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The movie, "Wild"

s. brown

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Le Puy 2015
In today's local newspaper, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, there is a great review by Roger Moore of the new movie with Reese Witherspoon, " Wild." A brief part of the review says,"Witherspoon . . .hikes her way out of a tragic past, one painful, traumatic step at a time. A find-yourself-by-yourself drama in the "Into the Wild, or "The Way" mold, "Wild" sends Witherspoon on a self-imposed spiritual quest to make amends for the damage she's done to herself and others."

"A hiking novice....she sets out to trek and Pacific Crest Trail. Her goal is simple, to 'walk myself back into the woman my mother thought I was.' "

"And with every step, every rookie hiker's mistake, she remembers that mother (Laura Dern) in flashbacks. (She) will march from the Mojave Desert north to Oregon and Washington. She will do it alone with no wilderness or long-walk background . . . What saves this from becoming some indulgent and precious "Hike, Pray, Love" is Witherspoon's earthy turn in the leading role and the rich, nurturing presence of Dern, seen in flashbacks..."

"The humor comes from Witherspoon's salty fury at all the stuff she does wrong from the wrong-sized hiking boots, to the overstuffed pack that threatens to "turtle" on her."

The critic gives the movie an A, and it certainly seems likely to be of movie of interest to readers of this forum. I'm eager to see it.
 
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They filmed the entire thing near my home. Even the Mohave desert scenes, for which they trucked in some
Joshua trees!

I guess the book sent a flood of ill-prepared hikers out onto the trail....
 
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Solo journeys to find oneself. Pretty standard fare for movies and books.
I like the idea of movies like this. More story and doesn't rely on computerized special effects nonsense that you see too much in so many of the movies that get churned out these days.
I also like that a movie like this brings awareness to places like the Pacific Crest Trail. That awareness and the increased usage by people helps to maintain it and bring about others like it.
 
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I, too, read the book but was disappointed, so I'm hoping this is one of those very rare adaptations where the film ends up being better than the book. I mean, she didn't even walk the entire PCT!

Wild currently has a 92% fresh rating from critics and 80% fresh rating among fans on Rotten Tomatoes, so maybe it is better than the book! Also, one Golden Globe nomination. Looking forward to seeing it!

Related note: The first and best book I read on the PCT was "The High Adventures of Eric Ryback" -- about a teen boy just out high school who walked all the way from Mexican border to Canada along the PCT. I was an impressionable teen myself when I read it, but it was a great, allegedly true, long-walk adventure story.
 
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I, too, read the book but was disappointed, so I'm hoping this is one of those very rare adaptations where the film ends up being better than the book. I mean, she didn't even walk the entire PCT!

Wild currently has a 92% fresh rating from critics and 80% fresh rating among fans on Rotten Tomatoes, so maybe it is better than the book! Also, one Golden Globe nomination. Looking forward to seeing it!

Related note: The first and best book I read on the PCT was "The High Adventures of Eric Ryback" -- about a teen boy just out high school who walked all the way from Mexican border to Canada along the PCT. I was an impressionable teen myself when I read it, but it was a great, allegedly true, long-walk adventure story.

Aww... haven't got to the part saying she hasn't walked the entire trail yet!! lol. I thought she did.
 
I met a hiker last year on an English trail who had walked the PCT and he told me all about it... But he kinda put me off it with his stories of rattlesnakes, bears, mountain lions and heavy packs! Then I stumbled across the book earlier this year and really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie but it doesn't come out here in London until January.

The book still left me thinking I couldn't attempt to walk the PCT but then I read a brilliant blog by a sole female Aussie who completed it last year (www.serialnomad.com) and that got me thinking that maybe it is something I could do... Now I'm hoping to do it next year, if all goes well :)

Buen Camino!

Kat
 
I read the book awhile ago, long before I heard of the camino. I thought it was a good read, I really like stories like hers. I will definitely see the movie when it comes around.
 
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:) I've seen it thanks to our local film festival 4weeks ago.
Go see it - read the book.
The movie and the book might make the PCT more popular with more future hikers planning for it.
 
I just finished reading Wild and really enjoyed it. Thanks for the link Kat. I found myself lost in that blog for hours.
 
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Sounds interesting, and hopefully will be released in the UK in the not-too-distant future. If not, the book also sounds good and, if the usual situation prevails, it will probably be better than the film!

Either way, worth investigation it seems. :)
 
We saw the movie last weekend and it's good. Of course, with any book to film, you miss a lot of the depth in the story, but overall I likes it. They did cut out a few characters I was sat to see omitted, but I think you get the gist of her experience. Worth seeing, and the book was fabulous.
 
I have just read the book and had a chuckle about the heavy pack she started with. Aahh memories of a heavy pack!!

Yes, poor wee Reese looked like she was going to topple over in the jinournous pack I saw in a clip from the movie trailer.
 
