We watch Into the Wild tonight based on the recommendation of a friend of mine.

Good flick, but I came away thinking two things:

1) Hippies do suck.
2) What a twat!

Spoilers (and me being an ass) below:

Long story short, kid from a well off family goes to Emory, graduates, and because he’s pissed at his parents for living in an unhappy marriage skips town and sends his life savings off to charity. He then prances around the west side of the US for a about a year, never sends a letter home to his family letting them know he’s still alive, then heads to Alaska for his big adventure.

He dies of starvation up there at the age of 24 and some hunters find his corpse a couple weeks after he dies.

Nice work, dipshit. You tormented your family for 2 solid years and ended up killing yourself for what? A hundred odd days in the wilderness? Let’s just take a look at the WikiPediapage on him to find more idiocy:

In April 1992 McCandless hitchhiked to Fairbanks, Alaska. He was last seen alive by James Gallien, who gave him a ride from Fairbanks to the Stampede Trail. Gallien was concerned about “Alex”, who had minimal supplies (not even a magnetic compass) and no experience of surviving in the Alaskan bush. Gallien repeatedly tried to persuade Alex to defer his trip, and even offered to drive him to Anchorage to buy suitable equipment and supplies. However, McCandless ignored Gallien’s warnings, refusing all assistance except for a pair of rubber boots, two tuna melts, and a bag of corn chips.

Hippies are stupid.

Yeah, you can survive off nature up there — if you know what you’re doing. When a local says you’re totally unprepared for this you should probably take notice. The people that do survive off the land have knowledge passed down to them from previous generations. You need a little more than a couple of books to figure this shit out. Some practice probably wouldn’t hurt either, like maybe working in town for 2 months, collecting info, then camping out on your own for a week. Repeat that a few times until you’ve got it down and know what to do during each season to stay the fuck alive.

More:

Because he chose not to buy a map and a compass (items which most people in the same situation would have considered essential)

Yeah, those are pretty fucking important, especially the compass. I own one, military surplus I think. It cost me $7.

McCandless was completely unaware that a hand-operated tram crossed the impassable river ¼ mile from where he attempted to cross. Had McCandless known this, he could easily have saved his own life.

Yeah, that map would have been handy. I buy maps like that when I go off the beaten path (ie: My trip to Montana in 2006) even though I’m in a damned Jeep with enough food and water to keep my ass alive for weeks. Then again, I’m not a fucking hippie.

Additionally, there were cabins stocked with emergency supplies within a few miles of the bus, although they had been vandalized and all the supplies were spoiled, possibly by McCandless, as detailed in Lamothe’s documentary.

So, actually, Nature Boy wasn’t really all that far out from civilization. At least, not by Alaskan standards.

Alaskan Park Ranger Peter Christian wrote: “I am exposed continually to what I will call the ‘McCandless Phenomenon.’ People, nearly always young men, come to Alaska to challenge themselves against an unforgiving wilderness landscape where convenience of access and possibility of rescue are practically nonexistent […] When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn’t even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail without even a map of the area. If he [had] had a good map he could have walked out of his predicament […] Essentially, Chris McCandless committed suicide.”

Emphasis mine. That pretty much sums up his adventure right there.

I’m not saying I could do it. Far from it. I’ve been known to get myself into a pickle or two in my life when left alone, but I’m smart enough to know that I shouldn’t try some shit like that.