heathenchild wrote: 

You sure haven't been visiting song comments very long, have you?

Love EV's rich, moody voice

If 'Alex Supertramp' wanted to run away from society's rules and civilization, he did.  If he wanted to commit suicide, well, he did that, too.

To me, his death is poignant because it serves as one of ten thousand (ten million?) instances where idealism lost the fight with reality.  His drive for escape pushed him into physical — and spiritual — spaces for which he was terribly inexperienced and unprepared.  Living in the wilderness requires training and equipment, whether it's in Alaska or in your own soul.

(yes, I think that's the appropriate word ...)
poignant (adj): Evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret: "a poignant reminder". 

 kittycat2012 wrote: 
He wasn't that far into the wild.  He was around 20 miles from one of the biggest highways in Alaska.  Poor decisions and poor preparation.

 iTuner wrote: 
Correct.

Correct.

Debatable.

Wrong. (Oh, all right, not simply "wrong."  But McCandless was not simply anything, either.)

Thanx!

 KristianGregory wrote: 
I can only agree with your post. and I loved the movie either. But it also made me think he was driven a little too much by anger and understandable disappointment.

You wouldn't need to go that far into the wild without any preparation just to feel free.

Just take your money, live small. Do something you love, something to the benefit of mankind. Walk a dog at an animal shelter, protest at a speakers corner, help old grandmas over the street or go bigger, help kids in africa, be an independent reporter, doctor, lawyer for poor countries, use the education he had at Greenpeace, Amnesty International, wherever! with people who share your passion for freedom!

 Do ANYTHING BUT NOT  "escape", running away driven by sheer anger and fear of a world that doesn't seem to understand you.
Just laugh in its face and say: this is my way, here I come and you're not gonna change me.

Someone who does what he did dies a lonely, unimportant death. He fell cheap victim to the people who wanted to see him like that.

Not every destiny will be made into a movie, and this topic is now covered by Into the Wild, imo.
I'm glad this is his legacy. But if it wasn't, his death would have been forfeit. He could've changed so much more with his life and anger.

Although I know it's not always possible to think as free. Sometimes (most often) our hurt soul is stronger and make us do shit like that :/

I haven't read the book, but I thought the film was great. It had a profound effect on how I think about freedom on an overpopulated planet, where 'the wild' is no more.  Vedder's music provided the perfect soundtrack.

I really admire McCandless. Societal rules dominate almost everything we do at the moment, and with nowhere left to hide, how can we be free?  For me, McCandless is one of very few people who managed to live free from the rules, if sadly for a very short time. It's also sad he had to create a 'wild' to escape into by ignorance.  There was no real 'wild' there, but without compass/maps, it was a fair equivalent.

I think why some people see him as an idiot is because they believe living as long as possible is an important goal. McCandless didn't intend to die young, but took his chances because he prioritised a free life.  McCandless desired freedom like Icarus desired to fly, but he also flew too close to the sun.

love this song.

the guitar sounds so sonic youth-ish —- i like that.

 Sasha2001 wrote: 

No, I do not do crowds however I do have a latent fear of Rutabagas animating and developing a taste for human flesh.

 Cynaera wrote: 
  I am hereby candy-coated. Please refrain from sucker jokes.

Boy, Eddie Vedder's  music sure polarizes people here.  Me?  I love this.  Haven't seen the movie, and I'm not sure I want to - but I'm seriously considering buying the soundtrack. The music is, to me, pretty poetic and dream-inspiring.

Coat me in candy and call me a sucker.

 lemmoth wrote: 

Credibility? What does crediblity have to do with the price of eggs? Song comments are to express individuals opinions of each song that they comment on. I do not like those particular songs and about 80% of Pearl Jams songs, that is my opinion and I expressed it. Would you like me to lie and say that I like them or only express my opinion of songs that I like? (of which I have numerous times, I have made many more positive comments on songs than negative.... by far.) Since you seem to enjoy researching my song comments perhaps you would like to take the extra step to see all of the positive comments and I accept your apology.

 sirdroseph wrote: 
Opinions and different tastes are fine man, but when you express the opinoin through the RP rating system that David Bowie's Heroes, Smashing Pumpkin's 1979 and every single song by Pearl Jam are horrible songs, you have no credibility.

The vast majority of us have groups and artists on RP that we are not particularly fond of but you are an extreme case.

 superfido wrote: 
Dude, I might just create a template of this and send out as needed, which is quite often. Oh, I will be sure and give you the royalties, which of course, there won't be any. But man, so many people take opinions sooooo personal, I mean, remember when Bush got in  trouble for not liking broccoli, I mean, I love broccoli, but don't recall getting angry. Well said.

 ceviche wrote: 
That's the best summary I've ever read of this story.

The film's soundtrack added so much. This is one of the best songs, about the "end." While most Hollywood movies have neat, happy endings, this true story didn't. It showed that a story of alienation and a search for self can end with finding the answers — but those answers sometimes come too late.

 jonahboo wrote: 

Ya got that right!

Eddie Vedder - End Of The Road
Neil Young - Helpless
Counting Crows - Angels of the Silences
Van Morrison - Saint Dominic's Preview

....god, I LOVE RP! Thanks Bill & Rebecca!!!

 ceviche wrote: 
Yeah, and also the kid was not really a sympathetic character in the film.  He took himself way too seriously.  His gripes about his parents were quite petty, I thought.

Liked the flick and the soundtrack. And to the tough guy hard case who lived in Alaska, the film and book were only superfically about survival, adventure, and Alaska. Really it was about alienation and finding a place in this society. Sometimes much more complicated than finding food.

These songs were the PERFECT background for the film, but they don't stand up very well on their own.

SONG = A DUD

 superfido wrote: 

Yea, charm school. lol

 jhorton wrote:  Funny that when someone dislikes something, others think the person does not understand it. Often it has to do with differing tastes  and not due to the fact that one person is too "thick" to get the deep intellectual meaning behind whatever it is that is being discussed. Like the movie in this case.

the "point" of that movie is not exactly difficult to uderstand.  It does not mean the movie itself was good just because many of us can relate to living in a world that values superficiality and also relate to a feeling of being disassociated from that which society calls normal.

And really jhorton, if anyone should go back anywhere, you should go back to whoever and take a charm course man. Your comment is unnecessarily rude.

 parrothead wrote: 
Okay, so we are all clear that you are too thick to understand the character of the movie, so at what point do we stop reading your drivel?

I lived in Kodiak '78-'80. I was seventeen when I got there twenty when I got out alive. What are you trying to teach me?

Yeah, just what I thought.

You have no f'ing idea what you are talking about.

Back to mama, boy.