rebeccad
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Writing like a maniac
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Wild Way
May 15, 2017 7:10:19 GMT -8
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Post by rebeccad on May 15, 2017 7:10:19 GMT -8
So I liked the movie better because it didn't have as much time to wallow in the angst. I suspect that's what I mean by the movie handling the backstory better The book spends a looooong time wallowing in her pre-hike degradation.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on May 15, 2017 8:26:46 GMT -8
So, I've watched The Way twice and Wild twice. I read Wild before seeing the movie.
Neither are about backpacking but both are about journeys.
I connected with The Way in a way that brought a tear. It was about relationships with self and those around us. Not being catholic, the religious stuff really had no meaning to me. But still, I can understand the pilgrimage. It's the trek, not the destination.
I connected with Wild a little more because I could mesh easier with the story and the desire to "walk it off". Whatever "it" may be. That movie, too, was about the journey. Both told the same tale and gave us the same ending.
Oh, and they sure drank a lot of wine in The Way. Works for me. I watched "The Way" (on Netflix) some time ago, and "Wild" a bit later after buying the movie online. I still haven't read Cheryl Strayed's book ("Wild"), though I think I have a copy on my Kindle. I seem to keep piling more on my already overwhelming "digital queue" of reading, even though I had a large and growing stack of "old fashioned paper" stuff accrued beforehand; I think that stack of books next to my side of the bed is up to 4 piles about 3 feet high each. I need to put up more shelving - and, yes, I miss the "bookshelf bed" I once built for my bed in a now ancient apartment I had when I was going to college. C'est la vie... Still, I'm more than impressed with the reading lists I see from people around here. Let's face it: every time I see what others are reading, I'm reminded once again that people read books - and watch movies - for as many reasons as they do just about anything - what one person gets out of an experience (reading or anything else) seldom matches exactly what another gets. I personally have a fascination with language and words, so the way that ideas and thoughts are expressed is almost as important as the substance/material discussed for me. I'm well aware that some people - such as my spouse - read so rapidly that they can only describe the "movie" of the book in "scenes" that they recall. I have to "hear" the words and the singing of language well used to get the maximum enjoyment, so I'm slow to "plodding". Into the Wild, on the other hand was dreadful; simply glamorized a person with a mental illness. Funny, I actually enjoyed that movie. Just shows to go you! I didn't really think it glamorized him, I thought the movie painted him as a flawed, tragic figure. As I understand it, his sister has since suggested that Chris was the victim of parental abuse, which in part may have motivated his escapism. As a fan of both Sean Penn and Jon Krakauer, I saw the movie the first time in the theater alone, just like I did for the movie version of Sebastian Junger's book "The Perfect Storm". No one else in the family likes this sort of material, while I find it enthralling. I never saw any of this group of films as "glamorous", though they were only movies in the way that they all are: I never expect film media to duplicate the experience of a book, though I guess it sometimes comes close to doing that if the book is "literal enough". The two experiences aren't really all that related. Movies based on books tend to merely start with the themes in a book, then spin off in typical movie fashion with all of that medium's inherent limitations and advantages. I have not seen The Way, but I have seen Wild. You're so right that it's more about the journey. I need to read the book to see what they left out in the movie. I liked the movie because I saw it for what it was, a woman trying to overcome demons and not a backpacking story. I could relate to that. I first watched "The Way" for the journey, but found the movie to be more spiritual than physical in nature (IIRC). It was pretty light entertainment, though Martin Sheen has a fair amount of heft and maturity of his own, and that was reflected in the story the movie told. "Wild" was a delectable little confection and a vehicle for R. Witherspoon, I thought, though I did not watch it for prurient reasons. I honestly thought it might be the rare bird that is more or less accurate, though I didn't hold my breath on that. Suffice to say, as most here who watched it could attest, it was not "accurate" insofar as thru hiking goes, though I guess there might be some truth to the ridiculous gear choices and skill set of the primary character, who rashly took on the trip out of a sort of desperation hatched out of her personal problems. "Into the Wild" (which wasn't even mentioned in the OP) was, IMHO, a journey of a different sort that was much darker in tone. I saw it as a sort of Shakespearean-style philosophical tragedy about the anarchic impulse, but, clearly, YMMV. It's been a while since I read the book and saw the movie - perhaps it deserves a reread since I'm questioning my own memory on this. I felt that it was, in perhaps some ways, like "Touching the Void", though Chris did a wee bit more than "touch" the infinity of nature's swirling void in the exploration of his "anarchic" and isolationist tendencies. I like watching random thru-hiker videos on YouTube. Have you checked out Homemade Wanderlust? She just started the PCT and does weekly updates on YouTube. Down to earth and savvy. She also did a series on the Appalachian Trail. There's apparently a hell of a lot of material available all over Youtube on hiking and "journals of journeys" of all sorts. I sort of "fell into" watching a series of videos by the "Hiker Trash" guy (Youtube home: www.youtube.com/channel/UCwjpBT4fyuBBCznQDy_QYsw) because it popped up while I was watching something else. Some of his stuff can be pretty boring AFA backpacking goes, unless you just like seeing the sort of people who hike and are interested in their reasons for doing so. One needs to be more vigilant than I usually am about "following your nose" when it comes to the internet. I have started to descend into chaos of a sort myself now and again. There are apparently endless ways to market fairly barren material in the attempt to attract enough of an audience to whom you may sell, though, at the very end of that chain, you will probably find a spiral downward toward pornography.
