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I watched this over the weekend, directed by Sean Penn.

Its a beautiful, gentle movie about a remarkable young man who gave up his comfortable, well-educated, middle-class existence to travel as a vagrant across America, eventually ending up in Alaska.

I would highly recommend it to everyone. :-6

Galbally;1043590 wrote: I watched this over the weekend, directed by Sean Penn.

Its a beautiful, gentle movie about a remarkable young man who gave up his comfortable, well-educated, middle-class existence to travel as a vagrant across America, eventually ending up in Alaska.

I would highly recommend it to everyone. :-6


Thanks for the review, galbally. Do you know if it has come out on DVD yet?

wildhorses;1043593 wrote: Thanks for the review, galbally. Do you know if it has come out on DVD yet?


Yes, I watched it on DVD here in Ireland so I am sure its available in America. :-6

Galbally;1043598 wrote: Yes, I watched it on DVD here in Ireland so I am sure its available in America. :-6


I will look it up ...thanks.

Galbally;1043590 wrote: I watched this over the weekend, directed by Sean Penn.



Its a beautiful, gentle movie about a remarkable young man who gave up his comfortable, well-educated, middle-class existence to travel as a vagrant across America, eventually ending up in Alaska.



I would highly recommend it to everyone. :-6




I wouldnt recommend anyone actually do what he did unless its planned out a little better.

I once had the same dream. I wanted to do exactly what he did. Fortunately I realized I was in over my head. Alaska is some hard country.

Its not all Sara Palin up there.

Beautiful tragic story and true. He was a brave man who followed his dream right to his death. Loved the movie even thought I knew how it ended.

Nomad;1043751 wrote: I wouldnt recommend anyone actually do what he did unless its planned out a little better.

I once had the same dream. I wanted to do exactly what he did. Fortunately I realized I was in over my head. Alaska is some hard country.

Its not all Sara Palin up there.




Are you saying that Sarah is not "hard?" she wouldn't thank you for that one!

I would echo what you said about people who may have grown up in cities and towns thinking they could just go to a place like Alaska and live off the land without any real training, thats arctic wilderness up there, very unforgiving of inexperience. I think the movie does illustrate what tends to happen in such cases, though it is a little romanticized, but then it is a movie, and even though its a real story, its a dramatization; its not real life.

I liked it very much

but it made me cry.

Good Advice Nomad.

wildhorses;1043593 wrote: Thanks for the review, galbally. Do you know if it has come out on DVD yet?
The DVD label shows a young man sitting on top of an old bus. Really good movie.

Galbally;1043590 wrote: I watched this over the weekend, directed by Sean Penn.

Its a beautiful, gentle movie about a remarkable young man who gave up his comfortable, well-educated, middle-class existence to travel as a vagrant across America, eventually ending up in Alaska.

I would highly recommend it to everyone. :-6


I read about half of this book and then put it aside.

I really, really did not like this kid. His planned cruelty to his parents regarding his disappearance was just too mean and hurtful.

I did, however, see the movie. The reason I saw it was because of the interview I watched with the person who played the boy and Sean, who directed the movie. Apparently when the boy needed to boat down the rapids and was reluctant, Sean did it first. Said he would never ask him to do something he himself would not do.

The sights were wonderful and it satisfied my need to know the path his travels took him.

To his friends he was inspiring because he was "free" and did whatever he wanted to do and damn the consequences -- something most of us restrain ourselves from doing.

To his family: his life was a tragic waste...... Unless you consider his lifes antics as recreated in this movie as the great purpose of a life.

Kindle;1045200 wrote: I read about half of this book and then put it aside.



I really, really did not like this kid. His planned cruelty to his parents regarding his disappearance was just too mean and hurtful.


Malicious or just thoughtless cruelty? The movie indicated that it was just thoughtlessness. How did the book describe it?

Accountable;1045735 wrote: Malicious or just thoughtless cruelty? The movie indicated that it was just thoughtlessness. How did the book describe it?


