Into the Wild

Ok - you'd better stop reading fast because there's a 'spoiler' at the end of this line----> He DIES! surprise.

Here's the synopsis of "Into the Wild"- based on the true story of Christopher McCandless: a young middle class suburban guy who reads too much Thoreau decides to go AWAL to piss off his annoying parents. He doesn't call, he doesn't write.

After hitchhiking for a year or two- he ends up in Alaska- and dies of starvation in a decrepit bus. Had he bothered to take a map with him, he could have found his way out from the Wild that had eventually "trapped" him- by walking 5 miles upriver to a bridge. A pointless and unnecessary death becomes a Holywood movie (via a book). A loser becomes a posthumous hero.

Sean Penn's movie treats him as a christlike figure- transforming the lives of people he meets, and ascending into heaven with a big smile at the end. Penn has made a few mistakes in his life- like marrying Madonna- and i guess this was just another one.

A MUCH better film along the same lines was Gus Van Sant's "Gerry"- Matt Damon and Casey Affleck (Brother of Ben) get lost in the desert and die of dehydration. Why better? Well, it doesn't take as long to die of dehydration so the film was a lot shorter than this 3 hour marathon. This film is also based on real life events.

The stupidity of these two is much more obvious- and (spoiler again) there's a bit of action at the end when one strangles the other (can't recall which) to save his friend from a slow agonising death. Turns out there was a major highway just over the next hill!