m-cause

Just walked out of a great weekend movie.  Into the Wild is a thoughtful journey into the real life story of Christopher McCandless, an American wanderer who decided to hike into the Alaskan wilderness in a self-discovery experiment.  The movie is obviously very late to European theaters, over 6 months (around as much time as Chris McCandless spent in the Alaskan wilderness before his tragic end).   Early in life, McCandless became tired of the rat-race and excess societal materialism.  After finishing his undergrad studies at Emory, McCandless (a man on a cause mission) had 24,000 left in his college fund account.  However, instead of continuing down the traditional career patch, something snapped & McCandless found himself sending the 24K to Oxfam and then leaving on his adventurer experiment. 

There is a discussion on whether or not McCandless is romanticised in the movie as some believe he underestimated nature (he was not well equipped for the journey in Alaska–he did not even bring a map).   Regardless of this debate, I found the movie raised some great questions on relationships & society.  In addition, it was cinematically beautiful and as it follows McCandless through the Great American West…reminding me of a year I spent in Arizona and working summers during Oklahoman wheat harvest.  Oh yes, nothing like a movie full of Eddie Vedder which totally fit with the 90s setting of the film.  I will pick-up this soundtrack very soon. 

So, if you don’t want to go to Alaska, you could try your own experiment like Judith Levine did (take a look at the link).   

Other sidenotes:  We saw the movie in a “popcorn” free alternative Swiss theater (I cannot watch a movie without eating, so I consumed ice cream instead).  In addition, when you watch a movie in the Version Original (English) you have loads of subtitles in Switzerland (German + French at a minimum)