# Into The Wild: The Film (SPOILERS!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 15, 2009, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817 "2009-06-15T09:04:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![freep5637](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cdc98d/32.png) [@freep5637](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freep5637)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/41 "2009-06-17T08:59:16Z")
I turned this movie off like 40 minutes into it because I couldn’t stand how judgmental this prick McCandless was or however you spell his name. And the way all the actors in Hollywood were praising the asshole. It made me sick, liberal bs, but that’s for another thread. He’s like the biggest hater in the world, but in reality he deserves the most hating on. And yes I know the story. About ten years ago I read like a 10 page article in a wildlife type magazine and just couldn’t stop shaking my head. I’m from the city and I wouldn’t venture more then a few miles outside of my neighborhood without at least consulting a street map, let alone in the Alaskan wilderness. Idiot, he deserved what he got… ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/42 "2009-06-17T13:42:26Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I understand he was rash, short-sighted and not the most social person in the world. > > But I don’t get all the hate. So what if you don’t want a car? So what if you don’t want to go to law school? So what if you don’t want to have a family or lots of friends? Not all of us want the same thing. Some of us want lonely and strange things. It doesn’t matter if you were handed all of the opportunities in the world, if they weren’t opportunities to do stuff you want to do. Are we really so insecure we have to heap scorn on everyone who doesn’t value the same things as us? It’s not his wanting to leave the materialistic behind - that’s fine. It’s the “I have no need of this thing we call currency - but I’ll rely on other people to spend money for me.” “I love my sister - but I’m never going to contact her or make the slightest effort to put her at ease.” “I’ve done this all on my own - except for when my parents raised me, people helped along every inch of the way, and I leeched off of society for a month or two in LA.” It’s the hubris and inability to acknowledge the people in his life, despite any ill-feelings towards them. His is the most selfish story I’ve ever read. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/43 "2009-06-17T13:49:10Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > I’ve not seen the movie or read the book, but my understanding is that he was inspired to take on the Alaskan wilderness by the works of Jack London. If so, in addition to the personality flaws listed in the OP, he suffered from a serious lack of reading comprehension. > > Or possibly he was reading a different Jack London than what I read. 'Cause the stuff I read hammered home pretty heavily _just how easy it is to die in the wilds of Alaska_. It was what you might call a major recurring theme. > > As my husband put it, Jack London would kick this guy right in the balls. Favorite Jack London short story: _To Build a Fire_. Having actually been more or less in that situation (though not as extreme) makes it all the more hilarious. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/44 "2009-06-17T14:16:35Z")
Yeah, the book goes into some detail about how he admired certain writers who either never actually experienced the stuff they wrote about or espoused philosophies they themselves didn’t live by. Did he realize that? Did he care? How come it’s always the relatively well-off kids (and the McCandlesses weren’t wealthy – the parents were working-class who owned their own business and worked their fingers to the bone to make a go of it, achieving some financial stability only after many years of sacrifice) who want a revolution? I don’t “hate” McCandless, but my gosh he was a stubborn little punk. His death was just such a _waste_ – here’s someone who could have made piles of money with a dot-com or some other speculative venture. He certainly had the brains and the work ethic. But somehow he picked up on this neo-hippie anti-materialistic, anti-establishment Jack London, Henry David Thoreau stuff without bothering to acknowledge the reality of the harshness of the wilderness. If he’d had a compass and maps and a sturdy pair of boots and all that and _then_ died, then his story would have been entirely different. He wasn’t suicidal, just blind somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/45 "2009-06-17T14:39:49Z")
What makes you think he wasn’t suicidal? He didn’t put a gun to his head and pull the trigger, but he walked into the Alaska wilderness without preparation. That’s suicidal in my book. Maybe he didn’t quite want to die, but he didn’t want to take the steps necessary to keep himself alive either. Going without a compass was more important to him than living. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/46 "2009-06-17T14:50:28Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > For me it’s the fact he caused so many people so much pain. Had he remained where he was and OD’d on heroin it would have been no more worthy of scorn. I guess I feel like the only people he hurt are people who had piles of expectations they laid on him. Yeah, we should be good to our parents. But in the end, we don’t really have to. Our lives are ours to live, and if we don’t want our parents to be a part of it, so be it. As far as I know, he never implied he’d be around and he never promised he’d do anything for anyone. He never made promises. People just kind of assumed them. And if you get hurt because someone doesn’t act the way you expect them to act, too bad. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/47 "2009-06-17T14:57:19Z")
