I have not watched this move until today because I was never a fan of Emile Hirsch. I don't know what's wrong with him, but he just isn't my kinda actor.
And I blame him for delaying me to watch this movie.
This movie was amazing.
Portrays a life detached from strings of modern society, something that everyone thinks of once in a while - and which many deferred not to jump in, including myself.
But I also saw the immaturity of Christopher McCandless (a.k.a. Alexander Supertramp).
He thought he wanted get away from people and live a life of his own, thinking society (and therefore humanity) is an unnecessary part of human lives; that the world can provide enough for a person to survive.
In the efforts to journey to Alaska, he makes several friends and leaves all of them behind.
In all those meetings and partings, McCandless fails to see the goodness of humanity that he is trying to leave behind.
He is too focused and full of himself that whatever he believes and thinks logically cannot fail.
Yes, the world can provide all for him to survive, true. But the world cannot make him live.
And every human being wants to live. Even those at struggle, they struggle to survive so that they can live.
If McCandless had more time to meditate himself before beginning his journey, he might not have gone that extreme.
When Ron Franz offered to adopt him, he should have gave up his plans.
As much as it was his last attachment to the goodness of humanity McCandless had, it was the last and biggest sign that there is an infinite goodness in humanity.
I, myself is not a fan of meeting new people.
I am often and easily scared of them because I learned that they can cause too much pain and trouble.
Actually, more often than not, humanity in general is every negativity McCandless saw: deceit, violence, lies, etc - which are actually just void and detrimental in living a life.
But I have met a few people who define the infinite goodness of humanity. Although they are very small portions of people I know, the goodness portrayed by them are so large and it outweighs all the negativity of humanity. Due to those people, I can still often step up and interact with strangers - although with scrutiny.
One more thing McCandless missed is that although it's a great experience to experience the world,
but the other (another human being) can provide enough (strange) universe for one to explore and can provide all the happiness.
That's what Franz believed and how he lived his life.
Actually the part with Franz gave so much message about life, including love, forgiveness and God.
McCandless never thought he could be wrong until he read it from the words of someone he really respected truly: Tolstoy. Tolstoy taught him that real happiness takes place when it can be shared, which requires a presence of the other, often physically.
Well, it took me a while to realize all that anyway - although that's more than 6 years ago.
It's such a shame that a soul like McCandless could not survive in Alaska and tell the true tale of his journey.
With my realizations as described above, I should add that I value my family a lot - although often I lack expressions.
I love my parents no matter what.
I know there are people who are so good to me, and I am really grateful to them to death - literally.
But I am sorry to say this (but many will be empathetic): There are two groups of goodness in humanity: Family and Family-like.
It's a clear distinction to me. I would not mistreat and won't get mixed on that.
It might be existing after-effect of all the negativity I had to experience from the humanity, but I won't be misunderstanding and mixing up those two.
Lastly, Sean Penn did a great job directing, although there were some scenes that were not so much of my taste.
4.95/5 (I don't know... it's a really, really great film but didn't awe me)
---
PS:
RIP Christopher McCandless
