in this essay i will talk about the McCandless family and the difference between movie and book. penn’s and krakauer’s interpretation are similar in someways but different at the same time. the family memebers ill be looking at is his dad Walt McCandless is a nasa scientist who quit to start his own business ,with his 2nd wife, making radar systems. i will also be looking at his younger sister carine who he had a great past with, and i will be looking at chrises mum Billie who is chrises dads 2nd wife and who also work on the business of radar systems.
the film presents Walt McCandless as a world apart from his son . an example of this is the entrance of the sports team into the formal dining hall and over the shoulder shot of Walt’s reaction compared with similar shot of Chris.the reason why they did this is to show that Chris would proffer to be with the sports team how ever Walt would proffer them to not be there so they can be in peace. in the book Walt and Chris are presents as sharing similar core characteristics . an example of this is colleagues refer to him [Walt] as brilliant while Chris ‘ came into this world with unusual gifts. i think krakauer did this to show that Chris and Walt are similar but are on the different spectrum .
Chris and his sisters, Carine, relationship was different, in both the book and the movie carine and Chris are close. an example of this in the film is chris allowed carine to drive is car. this might not seem like a lot but chris loved his car and snap at his parents when they offered to buy him a new one.another thing that show that carine and chris relationship is that chris use to read poems to carine we see this in the scene before the restaurant. Chris reads carine a poem by Sharone Olds which talked about people who got married young and to early to experience life which ended up ruining the children’s life. the poem relates to chris and craine situation, this scene give the impression that chris can talk to carine about how he truly feels and not hide his emotions with her.later on in the restaurant chris snaps at him parents when they offer to buy him a new car. carine try to stop him from ranting this all so back up the last point. After the restaurant scene it switches to chris in a high up balcony throwing his graduation hat to carine, from a high angle shot, this furthermore enhances the point that carine and Chris is close because Chris could have just left it on the ground or thrown it away instead he decided to give it to his sister to remember him. even in the book Chris and carine where close. on page 110 it is a testimony from Chrises sister carine about when they were young” from an early age […] .He’d hold my hand when we walk down the street” this show that Chris loved his sister from a early age and didn’t care what other people thought about him. i think that chris was trying to be a better father figure than there real dad. the reason i think this is because chris has gone through all the pains and bad time with there real dad so he didn’t what carine to feel the same pain. another thing to back up this point is the quote from carine when she says ” i think it was one of the reason Chris and i was so close.We learned to count on each other when mom and dad werent getting along” the reason why it back up my point is because it shows that the parents was not getting along so chris was there for carine instead.But this could also mean that carine thought chris and them were closer than realized because we as the reader only get her side not chris. So all she might of said could have been lies to make her brother sound like a nice guy. we get more eveidence of this because chris wrote to people that he met on his journey but never wrote to his sister who loved so much.
another point that correlates with both book and film is that chris preferred the people on the road than his real family. i think he called them his family because he never like he real one.in the film there is a scene where chris is with wayne westerberg who employed him on his journey. in one scene chris a wayne have drinks together , chris never did this with his dad. this is important to look at when comparing the chris mccandless and his family because it show how much resentment he had for his family to not even drink with his dad. Another thing we chris mccadless do with out his family is concur fears. in the scene after he meets the two old tramps he goes to a beach with them and decides to go swimming even though he is scared of deep water. concurring a fear could have been a great bonding time with his father but instead chris decides to try to concur it with people hes only known for a short time. i think this proves that chris want nothing to do with his family. from the book we can tell that chris preferred the people he met on the road because he wrote to them about his travels , as i mentioned before he never wrote to his beloved sister and decided not to even give his parents hope that he was alive. i think chris knew that it would devastate his parents so he intentionally didn’t write to them to put them in a state of dismay ( chris dont rate his parents) and sean penn does this great by reading sharon old poem ( http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176442 ) before we see chris set out on his Wilde (pun intended) adventure because it seems like the poem is written by him and he know he will hurt his parent like it says in the poem “you are going to suffer in ways you have not heard of” aka in his context he is talking about how he will hurt them before he goes on his mad adventure
in the book chris is mum , Billie , is pro trade different to the film .like in the film Billie care more about money and the way things look. we can tell this from the restraint scene Billie offers to buy chris a new car it does sit well with him so he snaps at her but when she offers to buy him a new car it switches to a pov shot of his car with her over the top saying junk. i think proves the point that the mccandless family does know each other that well, if Billie was a loving mother she would have known that he loved that car and wouldn’t give it up for anything but instead she cares about her image.But in the book she is prorated different , in the book she is actually a loving mother. in the book it says that chris mum knitted a blanket for him. so this goes against all the thing penn did in the film to show that she had time for her children.i think it was change in the movie to enhance the point that chris family are not loving and are bad people but on the other hand the book show that Billie was actually nice and not as bad as she is thought out to be
in conclusion sean penn make the McCandless family ,a part from chris, in the film emphasises a simple explanation that his motivation was superficial consumerist american culture that chris hated and didnt like for example when they say they are going to buy him a new car. but the book provides a more complex analysis for example Krakauer’s own adventure when he climbs up a mountain. it isnt just the story that makes it the movie and book different , its also the limitation of the film and also how it can bend the truth like with Billie in the film is money centred but the book who has to be truth all because its real peoples lives. the film can take shorts cuts without adding back story . it does give any hint to why chris decided to leave it just him leaving. the film has to show the truth instead of telling it for example the over the shoulder shot ,with walt discussed by the sports team but chris smiling when they enter, has to cover a lot of information which is visual and which the audience must decode like the throwing of the graduation hat which shows there close bond. but the book has to cover historical detail for example his road trip when he first got his car when it was new which give detail to is hidden beliefs and him as a person.
penn bends the truth to make a better story . where krakauer tells the things he uncover from asking people
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