Saturday, June 21, 2008
Into the Wild
I just saw 'Into the Wild' a few days back. Its based on a true story told by Jon Krakauer in his book 'Into the Wild'.
After graduating as an honours student, Christopher McCandless (portrayed brilliantly by Emile Hirsch in the movie), gives his trust fund to charity, abandons all his possessions and embarks upon a self-discovering journey under the pseudonym of 'Alexander Supertramp'. Eventually to reach his final destination, the Alaskan wilderness. In search of freedom from the oppression of society. And its materialistic obsessions. He sheds all the extraneous needs this civilization inflicts. And thus seeks to find himself by returning to that elemental human existence in the vicinity of nature.
But dies in the attempt, of starvation apparently.
Native Alaskans shake their heads and think of him as, as Jon Krakauer puts it, "half-cocked greenhorn who went into the bush expecting to find answers to all his problems and instead found nothing but mosquitoes and a lonely death". And some think that Chriss McCandless is needlesslessly being romanticised by his protagonists Sean Penn (who wrote the script and directed the movie) and Jon Krakauer.
Despite that this is a moving tale.
In his own words:
Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.
Alexander Supertramp
May 1992
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Here is the original article Jon Krakauer wrote about the guy. It is worth reading.
And this is another article I found: The Cult of Chris McCandless.
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3 comments:
I read this book not long after it came out, he passed not far from where I live (in the movie he's by Salton Sea), I'm glad the movie version was done well. Outdoors types usually slam the guy for getting in too far over his head, which is probably true, but he wanted a different life.
hey girl first welcome back
i kept visiting your deserted blog :$
nice post, i watched the trailer of the movie long time back, as in a month back and had forgotten. you just reminded me that i have to add this to my to-be-watched-movie-list :D
Marc -
Thanks for coming over at my blog.
I haven't read the book, hope I find it over here somewhere. I do admire him for having the courage for pursuing that different life. Not many people dare do it.
Mubi -
Thanks mubi for the welcome and for continuing to visit my blog despite me not posting. I dunno, sometimes I don't have it enough in me to want to post anything.
You have to watch this movie, I loved it. Originally when it came out, I wasn't too sure if I would find it over here. But stumbled upon it by chance at a DVD store, so glad I found it.
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