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Christopher McCandless finishes University as a top student and athlete and then decides to disappear. He gives his entire savings fund to Charity ($24,000 dollars to be exact), gives up the opportunity to go to Harvard Law school. He just drives off in his battered Yellow Daihatsu in search of adventure with the eventual aim of living alone off the wild in Alaska. On the journey he matures and meets individuals that will shape his life. He actually forms quite a few close friendships with old men, travellers and girls nearly his own age!

Sean Penn wrote the screenplay based on a book by John Krakauer and directed the film. It is actually good to watch the self realisation grow in Chris and mature, it is well acted and you do feel emotionally attached to the characters. It is a tragic tale and just over 2 hours long, the length of the film for me was a problem. I was getting sort of bored after one and a half hours but sticking with it was worth it as the last 15 minutes of the film were very worthwhile.

Overall a rating is deserved. Good but not rave worthy.

Spoilers

Wikipedia has a very interesting bit of information based on the person behind the book and the film. Apparently Alaskan's take a very dim view of this type of romanticised living off the land adventure. The saddest part of the story (which was not mentioned in the film) was the fact that had Chris taken a magnetic compass and topographical map he would have been able to survive. When food supplies failed he tried to return home but he found that a river he crossed in April had swollen to impassable proportions. Had he been in possession of the map he would have known that Emergency Supply dumps were within 2 miles of his position and a hand operated cable car was located 1/4 of a mile south of his position.

The quote below from an Alaskan park ranger called Peter Christian sums up a very good point. Now this IS tragic in the extreme.

Peter Christian wrote:I am exposed continually to what I will call the ‘McCandless Phenomenon.’ People, nearly always young men, come to Alaska to challenge themselves against an unforgiving wilderness landscape where convenience of access and possibility of rescue are practically nonexistent […] When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn’t even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail without even a map of the area. If he [had] had a good map he could have walked out of his predicament […] Essentially, Chris McCandless committed suicide.

This image was found on his undeveloped camera after his body was discovered.

Into the Wild
how'd the bus get THERE?

First class flight?