Arquivo

What it means to be an American - and what it means to be a human being - when civilization becomes a source of alienation and mistrust. Penn’s muse is Christopher McCandless, the young anti-hero of Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction book on which the film is based. Born into wealth and privilege, McCandless tossed it all away the day he graduated college in 1990, donating all his money to OXFAM and burning his ID. He then hit the road, encountering others who chose unconventional paths, from a farmer arrested for producing drugs, to the “rubber tramps” hippie remnants committed to building a free-form desert commune. This journey eventually drives McCandless to lose himself in Alaska, an ultimate test inspired by the great authors - especially Tolstoy, Thoreau and London - who battled nature and the pressures of the human soul.