Leslie and I went to see Sean Penn's adaptation of Jon Krakauer's 1996 book on the life and death of Chris McCandless. The book was pretty moving to me when I first read it and my subsequent readings of the book ranged from pissed off to intrigued to purely academic in terms of the author's writing style. It wasn't until I watched Penn's movie that I was able to see some of the humanity that McCandless was obviously blessed with in spades. The first time I read the book I just thought of how selfish the young man (who was only a year older than me) was in terms of his family and especially his younger sister who was very important to him. When I started teaching high school English, I saw the book as a companion to a non-fiction unit (Krakauer almost writes in a first-person account as he gets so involved in McCandless' life), or piggy-backed with a unit on the Transcendentalists (Thoreau, et al). Penn's movie was about the most moving movie that I've seen in several years and I appreciate his efforts. Regardless of what you think of his politics, it's obvious that he's one of the most talented people going in Hollywood. The film is beautiful and Eddie Vedder's soundtrack adds a lot to the emotional appeal of the film. Looking at the character from this perspective I see him as more of a Holden Caufield-like personality -- an idealist who just is sick of dealing with the 'phonies' that he's surrounded by. Unfortunately for McCandless, he wasn't able to bear witness to a second act that Salinger allowed Caufield.
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