Into the Wild the movie had a big affect on me over 10 years after Into the Wild
the book had a similar affect on me. The movie is a thought generator and the day after I'm still not sure I have it all down.
I'm also rereading the book so that is adding to the swirl of thoughts and questions. This is Sean Penn's
interpretation of the book and I need to determine what I feel about this. Prior to the book was the
Outside Magazine article.
Swirls are one thing I remember of the movie. The cinematography is swirling, looking over landscape, vertigo inducing and wonderful.
The movie is faithful to the book. Nothing in the movie is wholly made up. Some things are combined but I can't complain.
I think one big message for me comes on Page 57 of the book when Krakauer quotes a letter McCandless wrote to Ron Franz. He wrote: "The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. They joy of life comes from our encounter with new experiences."
On screen Penn makes this: "The core of man’s spirit comes with new experiences."
This experience hunger is echoed by round the world sailor
Paul Cayard "Remember, the richest people on the planet are the ones with the
best experiences!"
In large part this is what explains things to me. It's the message, the
'nut graf' of the movie/book. He was experience hungry without expectations or need for conventional success.
This hunger for new experiences takes Chris to Alaska.
What was heaviest in his pack? Books of which he took 9 or 10. One was Tolstoy's '
Family Happiness' From this McCandless underlined a part that quoted Tolstoy on happiness. It rad in part, "then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor -- such is my idea of happiness." During his Alaska trip McCandless had much of this.
While in Alaska McCandless made a note in a book reading, "Happiness only real when shared." Was his solitary experience teaching him this lesson?
One thing McCandless did not bring was a map an item that is on pretty much any list of essential equipment. Strange, no? Maybe not if you've read
Arthur Ransome's Secret Water a book where children are marooned sans map. Exploring the unknown has always run deep.
Did McCandless go too boldly and without enough food and gear? Yes, 10 pounds of rice was not enough. Of course he'd done his Mexican trip eating mainly rice so one his treasured experiences had given him some basis for this decision.
Being young, bold, and overconfident is not a new phenomenon. Many have take similar sketchy trips and survived. Young people- especially men continue to drive too fast and crash their cars. Many times such endeavours end up as school of hard knocks, we'll laugh about this one day memories.
McCandless' death is attributed by Krakauer to eating wild potato seeds which were not known to be poisonous. Event after this Chris might have been OK if he was strong enough and had enough of a nutritional base to flush the poison.
Eddie Vedder's songs that accompany the movie are spot on appropriately. In one he sings "goona rise up, find my direction magnetically..." I think that's what McCandless did, he found his direction, and sent it seeking all he could. His Alaskan end perhaps was a tragedy but only because he had the courage to seek it because he did withdraw in
disgust and did not accept apathy
