If anyone gets a chance to see this movie if it's anything like the book it will be very good.
I read the book a few years back and it is a haunting tale about a young man and his desire to experience his right of passage and his freedom. It should be a good movie too.
I read the book last year, and watched the movie last night. After everything said and done, and Chris was dying in the bus, he wrote in his journal "happiness can only be experienced when shared".
Paris
I have not read the book but seen the movie on a flight last winter. Great story and quite a good movie.
It should be in your local movie rental store.
Dale
Never read the book or saw the movie but wasn't this the story about the young man that hikes deep into Alaska and manages to starve to death in an old bus? Not to be too mean but what exactly was the lesson to be had from his death? To be prepared before you embark on an adventure that can kill you? Kind of like the story of the guy that lived amongst the bears in Alaska claiming he had some sort of "spiritual" connection with the bears. Then the bears ate him. Hmmm, the "spirit" moves in mysterious ways.
If the movie is the same as the book the kid ultimetly died because of faulty information he read in a survival book.
I think the story of this kid is a lot like a lot of young men who have that almost inbred desire to figure life out on their own and not go my anyone else's path. But he died doing it. The desire was pure but risky.
I didn't watch the movie yet but I did rent it. I was hoping one of my sons would watch it with me, but they are not around much and too busy forging their path right now.
I watched it, but didn't like the moral. It seems inherently selfish to 'run off" to "find yourself" and die in the process.
Admittedly he had a bad home life but who doesn't?, and over the top of many voices went up there all by himself, so the gist was he couldn't take council and died in the process.
The movie was good, but the moral no good if you consider him the hero, it seems he died in vain.
That's why I said the Eddie Vedder song was the best part of the movie. But this isn't a story to seek revenge on, or a story of I told you so, or to rub in he should have been better prepared. I think we've all sold part of our life to ignorance, or done extreme things that could have killed us. The story is very sobering. I didn't like the movie. It shows how life can catch us unaware, or how we can walk into a terrible trap thinking we are so right. You've heard me use the terms or to state: to cover my tracks, or to prove what I say and write, or to write and speak very carefully, or to leave a way out, or to leave the door ajar. There is risk in the shadowy valley of death. But a sincere heart that has not lied or deceived itself will be protected there. This is the vision into the problems that face you. It is also your sword against those that accuse and charge you falsely.
Maybe I lack sympathy for people who head to the wilderness "to find themselves" because I grew up in the Mountains of Western Montana and know how dangerous the wilderness is. Maybe the moral of the story is to "count the cost" before you set into the unknown and to seek real wisdom, reading adventure books and watching Davey Crokett reruns (or Billy Graham crusades) is no way to gain Truth.
I like the movie a lot because it was about humanity, and it was thought provoking. Another reason I really liked the movie is because it did not burden the viewer with a lot of cheap moralizing. It gave us the information to process for ourselves. The presentation seemed real and authentic.
The guy learned some hard lessons. If that isn't life, then what is it?
FarmerBrent, not every person grows up with the wilderness in his backyard. But these people also have a right to discovery without suffering the indignity and condescension which so called "local people" like to heap upon "tenderfeet". I saw the movie about the bear man also, and they were not on the same page.
This message has been edited by oldmanrip on Jun 19, 2008 8:29 AM This message has been edited by oldmanrip on Jun 19, 2008 8:28 AM
"The guy learned some hard lessons. If that isn't life, then what is it?"
Scott, lessons learned are the ones you survive and don't repeat.
If the young man was willing to be a martyr for what he deemed his calling, then that's a different story, though I would question if it was thought out all the way, and like FarmerBrent said, if all the cost was countered.
Part of which was honest about the movie is that it admitted that Chris did NOT know what he was doing. He was not prepared to survive in the wilderness. He was hungry, losing weight, and getting lonely. He wanted to head back to the super markets but first high tide on the river, and then the wrong berry cut him off at the pass.
Many unprepared prospectors went to the Yukon to prospect and had a tough time of it. Chris was prospecting in his soul. His life and untimely demise should not have become a shrine for neo-hippies, but it is an interesting story anyway.
This message has been edited by oldmanrip on Jun 19, 2008 3:12 PM This message has been edited by oldmanrip on Jun 19, 2008 3:12 PM
Too bad that more people don't have the courage to prospect in their souls like Chris did. Most accept the status quo of societies values and their parents religion (or the first religion which got them out of a tight spot) without question.
I watched it last night,,it was very sad. He was responsible for his own death because he was not prepared.
The survival guide that he used was not faulty like I had thought. He just ate the wrong thing. I read that they think he could have survived the toxicity of the roots of the wild potato plant that caused the toxicity if he had not already been so weak. Also I read that they later found little toxicity in the potato root that was growing near the abandon bus he stayed in,,but rather they think the roots were molded and it added to the toxicity.
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