Garycottle, I read your "Review" of the film and find it Interesting - To say the less. But i don't agree with some of your opinions and you distorted the truth a little with some of your assumptions.
I'm am 19, so my opinion is prejudice by my age bracket. Call it immaturity or idealism. But what i'm about to put forth is something of vigour and adolescence. But I consider these important.
I loved this film, but I do believe that it went too far in romanticizing Chris.
A lot of people have said this but i disagree. With the material the movie had to work with, and the book in that matter, they could of really ostracized and exsaderated it to a extreme. But, they did'nt. They used accounts from really people he came across. These people gave the author and screenwriter direct dialogue to work with. Hence, that was incorporated into the film. So under the assumption of what could of been said and what was said his opinions and rantings weren't expressed. As one would assume they could have been.
His family (Real) were worried from the beginning that the book and film would be to romanticised. They wanted the story and the film to not only represent there son as how he was. But how dangerous it is living a life of tramping. They did this. Thorough out the movie he meets really friendly and docile people. But when his on the train they show a side to his life that is also apparent. The danger.....
Hollywood could have really got a hold of the film and really exsaderated It to realism, idealism and political-ism....
But, they did'nt. They said what was said. And nothing more. I feel so much more could have been said....
I came to the conclusion that Chris suffered from one of the schizoid mental disorders.
The meaning, Schizoid
■ adjective Psychiatry denoting a personality type characterized by emotional aloofness (Yes) and solitary habits (Yes). ▶informal resembling schizophrenia in having contradictory (No) elements; mad or crazy (Definitely Not).
Yes he was solitary and aloof, but he did enjoy human contact. Remember when he meet the hippies in Colorado river. He was happy to stay with them if only he could. He liked them. There dreaminess and foolishness....
Contradictory - In his college letters maybe, If he was than wouldn't he preach about being in the wild but then going off to live in a city. He wasn't this...
I think the psychology affect of finding out abut his fathers affair destroyed him. (I know compared to some child hood lives, this would be nothing), But in the perfect would that was fabricated around him. It was everything....
His family were so pertinacious on the outside. But when Chris realised the his whole life was the same. This took all the years he had away from him. Made it fake. SO he had to forge a new life....
Through college he grew more hostile toward them, but the final straw came when they offered to help pay for law school and announced that they planned to buy him a new car. The horrors!
This is a little fabricated. In the book, this wasn't even real. They suggested it. And he become annoyed. Actually the funny thing is. In the book he became really hostile when his mother suggested he was a homosexual. She did'nt even mean it that way. But that's the way he looked at it. I'm sad this facet of Chris's side wasn't portrayed in the film....
The movie, you missed the point a little. Being there with his family and talking about his good grades and stuff. He realised he was living the same life they did. A fabricated one. When his father said "Getting into Harvard is a big deal" Look at Chris's face. It isn't to him. He was in a way testing him. The car was only minor..... It was the way Chris and his family were pretending, and the life he could have lead that's important......
They just don’t like being around other people very much, and it seems to me that Chris simply had little use for social contact.
One has to ask himself, Why did he go back to Jan and Rainey? Remember he meant them in slab city......
He also walked away from his baby sister, too, and he had been very close to her while growing up.
Chris knew she would understand and she did! Also maybe he was afraid if he contacted her he would deluge back into the life he feared and did'nt exist..... To an extreme, Maybe he really had no family.... In his mind....
Not once in his Journal or goodbye note did he mention them....
At one point he befriended an old man, played very well by Hal Holbrook in the film, and when this lonely old guy offered to adopt Chris, Chris told him that people should be free, and not attached. And then Chris left him after suggesting that the old man rid himself of his worldly possessions and go live with a bunch of naked hippies in the desert.
It did'nt happen in that order and it should be noted that it did'nt..... His ramblings were earlier.... The offer for adoption was not in Chris's mind..... He wanted Alaska..... The wild...... The Freedom.....
Chris did not know how to cure and store meat, and since he was unable to successfully find game on a daily basis he slowly began to starve
False, He did know. Well under his assumptions he knew what he was doing. He just bite more than he could chew......
See thew size of that thing.... It just took him to long to cut and cure it. Hence why it got maggots....
But here again Chris’s lack of experience and knowledge came into play, and this time with tragic consequences
Wrong, It wasn't lack of knowledge and experience. He had the book. The thing was that. The plants flowers were edible, but the lethal veins which were also attracted to the same plant were not. Thus, he was under the assumption he could eat them..... But when he becomes sick, further knowledge reveals they are deadly....
Although you stated some good points. My view is different. But, we will never know. The book is based on a lot of assumptions, photos and hearsay! The realism of all this is ascertained. Chris was not very specific and his journals were insignificant. Things he said were also odd. At one point he said "I plan to live this life for a long time, the joy and simple beauty of it is to much to pass up"
One has to ask, Why did it take so long for him to come to this conclusion?
Chris became disenchanted form his animated life his family decided selfishly to make for him. For a while he live the conventional way of life and societies angst for materialism. There drive to have more, more, more.... More money, more knowledge, more love.....
But after a LONG time of doing this he realised as if he had a apthiny. That he was not going to live that way. "Career's are a twenty century invention" He forsaken all that was given to him. He gave all his money to charity. (Ironically, OXfam, a charity that prides itself in stopping starvation, But Chris himself eventually died of it)
Chris was a pilihlah of independence. He emancipated himself from everything that made him materialistic.
His search for a new life and new being within him was fruitless yet opulence. For him to gain this he had to abandon his family. He knew his sister would understand. His parents had to be transformed. Which they were during the film. His sister's angst went from admiration to despair.... Only cause of the realisation that maybe his new life was so good. She couldn't be apart of it. But she still knew it was necessary.....
His coming of all this knowledge is what he went there after. He realised that "Happiness is only real when shared" So he tried to leave... But became trapped. (More Irony) But was forced stay where his was..... Only than did he make the biggest most tragic mistake of his life.....
Chris departed civilisation and society as materialistic being and false.... He departed life disenthralment, Clear or all and reborn.... His was sad nor happy to leave this world in charismatic immoderation....... His moment of despair ruptured him. But he soon left free....... That is character....
His not a hero nor something aspired to become.... Nonetheless, his is envied by all that is true to themselves....
That is what i see Chris McCandless (Aka, Alexandra Supertramp) as.....
