michael Shamberg, Edward R. Pressman
Screenwriter: John Byrum
Distributor: Orion Pictures
Production Co: Orion Pictures
Rating: R
Genre: Biography
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 25, 1980, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 22, 2009
Runtime: 1h 50m

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