Angry Young Man Goes to Alaska

Rating: 3/10 (9 May 2009)

Maybe the older I get, the less patience I have with people who do willfully, stupid things. Having said that, I can't fault the acting or direction of this film. The cast is very good, Penn obviously knows how to direct his actors, the vistas are magnificent. The problem for me is, the central character is someone who is smart enough to know better, but goes ahead and does the stupid thing anyway. I try to chalk it up to youth, but the scope of the lead character's stupidity is so great, I find myself unable to do it. OK, I think. Maybe when I was 21, I would have done something like that, given his family life. But the answer always comes back, "Hell, no. I wasn't even that stupid at twelve." Christopher McCandless (played by Emile Hirsch ) has a mommy and daddy (played by Marcia Gay Hardon & William Hurt) who fought a lot while he was growing up. That's unfortunate. He graduates college and decides most people lead empty lives. Hey, what a concept. And because he must have a tremendous amount of rage towards mom and dad, he decides to hell with it all, tears up his credit card and money or gives it away ( OK, that's kind of cool ) , and thinks, screw it! He's going on the road! A free spirit! What is his ultimate goal? Alaska! Why? Who knows? Maybe it's because that's as far away as he can get from mom and dad, who despite the fact they fought like cats and dogs, are totally anguished over the disappearance of their son. Who never, never tells them where he went, or communicates with them once. He never even tells his sister, the person he supposedly loves, what he intends to do. So he's not just stupid, he's unforgiving. Yay. So this over privileged, clueless 21 year old with a liking for Thoreau & Byron (who probably wouldn't have been caught dead in Alaska, at least, not THAT unprepared) sets off on his trek for a very cold place, and on the way, behold, he encounters a bunch of colorful eccentrics, whose lives he touches, briefly and magically, and then he flits away, because he is, after all . .a free spirit. Evidently, someone has neglected to tell Chris the 1960s are over, because he even gives himself a wifty, 1960s name: Super Tramp. Eventually, Chris gets to Alaska, and the guy who drops him off as far into the wilderness as he'll dare to go says to him, "I'll see you in the spring, if you're still alive." Does that faze Chris? No, because someone kind of, SORT of told him how to smoke moose meat. The wonders of nature await! Besides, all he has to do is cross that little creek. Of course, during the spring melt, the thing becomes a raging river, trapping him on the what turns out to be the wrong side of where he should be. Oops. He finds an abandoned bus to live in, and botches smoking his moose meat, because maggots take over VERY quickly. Not to worry! He's got his little "Local Flora and Fauna" book, so he can live off fruits and roots and plants that aren't poisonous. Except he really sucks at using the book and he DOES end up eating a highly toxic plant, and in his starved condition, he doesn't last too much longer after that. He is so sick at the end even a grizzly bear turns his nose up at him. I'm supposed to feel sorry for this guy? He was just as self indulgent and selfish as the world he choose to reject, and being clueless, nature culled him from the herd. End of story.