Into the Wild

[celtic friend]

Ok so here goes, I am no good at giving movie reviews, but Into the Wild sucked as a movie. The book was good, like i had said it jumps around alot, there are periods of McCandless' journey that no one knows for sure about, so it was obviously guessed.
The reason I feel that the movie stunk and the book was good is because there was a lot of commentary in the book about WHY he did what he did, giving up everything and traveling. There were comparisons to other men who had done similar things with similar ideals, you just can't capture the real depth of his story, and the WHY for his story in a movie.
Ok, hope this helped.:)

[CPL CHUD]

I guess I'll just read the book. Thanks!

[celtic friend]

Book was much better, you can even search McCandless on the internet and find out alot about him. YW.

[dop]

You had me at "sucked"...

Really, From what ive seen I had zero interest on watching this film. Now after reading that im on like negative points of interest.

[swivel]

I have zero respect and very little empathy for this kid. He was an ignorant hypocrite, and nothing more. He made bold plans, and did nothing to back them up. He wanted to get away from civilization, and made his home in a school-bus. He wanted to embrace the majesty of the all-loving Mother Earth, then he died, weighing less than 80 pounds, learning the awful truth that nature lives on the verge of starvation, red in tooth and claw.

For navigation he carried a road map. He knew nothing about nature, and nothing about camping/hiking/survival. He was an idealistic moron, not a hero, not even worthy of admiration. He wasted his life for a cause of anti-capitalism, and then died the death of an anti-capitalist... wasting away via ignorance and laziness. He was a perpetual moocher, bum, and beggar. He got by on his charm and charisma. In his wake was left his own little cult that kept putting folded bills in the collection plate, and went on thinking that his sermons made sense.

[celtic friend]

So I take it Swivel, you don't care him? ;)

I think a lot of college kids have unrealistic ideals, don't you? Most don't do what he did, but there is a small group of upper-middle class young men that try to escape the materialistic aspects of life and go "into the wild" so to speak.
He didn't do it well or even right, he just kept going which is how a lot of men/boys his age are, they don't think things through and they think they can handle any issue that should arise. He died not from eating the potato seeds, but from eating the mold they suspect that was on the seeds due to them being stored in a baggy. He paid the ultimate price for his mistakes, so I can't really hate on him.
As for him being a beggar, he might have succeed in charming people into helping him, but I am not sure that was his goal. I know he did odd jobs to get money when he needed it.
I don't necessarily look up to him, obviously he did not plan his retreat well, I do see how he was not satisfied with materialism and all that it brings. I think that we put so much stock into what we have, hell I even do it, that we get so caught up in buying happiness, that it leaves us unfulfilled at a point. We want more, we just aren't sure exactly what we want, and I think he was searching for that.

[Nell]

I wanted to like this movie, really I did. But Swivel is 100% right, and I don't say that lightly! He was an idiot rich boy who knew nothing of what he proposed to do and fucked it up royally. I lived in my car for 3 months last year. That made me HOMELESS not a nature seeker eschewing this capitalist society for mankinds greater good. HOMELESS! He lived in a bus and last I checked those don't grow in nature. He was just an all around fool.

My boyfriend was raised in a very wealthy, catholic. republican family. When he turned 18 and decided to go see "the other side of the tracks" he did it by working weird odd jobs and couch surfing for 6 years while sporadically going to college. He saw some wild shit he wouldn't have if he'd gone straight into law school like his dad wanted. So he understood this boys perspective somewhat. But even he got tired of his idiocy about halfway into the film. Burning your money? What a tard.

[celtic friend]

He didn't live in that bus, it was already there, he retreated to it when he could not cross the river.
I think he was idealistic, not satisfied with what was supposed to make him happy/fulfilled.

[swivel]

He died not from eating the potato seeds, but from eating the mold they suspect that was on the seeds due to them being stored in a baggy.

That is Jon's crackpot theory. Tox-screens have conclusively proven that the kid died of starvation, and nothing more. I don't understand why Jon is so desperate to have the kid poisoned, but he wasn't. Go look at the first editions vs. later printings, Jon completely altered his theory in light of the first tests. Further tests also proved his second theory wrong.

The kid starved to death.

The defense of him being an idiotic kid, which you provide as: "All kids are idiotic", does nothing for me. I wasn't like that, and none of my friends were like that. Since we were able to not be like that, it means that it isn't pre-ordained and necessary for all kids to be like that. Therefore, even without fully understanding the chain of causality which creates moronic left-wing nutcases, I am still free to refrain from respecting them.

I also reserve this right for right-wing nutcases.

[celtic friend]

Of course you can feel as you want, I never said you couldn't.
I still feel IMO alot of young college kids are finding their way and get lost in ideals, left leaning, most are. They want to save everyone, and change this or that, later on they realize the bigger picture and how small they are in it.
I also did not say ALL I said a lot get idealistic at a point in their lives. I also said a small percentage go this far.

I wanted to also point out that while he may have burn the last of his money, he donated the 25 G's to OXFAM.
I read that he ate mold or he ate the wrong seed which caused him to starve to death.

[Nell]

I never said he didn't give his money to charity. I said to continue to live you need some money, and he burnt his. Then he had to lean on other people to help him, or work in a Burger King. Again, he needed MONEY to live. To burn it all is ridiculous.

[Pete Bondurant]

Yeah...this guy was a complete idiot. I'd rather see movie about the crack in my bathroom ceiling or the dead spider on my kitchen counter. What a stupid bastard.