The book flat out stated he knew what and how to hurt them and he relished the pain he would cause them. It so turned me off I could not continue reading about him.

Presenting him differently in the movie was a liberty the screenplay writer or director took so that people would idolize his independent nature and be saddened by the abrupt end to his life. This change made for a much better movie than the truth would have.

So he was a spoiled rich kid who met his come uppance? And the world balances as karma makes corrections.

I thought the movie was kinda sad..the kid was rebelling from a domineering less than perfect dad..The more they showed of his dad , the more the son seemed to be slipping away from society.

Accountable;1045940 wrote: So he was a spoiled rich kid who met his come uppance? And the world balances as karma makes corrections.


I don't know that I would phrase it that way.......... Had his life not ended out there all alone, who knows what path he might have yet traveled.

Solitute promotes soul searching and with the many different people he experienced in his travels, perhaps he would have grown into a different mindset. We don't know what he might have learned about himself as he never got the opportunity to act on it. We ony know him by his past behaviors.

Kindle;1045200 wrote: I read about half of this book and then put it aside.

I really, really did not like this kid. His planned cruelty to his parents regarding his disappearance was just too mean and hurtful.

I did, however, see the movie. The reason I saw it was because of the interview I watched with the person who played the boy and Sean, who directed the movie. Apparently when the boy needed to boat down the rapids and was reluctant, Sean did it first. Said he would never ask him to do something he himself would not do.

The sights were wonderful and it satisfied my need to know the path his travels took him.

To his friends he was inspiring because he was "free" and did whatever he wanted to do and damn the consequences -- something most of us restrain ourselves from doing.

To his family: his life was a tragic waste...... Unless you consider his lifes antics as recreated in this movie as the great purpose of a life.


I can totally agree with where you are coming from, his story is one that conjures up mixed emotions, his uncompromising personal integrity to his own vision was remarkable, as was his selfishness in pursuing that vision.

His tragic fate just seems to have underscored the pain that pursuing things with such single-mindedness can often bring. I don't think that the movie really makes any ethical judgements on what he did, though obviously it does make things a bit romantic.

I think that the scene where the old man offers to adopt him, and he refuses underlines how selfish he was in many ways, but it also shows that he did not to intentionally hurt anyone except his father, in which of course he suceeded, along with a lot of other people. Then again his father also hurt many people with his own arrogance and stubborness (at least from his son's perspective).

I also think that one of the reasons that the movie was so powerful was that it described what is a fairly universal feeling that most people have, to at some level and at certain times.

That is to escape from the strictures of society, family, and money, and live a simple existence where just living is enough reason to be alive. The fact that for almost everyone this is impossible, doesn't make it less powerful, as its a deep human instinct, just like needing other people and needing secuity in things and money (which is the flipside).

There were a lot of things in that movie that will give me pause to stop and think in the future I think, thats the mark of a great film, which it undoubtedly was, whatever the complete truth of man's real story. Movies and books are not real life, at their best they are reflections of real-life that allow us to think about ourselves and what it means to be a human, I think this movie accomplished that.

minks;1044718 wrote: I liked it very much

but it made me cry.



Good Advice Nomad.




Yea

Galbally;1047531 wrote: .......... Movies and books are not real life, at their best they are reflections of real-life that allow us to think about ourselves and what it means to be a human, I think this movie accomplished that.


That's true.

I was surprised at how much I disliked this kid. As a mother I felt the pain his family felt when they did not know where he was and if he was safe and well. The not knowing is the worst.

Thank you Galbally. I just ordered this movie on Netflex.



My Dad was born outside of Nome, Alaska...Things were too rough then for women and children. So my grandmother and Dad were sent home to Donegal. Dad returned and joined his Dad in America when he was about 20 yrs. Unfortunately, we never made it to Alaska with my Dad as he passed before we planned to journey to Nome. So sad:(

Galbally;1043598 wrote: Yes, I watched it on DVD here in Ireland so I am sure its available in America. :-6


excellent thanks!