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Here is an online tool to see where Wild will be on the big screen near you: Wild Screenings
It starts around here this Friday, 19 December, 2014. It is showing in the more artsy places first, then I suspect it will be in all the theaters.
 
Loved the book - read it twice - own it in hardback and paperback. The movie isn't the book. Saw the movie - give it a 6. Tops.
 
Loved the book - read it twice - own it in hardback and paperback. The movie isn't the book. Saw the movie - give it a 6. Tops.

Agreed. Really enjoyed the book. The movie was okay. IMHO.
It was all Reese and little of her fellow hikers as NomadPeah mentioned.

But the PCT is on the list for "someday". ;)
 
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Agreed. Really enjoyed the book. The movie was okay. IMHO.
It was all Reese and little of her fellow hikers as NomadPeah mentioned.

But the PCT is on the list for "someday". ;)
Yeah. Wouldn't see it twice if you paid me and a trip to Spain.;-) Typical Hollywood. Wrong casting IMO. A local well known nationally syndicated film critic (past actress, daughter of a director) broke out in kindness and gave it a 7. But she is generous.
 
It's fine, but this is no Oscar winner.

There are scenes where I was laughing before everyone else in the cinema because I just knew what was to come, like when she walks in the motel with lots and lots of huge bags of equipment - you guessed it, she can't move her bag, nevermind lift it or put it on her back.

I have not walked the PCT nor do I know anyone that has, but from this film you get the sens that it is truly a solo journey, and not for the faint of heart. No cafe con leche, nowhere to do laundry and no beds to worry about chinches. Also, some of her human encounters were frightening, and that more than the walk would deter me from doing such a treck.

The movie, in my perspective, is very powerful in the flashbacks to her difficult life growing up and her relationships after her mother's passing. The walking part are the lighter and humours part of the movie.

I just hope this movie inspires people to walk the PCT instead of the Camino ;0)
 
Got a chance to see it a couple of days ago. Good movie (warning for bad language and explicit scenes though). Her life story has been tough for sure. But if you just consider the basic story of Cheryl being able to walk the PCT, or walk anywhere at all with 'that' pack, and barely any hiking knowledge, it's pretty awesome! I walked the camino with a pack less than a quarter her pack weight and thought I had done well!
 
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I could relate to that part. After my sister died, my nephew hiked the AT to recover - thru hike. he works in the White Mountains where my extended family largely lives, is an outdoorsman by profession so knew what he was doing - and his boss gave him the months off - even his girlfriend joined him. He needed to walk it out - and he did.
 
I could relate to that part. After my sister died, my nephew hiked the AT to recover - thru hike. he works in the White Mountains where my extended family largely lives, is an outdoorsman by profession so knew what he was doing - and his boss gave him the months off - even his girlfriend joined him. He needed to walk it out - and he did.

My mother's unexpected death is what sent to the Camino. I wanted to the El Norte, because she was from Santarder, but back them there were much fewer albergues and the distances would have been way too much for me. Every time I go back and walk a different section I can't help but wonder if she has ever been there, or my grandparents.

Even if I walked the Frances, I had the impression that I was bringing her back home, after she had to leave as a child during the Civil War. So many times I thought I was hearing someone walking behind me. But I was alone. I also met people who shared things in common with her life, things that few people do or experience. After my last day I took a bus to Santander to bring a little rock from here to leave there. I walked into the Cathedral's chapel, where my grandparents got married, where I joined them when I was 6 to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, and wouldn't you know it, there was a small wedding going on. I left my rock in the courtyard. That Camino trully offered me magic.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
My mother's unexpected death is what sent to the Camino. I wanted to the El Norte, because she was from Santarder, but back them there were much fewer albergues and the distances would have been way too much for me. Every time I go back and walk a different section I can't help but wonder if she has ever been there, or my grandparents.

Even if I walked the Frances, I had the impression that I was bringing her back home, after she had to leave as a child during the Civil War. So many times I thought I was hearing someone walking behind me. But I was alone. I also met people who shared things in common with her life, things that few people do or experience. After my last day I took a bus to Santander to bring a little rock from here to leave there. I walked into the Cathedral's chapel, where my grandparents got married, where I joined them when I was 6 to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, and wouldn't you know it, there was a small wedding going on. I left my rock in the courtyard. That Camino trully offered me magic.
That is so sweet. Magic, indeed!
 
Geez, that was one of the most irritating movies I ever saw. The hiking was fairly well done, but the endless flashbacks to the screwed up mess she was was pretty tedious.

Lots of scenes of my part of Oregon though!
 
Geez, that was one of the most irritating movies I ever saw. The hiking was fairly well done, but the endless flashbacks to the screwed up mess she was was pretty tedious.

