| Overall Grade: |
B |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
B |
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| Visuals: |
B- |
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Reviewers are smart but I think out in left field
by Christopher S (movies profile)
Jun 6, 2008
28
of
30 people found this review helpful
I read the book about 7-8 years ago. I was a young pup just outta college. The book changed my value system and challenged me. That said, any young person would do good to read the book or even see the movie--as someone said in an earlier review, as a cautionary tale. The movie was a fair and accurate portrayal of Penn's definition of Chris. To those who hate and are for some reason enraged by this movie, may I remind you it's not a documentary, it's Penn's version of the truth. I think the great thing about this movie is that it's different in many ways. It is long, it is borderline slow at times. Yet it, like Chris's story, challenges people to be uncomfortable for a while (maybe to be as uncomfortable as Chris or his family was for two years) with the pace, the sequencing, the visuals. But if you look past Penn's presentation you see simply a young guy who simply was looking for answers and he did it his own way. Chris is only a folk hero to those people who are as clueless as he was--weak people looking for a savior. Chris was all over the place emotionally, which is typically of a young person at that age. I remember being around his age. At that time in a young person's life, your view of the world is obviously evolving and nowhere near complete. You tend to go with what your insides are saying and sometimes even act out how one thinks they should (based on movies, books, or whatever influenced you in the recent past). It's not always rational. One may even draw parallels between Chris's tale and Siddhartha's. But in the end, it really is all speculation. If you jive with Penn, you'll like the movie. If you don't, you won't. One thing Chris did right is seek truth, which is presented in this movie. Most of us go thru life never asking any questions, just going to college, getting a job, and paying the bills is good enough. But to some of us (Me, Chris, Penn), what a waste of a life if you never dive deep inside yourself like McCandless did. |
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