Drama

Beat (2000): Cast & Plot

Name: Beat
Genre: Drama
Released: 2000-01-29
Duration: 1 h 33 min
Cast: Ron Livingston, Norman Reedus, Daniel Martínez, Kiefer Sutherland, Courtney Love

Beat is a 2000 drama directed by Gary Walkow, starring Ron Livingston as Allen Ginsberg, Norman Reedus and Daniel Martínez. It runs 1 hour 33 minutes.

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Watch the trailer Read the plot summary

Released: January 29, 2000
Runtime: 1h 33m (93 min)
Director: Gary Walkow
Genre: Drama
Original language: English
Studio: Martien Holdings A.V.V.
After the credits: No No extra scene

The story

What Is Beat About?

The premise of Beat without spoilers. The whole story is in the plot summary further down.

Set against a backdrop of sex, drugs and early rock‑and‑roll, the film dramatizes the true story of two murders that profoundly affected a group of college friends. Their lives would later intersect with the rise of the Beat Generation, producing some of its most influential writers.

Beat Themes & Keywords

· 39 tags

downward spiral
beatnik
1950s
1940s
new york city
bisexual man
bisexual husband
husband cheats on his wife with a gay man
homosexual man
cheating husband
wife aware of husband's cheating
dysfunctional marriage

+27 more

gay parent
gay father
stabbed to death
shot glass
shooting
sex
road trip
prison
poet
poetry
paranoia
murder
mexico city
jealousy
infidelity
husband wife relationship
heroin
handgun
friendship
drug use
benzedrine
alcoholism
adultery
beat generation
gay interest
based on true story
independent film

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Cast & crew

Beat Cast & Characters

Ron Livingston leads the cast as Allen Ginsberg, with Norman Reedus as Lucien Carr and Daniel Martínez as Jack Kerouac. Directed by Gary Walkow; 11 actors are credited in all.

Director Gary Walkow

Ron Livingston as Allen Ginsberg
Norman Reedus as Lucien Carr
Daniel Martínez as Jack Kerouac
Kiefer Sutherland as William S. Burroughs

Also Starring in Beat

· 7 more

Courtney Love Joan Vollmer Burroughs
Kyle Secor Dave Kammerer
Sam Trammell Lee
Luisa Huertas Maria (uncredited)
Lisa Sheridan Sadie
Alec Von Bargen Heard
Tommy Perna Dwight

From the director

More from Gary Walkow

More films directed by Gary Walkow: Radio Mary, Crashing, Notes from Underground and The Trouble with Dick.

Full filmography

Plot

Beat Plot Summary

What happens in Beat from start to finish, spoilers included, with a timeline of 13 key events. The opening is below; the full summary is a 3-minute read.

Spoilers ahead

In 1944 New York City, beat writers and students Allen Ginsberg Ron Livingston, Jack Kerouac Daniel Martínez, Lucien Carr Norman Reedus, William S. Burroughs Kiefer Sutherland, and David Kammerer Kyle Secor all become acquainted with Joan Vollmer Courtney Love, a student at Barnard College. Joan and William begin a romance that draws these young writers deeper into a web of friendships, rivalries, and unspoken desires. David Kammerer [Kyle Secor] becomes entangled in a volatile confrontation with Lucien Carr, culminating in a fatal act of violence after a dispute over unwanted advances in a park. Lucien Carr’s confession to the murder—noting that David had an obsession with him—lands him with two years in prison, setting a somber tone for the group’s volatile dynamics.