Christopher McCandless - Into The Wild
by Liv | Published on January 22nd, 2010, 12:29 pm | Arts
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A movie recommendation for this weekend is Sean Penn's Into the Wild, if you haven't seen it. It's on Blu-ray, and while I wouldn't normally mention such an old movie, I've had a tough time getting this one out of my head.
"I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong... but to feel strong."
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Long story short a young man in his early 20's named Christopher McCandless donates his college education fund to the hungry and homeless and sets out on foot across America finally ending up in Alaska. He ends up adopting a new name "Alexander Supertramp" and lives out of an abandoned bus isolated in the middle of no where.
For anyone who has done a bit of soul searching in their own lives, this movie should speak to them.
"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."
— Chris McCandless
In the movie Christopher McCandless becomes trapped in the wild because the river had risen to a point he was unable to cross it. After watching the movie I did a bit of Googling I discovered that apparently there was some sort of hand-tram device for transversing the river, and that if he had known this it would have saved his life. So he died by his own hubris, in some ironic twist of fate. Furthermore much of the comments online I've read suggested he was a complete idiot, and to stop idolizing this guy because he was dumb enough to throw "society" away, including maps, compasses, and the necessary information that would have allowed him to survive. Of course the other end of the argument is that Christopher McCandless lived more of a life than most of us do living five times longer. That's what the movie suggested.
If you have seen Into The Wild, you might find the real thing interesting...
Also a good read, here.