Lots of scenes of my part of Oregon though!
So sad you did not enjoy those flashback, to me, other than the few humouristic scenes of the backpack being to heavy or getting lost while snowboarders ski by, are the best part of the movie. Made me appreciate what some women, and children, go through in life - and yet the mother was alway pulling her sleeves up with a smile on her face.
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Reading the book now, will probably not watch the movie. Or at least I won't pay for it. I'll wait until it is all chopped up for free TV viewing.
 
So sad you did not enjoy those flashback,Made me appreciate what some women, and children, go through in life -.

I never doubted or lacked appreciation that life can be hard, but I'm not sure that it is "so sad" that I'd rather not spend a long slow movie suffering through someone's mundane life. As she says, "we all have problems", just some of them are hardly worth a movie.


PS: Snowboarders don't ski they "ride". They can be quite touchy about that. Fortunately, they are rarely in the backcountry.
 
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I saw this movie yesterday, I enjoyed the hiking parts and had to admire her for doing what she did whatever her reasons. Funnily the one thing that stood out for me in the movie was when she was told that if she rang REI and told them about her ill fitting boots, they would ship another pair to the next stop for her free of charge, and they did. That is excellent service for sure.
I wish we had a store like that here.
 
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Seen a clip and thought it looked great - but it was booked out when I went to see it. i'll try again. I will look the book out too - although I do enjoy a more comic read - Bryson's 'A Walk in the Woods' had me howling with laughter...
 
I read the book which was a Christmas present and it is now one of my favourite books. Lots of humour as well as sadness. I also saw the film earlier this week and liked it although not as much as the book. In my opinion the film has too many flashbacks which makes for a disjointed narrative. But without doubt, for fellow Camino tragics like myself, the book and the film are musts.
 
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I read the book earlier this month, after reading a review of the movie in the New York Times. I really, really wanted to fall in love with this, as I really eat up any and all through (or long distance) hiking videos/books. The parts about the daily hike and who she met were pretty good - but the constant rumination about how bad her past had been got a bit tedious for me. However if you look at it as a sort of transcript from her journal (which I read it rather was), it's a pretty good read. I haven't seen the movie yet - but probably will! If I invest the time to read a book, I usually like to watch the movie for comparison.
 
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Went to see it and thought it was pretty good. Getting me in the mood for my journey!
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Oh great, more threads for movie reviews. I still have to see this one (not in cinema's yet), so no spoilers please :)

Where is the movie review thread on the "six ways to santiago" documentary? Saw that one today
 
I read the book and saw the movie. And I enjoyed both. There is no comparison to the Camino. The PCT is solitary and no such thing as a pilgrim family. Or a cafe con leche. Definitely not for me.
 
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It showed her actual photos at the end credits, you could see the happiness just flowing through her while she's on the PCT, you see similar natural joy while on the Camino's even if people are not aware they are expressing it. Saw Into the Wild a few years ago and the actual photo of him sat next to the bus where he met his end has a similar quality a big genuine smile unhindered by self- consciousness.
 
In today's local newspaper, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, there is a great review by Roger Moore of the new movie with Reese Witherspoon, " Wild." A brief part of the review says,"Witherspoon . . .hikes her way out of a tragic past, one painful, traumatic step at a time. A find-yourself-by-yourself drama in the "Into the Wild, or "The Way" mold, "Wild" sends Witherspoon on a self-imposed spiritual quest to make amends for the damage she's done to herself and others."

"A hiking novice....she sets out to trek and Pacific Crest Trail. Her goal is simple, to 'walk myself back into the woman my mother thought I was.' "

"And with every step, every rookie hiker's mistake, she remembers that mother (Laura Dern) in flashbacks. (She) will march from the Mojave Desert north to Oregon and Washington. She will do it alone with no wilderness or long-walk background . . . What saves this from becoming some indulgent and precious "Hike, Pray, Love" is Witherspoon's earthy turn in the leading role and the rich, nurturing presence of Dern, seen in flashbacks..."

"The humor comes from Witherspoon's salty fury at all the stuff she does wrong from the wrong-sized hiking boots, to the overstuffed pack that threatens to "turtle" on her."

The critic gives the movie an A, and it certainly seems likely to be of movie of interest to readers of this forum. I'm eager to see it.


Went to see the movie with my Mom. It did bring back memories of my own (shortened) camino. The biggest thing was when I saw the size of her pack, I'm just shaking my head, no, no, no! That pack was probably heavier than she was! No desire to walk the PCT, but my dream is still alive to get back to the CF!
 
Did not care for the book nor the movie! Neighbor girl walked the entire PCT and her descriptions are nothing like the book, e.g. herds of volunteers go out of their way to resupply hikers and even drive them to town for a meal and a shower. Because of these volunteers , she did not carry a lot of extra stuff. She said she could go on the net at a stop and arrange for a volunteer to meet her at a point somewhere ahead of her for resupply. Said she was never asked to pay for anything. She never felt alone as she frequently met other hikers. Neighbor carried 5 kilos and clipped her fingernails every morning to keep her weight down!
 
