you mean before or after? he himself said his family was pretty fucked up and as for his death, well he doesn't need to care about it, but it's just stupid to die the way he died, i was in worse situations and was just lucky to survive, heck even he was in more dangerous situations so it's pretty stupid to die the way he died

Well during I guess. From one day to the other he completely vanished. Also, what about his sister. He seemed to be pretty close with his sister.

Perhaps he didn't die because of the plant. I think it's a combination of depression and the plant. His life sucked when he shot the moose. He even stated he was lonely and scared.

A personal question @Markoff : what kind of situations? You mean you been in the wild like into the wild? Thanks !

he died because he was not adequately prepared to live in wilderness, didn't know the location, so end up starving while help was nearby

i did some hikes in jungle, slipped in places i should not slip but always end up lucky, i mean accidents happen, that's normal and one can understand it but dying from starvation is pretty dumb

@Markoff said:

you mean before or after? he himself said his family was pretty fucked up and as for his death, well he doesn't need to care about it, but it's just stupid to die the way he died, i was in worse situations and was just lucky to survive, heck even he was in more dangerous situations so it's pretty stupid to die the way he died

I think you are right. What makes this story (less so the actual movie) interesting is the sheer pointlessness of it. Many of us have done stupid things when we were young, but there is a kind of grandiose conceit to how far McCandless took it. It's a very peculiar thing to find oneself in a situation as a result of a miscalculation and the realisation that 'I think I might have fucked myself' hits you like a stone.

Where I disagree is with the 'fucked up' family thing. Sure there were parts of that family that weren't 60s family TV show, but how many families are? As dysfunction goes it is all pretty mild. So what if his parents argued and his Dad had a prior family. We're not talking 'dad in prison and mum turning tricks to pay for meth' territory.

I actually think this drama unfolds from the very opposite proposition. He comes from a millionaire family, has never had to struggle, never been tested, and seems blissfully unaware of how unforgiving life can be. The arrogance of thinking one can walk into one of the most hostile environments on the planet armed with a Jack London book and a field guide to edible plants, is mind boggling.

As for the movie, just way too long. And this whole hippy angle, as tho it were 1972 and not 1992, it's disorientating and in a way dishonest, almost as tho it weren't really McCandless' story at all. It's directorial vanity because it is obvious Penn is throwing in as many late 60s, early 70s visual tricks as he can. The stretched images; split screen, abrupt scene jumps...hell we even got some freeze frames of street scenes thrown in. We get it Sean, you are homaging 'New Hollywood'. Problem is, this story belongs to a different era.