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Hoots
Trad climber
Bellingham, WA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 23, 2007 - 10:42am PT
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So word on the street it that Hollywood is making the Krakauer book into a movie, and is set to release soon. The kid from "The Girl Next Door" plays the main character, with Vince Vaughn as his friend.
Is it just me, or is this totally going to ruin to book? It just seemed to subdued and eerily written to make into a movie that could do it justice.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
Otto, NC
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Jun 23, 2007 - 11:36am PT
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The book is the book, the movie is the movie. The trouble with 'ruining' the book only occurs if you confuse the two. I personally feel that since the interval between the two is great enough(I first read the book many years ago) that confusion should be minimal. YMMV. If this scares you, go ahead and read it now.
It's a great story, resonant with feelings many of us share. The kid just took it farther than most of us, with the poorly informed and impulsive adolescent passion that makes heroes of the ones that survive, and chumps of the ones that don't- at least in the Monday-morning estimation of those who remain to discuss it.
Who among us didn't do something in our youth that we maybe shouldn't have survived? There are certainly a couple episodes in my past that, had I got the chop, would have elicited zero sympathy from anyone.
You have to get through the Stupid Years to have the right to judge the exploits of others. Darwin didn't quite catch me then, but he caught that guy, and now we have a great story. Hopefully the movie will live up to that story--anything so fundamentally archetypal is a natural fit for the mythopoetic nature of the big screen.
That doesn't mean that Hollywood couldn't screw it up, though.
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426
Sport climber
Buzzard Point, TN
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Jun 23, 2007 - 11:39am PT
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Top notch post, RR.. I, too, should technically "not be here".
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Jun 23, 2007 - 11:59am PT
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It's a fine book and perhaps the movie, good or bad, will move more people to read it.
RR -- well said.
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TwistedCrank
climber
a luxury Malibu rehabilitation treatment facility
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Jun 23, 2007 - 03:23pm PT
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One of the powers of the book is that of discovery. The author strives to discover what happened and why, there's a sense of discovery when the boys' camp is found, there are parts of the books that caused me to reflect on some of the stunts I did in my youth that in some regards lent to discovery of my self. If the movie is about a kid who survived his parents issues to seek and discover something only he can understand only to die trying, then I suspect the movie will fail. If the movie is about Krakauers quest - and my extension our quest - to see it for himself, then I think the movie might have a chance.
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Hoots
Trad climber
Bellingham, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 23, 2007 - 05:51pm PT
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That is true, I suppose it will all be based on how the screenplay is written, and although Sean Penn has made some excellent films recently, it won't be the same as a screenplay Krakauer would have written. We will see how it all pans out...
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Jun 23, 2007 - 06:12pm PT
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May have to read the book, now.
If you 'should' be here, you definitely could have learned more.
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onyourleft
Social climber
SmogAngeles
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Jun 23, 2007 - 09:00pm PT
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An important aspect of the book is the parallel between Krakauer's formative life and the mistakes he made, with Chris McCandless' life and mistakes. It's likely that the Hollywood film version will skip Krakauer's introspection and tell a straight-line narrative. If you haven't read the book, you're missing a very fine piece of writing.
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