Lessons from 'the Bus'

Rating: 10/10 (20 March 2010)

I had been familiar with this story for awhile, but had never set time aside to read the book or see the movie. This week, however, the library was promoting novels about nature and I took the opportunity to pick up the book. I read it in one sitting. It was that type of book; one that touches you on an emotional level and makes you forget all of your surroundings. Tonight I watched the movie.
I've read some of the criticisms of Chris and I agree with many of them: yes, he did not know nearly enough about the wilderness to go on his endeavor and he would not have met his end had he heeded any of the advice of people more knowledgeable about Alaska. But what intrigued me about his story was not the 'how' of the adventure, but the 'why'.
The motive to escape his synthetic family is more apparent in the movie than in the book, but I think he would have still gone on this odyssey regardless of his damaged home life. He just could not handle the responsibility that went with the attachment to other human beings. You see that in all of the people he meets while on the road. He packs up and leaves whenever it gets too emotionally intimate. The saddest example of this is when Ron asks to 'adopt' him and Chris dodges his request. His reaction inevitably seals his fate.
His story would not have been possible to tell if it weren't for the people that he met on the road putting the pieces of his two year sabbatical together. For all these people to remember him so vividly and embrace him, he must have had some special qualities. It's tragic, however, that he denied all of these people from relating to him. He would only have his outlook on life shaped by authors such as Tolstoy and London. I think the lesson to take from his story is that although we may all want to shun the world we live in, we cannot prevent ourselves from connecting to other people. If we do we all end up trapped on some form of the same bus that was Chris' coffin.
You will notice that I haven't said anything about the aesthetics of the film. For me to focus solely on the emotions that the movie produced and filter out all its technical qualities should give you a clue as to how well this film is made.