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swiftdream
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the Great Southwest Unbound
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Post by swiftdream on May 15, 2017 14:54:32 GMT -8
I connected with Wild because I enjoy seeing Reese Witherspoon naked. You mean when that animalistic oaf was taking Witherspoon doggishly? I kind of found that scene revolting and I'm pretty forgiving. The movie Wild was a looser. The book was okay, not great but not terrible. I didn't like the protagonist in either though, way too much baggage. The Way was a pretty good movie with some good characters throughout. Emilio got a bit sentimental with the story but easily forgiven. It seems he is pretty proud of his father and must have had an amazing time directing him and starring with him.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on May 15, 2017 15:35:00 GMT -8
I connected with Wild because I enjoy seeing Reese Witherspoon naked. You mean when that animalistic oaf was taking Witherspoon doggishly? I kind of found that scene revolting and I'm pretty forgiving. The movie Wild was a looser. The book was okay, not great but not terrible. I didn't like the protagonist in either though, way too much baggage. The Way was a pretty good movie with some good characters throughout. Emilio got a bit sentimental with the story but easily forgiven. It seems he is pretty proud of his father and must have had an amazing time directing him and starring with him. Yet another take on the "everyone watches/reads for different reasons" meme/theme. There are movies (and books) out there which are not "easy reads", and not always because the style is obscure or difficult. I found "Dead Man Walking" to be a very, very difficult movie to watch, but I can still appreciate the acting, direction and such - which all was at what I think (IMHO) was at a high level indeed. I value the use of just about any "movie idiom" or "movie style" of story-telling that seems to fit with the needs of the movie. The ancient Romans had all "deaths" and "violence" occur "offscreen", but there are aspects of need in the context of a story for specific ideas, scenes and visuals - even if they are not "pretty" or "pleasing". Since R. Witherspoon "produced" (read, I guess: "paid for/financed") "Wild", I suspect she was attempting to add something to her "resume" that was slightly deeper and more substantial than stuff like the "Legally Blonde" series. Whether or not she achieved what I presume to be her goals in that regard (or not) is up to the individual viewer, of course. I watch and read a lot of stuff that I regard as "fly on the wall" stuff in situations I myself would never find myself. I see it as a (perhaps lame) attempt to widen my horizons.
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swiftdream
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the Great Southwest Unbound
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Post by swiftdream on May 15, 2017 15:48:09 GMT -8
Since R. Witherspoon "produced" (read, I guess: "paid for/financed") "Wild", I suspect she was attempting to add something to her "resume" that was slightly deeper and more substantial than stuff like the "Legally Blonde" series. You must have read my mind. I think she attempted the same thing in Mud and took it that way far enough imo. By the time she did the scene in Wild, there was no doubt about her character and really no need for that scene. I'm no prude either. About the only thing I liked about the movie Wild was the scene in Kennedy Meadows (I think) where Brian Borcherdt and Berry Gordy performed such a clear, sweet version of The Dead's Ripple. Otherwise I want my money back and it was a DVD I checked out from the library. LOL
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