McCandless was a self-serving fool, and the narrative suffers because of this

Rating: 6/10 (12 June 2011)

This film was recommended to me by a couple of friends, I was looking forward to it, it had an interesting premise on face value, but by not even half-way through, the film had lost its appeal for me purely because of the ostensibly 'inspirational' material it was based on.
I have backpacked around Europe and South East Asia, I wholeheartedly understand the appeal of travelling for extended periods of time and living out of a rucksack. I also, like many others I'm sure, can empathise with McCandless's contempt for expectations, uncertainty and pressure of young adulthood. But, quite frankly, McCandless was a selfish fool who lost all sense of rationality whilst making a grand statement about civilised society. He left his only sister with their emotionally distant, shallow and contentious parents to pursue his ill-fated adventure totally unprepared. So unfortunately, I couldn't see past the lead character's naivety and self importance.
But despite this, I did find myself compelled to watch McCandless' interaction with the film's supporting cast; the hippies, old man Ron Hanz and dare I say it even Kristen Stewart's role were infinitely more interesting than McCandless' 'inspiring' mission. To think some viewers find his story 'inspirational' shows entertainingly poor judgement, they can't have seen the whole film! Again, I stress that this film isn't bad film making, it features good performances from the whole cast and some good emotive interplay between them, but it is all set within the context of the lead character's idiotic escapade, a fundamental aspect which I cannot bypass.
It's a shame that McCandless has been immortalised for being so reckless.
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