The Little Punce

Rating: 7/10 (26 February 2010)

Sean Penn's film about Christopher McCandless who shed his college and suburban life for a fatal nomadic journey is a really disturbing and absorbing film. It is extraordinarily well made and acted by Emile Hirsch. However what struck and disturbed me more than anything was how cruel and self absorbed and selfish our hero behaved. He caused pain beyond belief to his well meaning parents and sister, he burned his money instead of giving it to a poor family who needed it, he squatted in self absorbed diary bliss, he rejected all advances of friendship that did not benefit his mood at the time, ... in fact a good moment to demonstrate how unconscious he was of anyone else's feelings is late in the film when he cajoles an old man to climb up and across a really rocky and difficult mountain blissfully unaware that the hike is physically beyond the old man. He simply has no clue to another person's feelings. So our hero does really silly and dangerous things in his Kerouac style adventure down rapids and on freight trains and hitching lifts and staying as he chooses... and causing heartbreaking grief for his family. I was appalled to find this was a true story and it is to Penn's skill as a film maker that the astonishing selfishness of McCandless' self absorbed pilgrimage is spelled out as clearly as it is. Our hero might have had some teen issues with his family, but the rejection and ignorance of their feelings is utterly vile. Only a rich white teenager could behave in such a rotten way believing in this self righteous bubble that his selfish quest is some misguided noble back-to-basics adventure. In a film of many great scenes the standout was his tortured despairing father collapsing on the road in the suburb where they still lived. The hurt this boy caused! the terrible agony of not knowing where he was, and this brat thought all that was OK because HE was on a selfish quest. Penn's film is a great one and an expose of the sort of ruthless inconsiderate cruelty one generation worries about for the younger.