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Discussion Forum - Long Distance Paths - 'Wild' film


Author: Iain Connell
Posted: Wed 10th Jun 2015, 19:39
Joined: 2010
Local Group: East Lancashire
The DVD of 'Wild' was released on 25th May:

Region: 2
Classification: 15
Run time: 115 mins
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

and is available from Amazon, at least, to purchase or download.

Iain
Author: Iain Connell
Posted: Sun 1st Mar 2015, 13:13
Joined: 2010
Local Group: East Lancashire
In researching 'Wild' I discovered, or remembered, a previous feature film depicting a journey by foot along a long distance trail. This one was Emilio Estevez's 'The Way', released in the UK in 2011. This film's main character is Tom (Martin Sheen), a Californian ophthalmologist whose fictional and real-life son Daniel (Mr. Estevez) dies in a storm on the first day of a walk of the Camino De Santiago or Way of St. James. Tom travels to the French Pyrenees to identify his son's body, which is cremated. He then (next day, in filmic time) himself sets out to do the Way carrying Daniel's ashes. A few days into the route he meets three companions - a Dutchman, a Californian woman and an Irishman - and together they journey to journey's end (Campostela de Santiago) and beyond (the Galician coast).

It's not a good enough film to recommend, either for its story or characterisation. It does, however, feature more of its co-star - the Camino - than does 'Wild' of the Pacific Crest Trail. And Tom's physical journey is a least a full-length one - the 732 km (455 miles) of the most popular of the French Ways (there are several other start places) from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in Basque country to the Spanish coastal town of Muxia. The Way looks pretty (easy, apart from the Pyrennean start), there are plenty of hostels - a local industry - and in the event of an incident you'll not be alone for long (225,000 Pilgrims in 2014, says Wikipedia). So in LDWA terms it looks more like a novice's route than a challenge, distinguished more for its length than its severity.

And what of Tom's Pilgrimage, and those of his three pals ? When a film's faults start to get in the way of its merits you know you're in poor hands, and this one's are many. The French policeman's "en rowte", the clothes (not even Camino newbies would wear skin-tight denims, slender Emilio's boots and product-placed waterproofs mysteriously fit his none-too-fit father), none of the four suffer even the smallest blister, the weather is too dry for autumn in northern Spain, the unsealed ashes-in-a-box remain mysteriously dry after immersion (along with Martin) in a fast-flowing river. Tom's grief is sympathetically handled, and your experience of his pilgrimage-to-growth may be more meaningful for you than it was for me. But it's still worth looking out for on DVD, if only because it's numero dos on a very short list.

Iain.
Author: Iain Connell
Posted: Sun 8th Feb 2015, 15:24
Joined: 2010
Local Group: East Lancashire
In 2013 I wrote a review for Strider (no. 127, Dec.) of Cheryl Strayed's beautifully written book 'Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found'. The book recounts her 1995 solo walk along 1100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Now here's the film, produced by and starring Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl, which will soon disappear from cinema screens (unless it garners Oscars or Baftas) and which I recommend you see before it goes to DVD.

Unlike many adapted books, Nick Hornby's screenplay stays remarkably faithful to the both the spirit and the chronology of the original. It begins with the lost boot (her Monster pack knocked it over a ravine; she threw its companion after it and continued on duct-taped sandals). It uses scenes from the backpacking journey to engender memories and incidents from Cheryl's troubled life - heroin use, extra-marital sex, the death of her mother from cancer (she'd missed it, that night), absent but abusing father, the family horse. In my view these are more skilfully weaved into the narrative than in the book, but they're only slightly less graphic. And then there's the lost toenail (more in the book), not to mention the pack-welts and snakes, some of them male.

Reese Witherspoon is very good indeed in this central role, for which she has been nominated for both Oscar (as has Laura Dern as her mother) and Bafta. She holds the film together extremely well, and her journey from 26-year old backpacking newbie (she did no preparation, her boots were too small, she started with far too much gear, all of it untried) to seasoned backpacker. When she finally breaks down with grief (after a child's song), then makes it to journey's end (the Bridge of the Gods on the Washington State border) we share in her fulfilment of a goal achieved only by herself, for herself. What happens later is not related - a family, a novel and an online advice column - but the film has done its unflinching and almost entirely accurate (to a long-distance walker) job.

And a visually sumptuous job it is. The PCT scenery is displayed in all its harshness and beauty, from the Mojave desert in California to the wet lushness of the Oregon forests. You'll want to go and do some (I haven't), though it's rather longer - 2663 miles in total. Like Cheryl, you will meet and share with other trail hikers, can send on parcels of food and replacement boots. And like the bear which she encounters in the book (if not the film), you'll have to shit in the woods. So far as I am aware, it's the only mainstream film whose co-star is a national trail, but it shares with 2013's 'Tracks' (the story of Robyn Davidson's 1700-mile camel trek across the Australian desert) its two central characters - a solo walker (young, female) and the landscape (geographic and personal) through which she journeys.

If your spouse or partner has difficulty in understanding why you do continuous long-distance walks on your own (if you do), these two films might help them towards some clues. You don't have to have suffered early death of a much-loved parent, not to mention indulged in drug and sexual abuse, but you may share with Cheryl and Robyn the quiet and very personal stillness which comes only at the end of a long day with a heavy backpack. Or maybe that's just me.

Iain.

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