Tom over at Two-Heel Drive has a chance to see Into The Wild last weekend and posted his initial thoughts on the film. In short, his gut reaction is that it’s a well made movie, but that it kind of misses the mark somewhat on Chris McCandless’ character, and his motivations for his adventures. He thinks that Sean Penn made a film about someone that he would have enjoyed hanging out with and would have genuinely liked as a person, but in doing so gave us a portrayal of McCandless as a guy who set off “into the wild” to punish his overbearing parents.
Not content with his initial reactions to the film however, Tom wrote a follow up blog post to help clarify his thoughts a bit further. He says that he’s having a tough time reconciling his impressions of the film with the mostly very positive responses it’s getting from everyone else. As an avid hiker and outdoorsman, he sees what Chris did as irresponsible and dangerous, while others seem to be buying into the Myth of Chris McCandless that he was a dreamer looking to lead a simpler and more adventurous life.
The film is of course based on the Jon Krakauer book of the same name. I’m looking forward to seeing this for myself, hopefully this weekend when it goes into wider release. I’m curious to see how the story is handled, but as a bit of a harsh realist when it comes to these kinds of tales, I have a feeling how it’s going to play out already. I think I’ll be posting similar thoughts as Tom once I get the opportunity to actually see it.
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I’m sensing a lot of resistance to the myth in the online forums I’ve been checking out.
One of my reactions that I didn’t mention before is the movie feels like Hollywood’s idea of what it means to be an adventurer — which inevitably clashes w/the reality.
Also, it’s hard to watch somebody behave so recklessly and live so close to the edge when so many of us go to great pains to live by the rules and survive to have other adventures.
We all know how Hollywood likes to romanticize things, even someone’s death, at times. That’s the vibe I’m picking up from the early reviews that I’ve been reading.
It’s also interesting how the “arm chair adventurer” perceives these things compared to those who are actually out there doing it.
Thanks for your comments Tom, both here and in your blog. Always very much appreciated.