Its about a guy who gives up civilization and retires into the wild at the age of 23.
Does it make any sense to simply give up civilization? To just leave the life you are living and go...?
Well the movie definitely makes sense to me. And i recommend this movie to all, and if u like it, please tell me. This might sound odd but thats' the way it is. Cause i think that maybe everyone might not like this movie.
Here's the story.
The movie starts with Christopher McCandeless starting his journey into the Alaskan wilderness at the start of winter. Definitely not the best of the time to move in. He finds a bus abandoned in the middle of nowhere and decides to make it his home, he spends the rest of his short life in that "magic" bus. The movie then flashbacks to his graduation day. His proud parents offer him a new car in place of his perfectly good Datson, he is anyways pissed off the material things in life. He donates his life savings to charity, burns the change, cuts all his identity cards, destroys his social security card and drives to the Arizona desert. Here he abandons his car, burns whatever money he had and walks away, from his old life, from the people he knew, from civilization and perhaps from hypocrisy, deceit, lies, society.
He assumes the new name of Alexander Supertramp. Along the way he meets up new people, 2 "Rubber Tramps", works for a farmer as an combine, elevator operator, spends a few days with an old man living alone. His way leads north, to Alaska and he rows kayaks, walks the plains and freeloads on freight trains and takes rides. No money. He is a voracious reader, and reads Tolstoy etc., Dr Zhivago is one of his favourites.
He always hated the sick, hypocritic codes of the society. He lived his life on the lines of his own codes, he measured other people by them, most failed. But the one person he trusts and respects is his Sister, who narrates the movie. He discovers that his mom is not the legally wedded wife of his father. This makes him and his sister bastard children.
But he is not running away from lies and deceit. He is leaving them behind.
He writes and quotes: "Mans' spirit is made by the experiences he has", "It should not be denied that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape", "The simple beauty is just too good to pass up", "A man can only truly become one with himself when he is all alone with nature, with just his hands and his head" . Once he kills a moose for food but is unable to preserve the meat. He labels this event as the "biggest tragedy of my life". In the end he wants to return back to civilization, to his defunct family, but is trapped in the wild because of the weather. He runs out of food and has to eat edible plants, he by mistake eats a poisonous plant which paralyzes his digestive system. He dies of starvation. "everything must be called by its true name", he dies not Alex but Chris. "Happiness is real only if shared".
Things are not what they seem. Sometimes i feel totally lonely when i am with my friends and the hostel is crawling with a 100 guys. You can be totally lonely when in a crowd. Being alone does not mean being lonely. Its like you are best hidden when out in the open. Today i was all alone in my room and the hostel was almost deserted, and i was looking into the woods behind my room and the shadow of the tree was shimmering on the ground like light shimmers on water. It felt really good just listening. Once i was at 12500 feet atop on Gulmarg, all alone with not a souls in sight, and boy could i see far!! Loneliness can strike anytime, it is a weird thing.
A man who has to hide cannot leave the society. He hides but in the society. Only that man leaves who has nothing to hide and nothing to hide from. Seems like Alex was that kinda man.
Sometimes difficult questions need to be asked, and moving "into the wild" seems to be the only answer.
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