My statement about his not being suicidal comes from his telling the old man, “We’ll talk about it when I come back,” in response to the man’s offer to adopt him. Sure, maybe he’s yanking his chain (about coming back to the old man), but I really don’t think he meant to die. Eating the seeds that caused his death was a pretty easy mistake to make, and the book makes the point that if he had been eating well up to that point, he might have been able to fight off their effects. I really think he meant to “tramp” for a couple of years and get it out of his system and then spend the rest of his life telling stories about “the two years I spent living off the land.” ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/48 "2009-06-17T15:15:55Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > Eating the seeds that caused his death was a pretty easy mistake to make, and the book makes the point that if he had been eating well up to that point, he might have been able to fight off their effects. Actually, my understanding is that the seeds were actually harmless–the testing wasn’t finished when the book was initially published. The current theory for him being poisoned is that he stored the seeds in a Ziploc bag and they got moldy, and the mold killed him. (He doesn’t have a compass, but he’s got _Ziploc bags_?) ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/49 "2009-06-17T15:45:48Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I guess I feel like the only people he hurt are people who had piles of expectations they laid on him. Yeah, we should be good to our parents. But in the end, we don’t really have to. Our lives are ours to live, and if we don’t want our parents to be a part of it, so be it. As far as I know, he never implied he’d be around and he never promised he’d do anything for anyone. He never made promises. People just kind of assumed them. And if you get hurt because someone doesn’t act the way you expect them to act, too bad. It would have been kind of him to inform people around him of his way of operating, then - especially his family who did apparently sincerely love him and want to interact with him, even if he didn’t also have one or both of those feelings. He was an adult; if he’d told his family of his intentions (by phone if he was that scared), they couldn’t have done a thing to stop him. (The postcard really wasn’t up to snuff for this purpose.) Plus, he was an idiot when it came to wilderness survival, and I have a tough time forgiving that, especially because he did have a serious amount of intelligence. He handicapped himself in unimaginably bad ways, and struggled through with a combination of a ton of luck and some smarts until he eventually (probably) starved. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/50 "2009-06-17T17:11:27Z")
_“[S]tupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.”_ – RAH ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/51 "2009-06-17T17:44:36Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > I don’t “hate” McCandless, but my gosh he was a stubborn little punk. His death was just such a _waste_ – here’s someone who could have made piles of money with a dot-com or some other speculative venture. Is that the only measure of worth? How much money someone makes? And speaking of risks, in order to **keep** piles of money earned with a dot-com, he would have had to get out at the right time. Which many people did not, and ended up losing everything. I agree with **even sven** : money money money money money money money money money is not the only incentive for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/52 "2009-06-17T18:39:14Z")
Naive and idealistic for sure, I don’t really get the hate though. He sought a transformative experience and found it, he didn’t put anybody else at risk. IIRC from the book, one of his letters before going in refered to ‘if I make it out,’ so it seems he had some idea he was playing with fire. What I find ironic is his hero worship of Jack London, who went on to be as finacially motivated as his own father ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/53 "2009-06-17T20:19:56Z")
No, come on – I’m not saying it’s all about money, of course not. I’m saying the guy threw his life away, forfeiting everything he might have done with that life. If he were a non-productive, lazy slacker I probably wouldn’t care so much. But McCandless’s story is about wasted potential. ---
**Author:** ![Zhen\_ka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecccb3/32.png) [@Zhen\_ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zhen_ka)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817/54 "2009-06-17T22:03:32Z")
_“Until you do something to aid humanity, you should be ashamed to die.”_ I’m surprised that **even sven** defends his actions considering that she works so hard to help people throughout the world. Talk about wasted potential. THAT is what is offensive. Want to have a transformative experience? Go build a fucking bridge or teach little kids how to read. Bring food to the needy (his donation to Oxfam doesn’t count–that was his parent’s money). That’s what’s offensive to me. He could have given so much, but because of some “male” thing that Krakauer tries to defend in the book and Penn romanticizes in the movie, he prefers to selfishly pursue some hypocritical, delusional course of action that led to his death. What a jerk. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-wild-the-film-spoilers/499817.md?page=2)