Into the Wild

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it here on the blog, but one of my favorite non-fictions books lately was Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer. It is the story of a young man, Chris McCandless, just out of college who gets rid of all of his possessions and decides to go live in Alaska on his own. The story focuses on his journey there, who he meets and how he touched those around him, before following him to Alaska to explain his downfall.

The movie, starring Emile Hirsch, is a pretty great adaptation of the book. We get to meet many of the people Chris met in the book and even a couple new additions that really fit with the story. The movie also doesn't hint at his death like the book did. I imagine if I saw the movie without reading the book it would have had a larger emotional impact on me. As it was, I knew what was going to happen and it was a meh moment for me.

I thought Hirsch did a fantastic job in this movie. He was incredibly believable as a young kid who was overly philosophical and had more ideals that he knows what to do with. The other actors were superb as well. It was great to see all of these fully realized characters. Even if Vince Vaughn did kinda jar me out of the movie for a couple minutes.

The biggest difference between the movie and the book, as far as I can remember the book is that the movie essentially blames what happens to Chris on his parents. The film made it seem like the only reason he ran off to die was because his parents were terrible people and they messed him up good. The book mentioned his parents and their issues, but did not place blame on anyone.

They also seemed to make his actions seem heroic, which is silly. McCandless was basically just a young, naive, idealistic kid who was very selfish and got himself killed. It was tragic, but not heroic. He abandoned everyone who loved him, including his family and all those who he met and touched on his journey. What was really sad was that right before he died, he realized what he did to those he loved and regretted his actions. It is a tragic, but good story. I would recommend the book over the movie (does anyone ever do the opposite?), but they are both worth checking out.

Now, lets see if I can find any more movies or books about loners who go to Alaska to die. I think I see a trend here. Hmmm....