It's a good piece of movie making - well written with great cinematography. A fine film.
But the story behind it is suspect, as CM alludes. Even if you overlook Krakauer's generosity on McCandless’ cause of death, he was a shitty outdoorsman. And when viewed in the light of how much time he spent preparing to go to Alaska - he is a complete and total failure.
Quote:
When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did
wasn’t even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic and inconsiderate. First off, he spent
very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail
without even a map of the area. If he had a good map he could have walked out of his predicament using one of several routes that could have been successful. Consider where
he died. An abandoned bus. How did it get there? On a trail. If the bus could get into
the place where it died, why couldn’t McCandless get out of the place where he died?
The fact that he had to live in an old bus in the first place tells you a lot. Why didn’t he
have an adequate shelter from the beginning? What would he have done if he hadn’t
found the bus? A bag of rice and a sleeping bag do not constitute adequate gear and
provisions for a long stay in the wilderness.
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http://nmge.gmu.edu/textandcommunity...n_Response.pdf