Day 178: Into the Wild

Unwilling to live in a society of hypocrites, Christopher takes off to live in the wild. He wants the simple pleasures of waking up in the open air, with the sunshine above him and the dirt below. Through his journey he meets some great people and comes to an understanding of life.

I know a lot of people have a problem with this because he dies and so they think there’s no point to it but I’m not convinced that it matters that he died, what matters is how he spent his time when he was alive. For the majority of the film, he is quite happy to spend his time alone in the wild but that seems to be only when he has the choice to spend his life that way. When he ends up trapped in the wild and moments from death, he writes that happiness is only real when it’s shared. He had a wonderful time and he saw some beautiful things but in the end, he would’ve liked to have shared that with someone. It’s a shame that he had to die in order to realise that but even so, he didn’t seem to regret how he spent the rest of his time. It just doesn’t seem to matter that he dies at the end because he still enjoyed his life leading up to that point.

The film is based on the story of Christopher Johnson McCandless. When people talk about him, they seem to be split into two camps; hero or fool. I can understand the points for both sides but I’m not sure I see him as either. He decided to make a radical change in his lifestyle and he has some amazing experiences that a lot of people just won’t have, and that’s pretty amazing. He renounced materialism and went back to nature. That’s impressive, definitely. I would love to be able to do that but I don’t think I’d survive a week. And yes, he bought a book about which plants he could eat and ultimately ended up reading it wrong and then died, which could be considered foolish, yes. I just think he was brave for escaping the world so many of us complain about and for doing what he wanted to do, even if he did die as a result.

9/10