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Neighbor girl walked the entire PCT and her descriptions are nothing like the book,
So this neighbour also walked in 1995? I somehow think this might be a commentary on the enormous advances achieved in technology and the profile of the long distance trails rather than the accuracy and veracity of the book or the film.
 
Wild the movie was ok imo but not hugely inspiring. It did get me interested in walking the PCT but nowhere near the positive effect that The Way had on me.

Tracks i have heard is excellent
 
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So this neighbour also walked in 1995? I somehow think this might be a commentary on the enormous advances achieved in technology and the profile of the long distance trails rather than the accuracy and veracity of the book or the film.
Movie/book was about walking in '95, but young women think it is like that now and are leery of walking it. My neighbor tells them how it is now and highly encourages them to walk it. Interesting that neighbor says she would NOT walk it alone !

Ever read, "The Long Walk" by Rawicz? Excellent book about WW II POWS escaping from a camp in Siberia and walking all of the way to India! Very controversial book about walking long stretches with NO water.
 
Movie/book was about walking in '95, but young women think it is like that now and are leery of walking it.
That is unfortunate. I know that the film makers took great care to ensure that it was clearly set in 1995, going to great lengths to ensure the authenticity of the props etc. I have watched the film twice, and have detected one minor continuity error, and a few places where there has been a somewhat more dramatic interpretation of events than might have been justified by the book. I generally think they have done a great job of making Cheryl Strayed's book into a compelling piece of cinema.

We face a similar issue here in this forum where the pace of change is sometimes glacial, and in other areas extremely rapid. One that comes to mind is the penetration of good wifi services. In 2010 on the CF, these were almost non-existent, and certainly not free. On the CI this year I think I found free wifi almost everywhere I stopped.
 
Did not care for the book nor the movie! Neighbor girl walked the entire PCT and her descriptions are nothing like the book, e.g. herds of volunteers go out of their way to resupply hikers and even drive them to town for a meal and a shower. Because of these volunteers , she did not carry a lot of extra stuff. She said she could go on the net at a stop and arrange for a volunteer to meet her at a point somewhere ahead of her for resupply. Said she was never asked to pay for anything. She never felt alone as she frequently met other hikers. Neighbor carried 5 kilos and clipped her fingernails every morning to keep her weight down!
May have just found my next walk! ;0)
 
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Neighbor girl walked the entire PCT and her descriptions are nothing like the book.
Neighbor carried 5 kilos and clipped her fingernails every morning to keep her weight down!

Carried 5kG? How is that possible? A bear canister alone weighs over 1kg, empty. This is a mandatory piece of equiptment for a big part of the trail. Then on more then one occasion you need several liters of water and days of food before you reach any re-supply point.
Not to mention you need a sleeping bag that is good to aprox 20F/-7c so their goes another 0.5kg at least and a backpack to put it in, another 0 .5kg at the minimum and at a very basic tarp of several hundred grams. naah, 5KG is impossible.
Maybe, a big big BIG maybe her baseweight was 5kg excl water, food,poles, bear canister ect.
 
Carried 5kG? How is that possible? A bear canister alone weighs over 1kg, empty. This is a mandatory piece of equiptment for a big part of the trail. Then on more then one occasion you need several liters of water and days of food before you reach any re-supply point.
Not to mention you need a sleeping bag that is good to aprox 20F/-7c so their goes another 0.5kg at least and a backpack to put it in, another 0 .5kg at the minimum and at a very basic tarp of several hundred grams. naah, 5KG is impossible.
Maybe, a big big BIG maybe her baseweight was 5kg excl water, food,poles, bear canister ect.
I've hiked parts of the PCT==just 40miles at a go. My pack was always at least 15 kilos. I took a bad fall near Sisters and sliced up a hand on an outcropping of obsidian, twisting my ankle pretty bad in the process. I hiked out on it all laced up tightly in my leather Danner's. The PCT is very beautiful, and I think it would be a great accomplishment to hike the whole thing, but it would take a lot of time.
 
I missed the movie, but read the book. It was a story. Inspiration to walk, I do not think so.
 
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A much better movie IMO was "Tracks" about a young woman who crossed Australia from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean.
http://tracks-movie.com/

I've seen both movies, much preferred Tracks, which I became slightly obsessed with and wrote my best poetry about... the interaction between landscape and character.

I felt Wild was more about the flashbacks and interactions with people, while Tracks is more in the moment and the girl's interaction with the environment. Tracks also shows the red desert centre of Australia really well. Both movies are worth seeing and of interest for peregrinos. Carole
 

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