Sin #18: Far Behind

It must be very hard to walk away from your life. First you’re a college graduate with a bright future ahead of you and then you’re simply an outcast struggling to survive. Cristopher McCandless renounced to everything and sought refuge in the wilderness of Alaska. He travelled through the country meeting wise and kind strangers, working just for the experience so every day he could get a little bit closer to Alaska. The question is: why?

Well, we’re not quite sure and “Into the Wild” isn’t really an attempt to simplify its protagonist and his journey. Some might admire his determination and stamina and others might despise his selfishness. In a way Christopher represents nihilism and youth alienation.

He certainly resented his parents who were always at each other’s throat and the way they planned for him to live his life. His only ray of sunshine was his sister who truly loved him but one has the feeling that Christopher could never express those emotions and that maybe his journey was a way to understand them and ultimately find redemption.

What “Into the Wild” teaches us is that the whole romantic notion of the wilderness is a lie and whoever tries to defy it must pay the dire consequences (the final scenes of this film are truly tragic but, in a way, inevitable).

Sean Penn’s movie reminded me of Werner Herzog’s amazing documentary “Grizzly Man” that chronicled the last days of Timothy Treadwell, a conservationist who lived among bears until one day he and his girlfriend suffered a terrible fate out in the wild. The documentary has an eerie quality since it shows Treadwell’s own footage but wisely avoids presenting the audio tape of his death. His footage gradually shows him losing his sanity.

In both films it seems that there is a theme of respect; respect for an environment that can be hostile and unforgiving and the animals that inhabit it, not cuddly domesticated creatures but real and dangerous predators. McCandless and Treadwell were real people that underestimated the consequences of their actions; they’re certainly not role models and that, in a way, makes them tragic individuals. Their stories however have made great movies.