Read the Book First

Rating: 6/10 (23 June 2009)

After reading Jon Krakauers's excellent book of the same title I initially intended to avoid this movie altogether. I was afraid it would get a cheesy Hollywood treatment and also I have strong distaste for Sean Penn's public shenanigans. What a tool! That said, when it came on Showtime in HD I had to check it out and was very pleasantly surprised. It's very respectfully and well done. I think if you have not read the book the movie would be a little confusing and certainly you are missing out on a lot of the back story.
But if you have read the book the movie adds some nice visual and narrative touches to this intriguing story which we can learn a lot from. Like many adventurers McCandless was searching for some sort of truth in the wilderness he thought could not be experienced in normal civilization. I thank Mr. Krakauer for documenting the young man's search and attempting to put it into context. He succeeded.
The movie also succeeds, but at a different level. It's more emotional which is a strength of the film medium and also more shallow which is a limitation of movies since they have less space to work with.
Overall, a fine treatment of the story, but this is one case where you should also read the book. It's easy to read and definitely worth your time.