BAFTA screening earlier this evening of Sean Penn’s ‘epic’ two and a half hour bio-pic on Christopher MacCandless, a troubled young American who, calling himself Alexander Supertramp, hoboed it around the States until finally taking on more than he could handle by venturing into the Alaskan wilderness without much by way of supplies or local knowledge.
MacCandless, having (according to the film) attained a level of understanding he’d aspired to, tried to get out of the wilderness, but the shallow river he’d crossed was in spate and he was forced to turn back. He died of starvation, having run out of his meagre supply of food and unfortunately turned to poisonous berries for sustenance.
Penn’s film paints a complex portrait of MacCandless as a noble and questing (if troubled) individual whose dangerous combination of lofty principles and limited expertise ultimately let him down badly.
Forgive me for this, but I was disappointed that the film didn’t also identify what an utter idiot he must have been.
I read his Wikipedia entry, and apparently there was a hand-held tram crossing of the spated river not five miles from where he failed to cross it, a highway less than 20 miles away, and several hunters lodges within a few miles radius which were stocked with food and supplies. MacCandless didn’t know any of this, because he hadn’t bothered to pack a map. Doh!
