Movies: "Into the Wild" Preview
"Into the Wild" is one of those movies I'll probably end up seeing on TV. Based on a true story, it stars Emile Hirsch (that guy from "The Girl Next Door") as Chris McCandless, a young wanderer who grew disenchanted with materialism and starting going on the road (read: hippie):
There was a real Christopher McCandless, and he did leave his pampered suburban life for the harsh realities of the road. He eventually died in Alaska of starvation.
The thing that will keep me from seeing the movie is how monumentally dumb McCandless's final journey to Alaska was. Going into the middle of the Alaskan wilderness with very little knowledge of how to survive is Dumb. Taking along only a .22 rifle, when the grizzlies are starting to wake up, is Dumb. Not bringing a map is dumb. Not bringing a friend, or even telling anyone where you are, is Dumb.
There's a lesson here, I think. Abandoning the material world might be fun philosophically, but when you discard thousands of years of human civilization, your life expectancy reverts back to Stone Age levels, too.
posted by Mulliga @ 8:42 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Although no one directly involved is talking about it, I think that McCandless had issues with his family. I think this had a lot to do with his decision to go wandering.
I've spent some time in the wild myself, and what he did was idiotic in the extreme. I think the reason he is admired when he should have been forgotten as a nutbag who committed suicide is due to his extreme Leftist views about property.
That seems to be why Sean Penn is so enthused about the story. After all, the absurdity of treating a mentally ill person who died an easily avoidable death as some sort of saint would appear to make sense to someone who sucks up to any dictator who is sufficiently anti-American.
James
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