Books Into Movies: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

By Suzanne Collins

Movie Directed by Gary Ross

(Also discussed in this review: What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes)

“I am by nature warlike.  To attack is among my instincts.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

     Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few months, you probably know the basic story line of The Hunger Games.  The book is the first of a young adult trilogy written by Suzanne Collins and set in a futuristic North America.  The country of Panem has a capital city in the Rockies.  The extravagant and self-indulgent citizens of The Capital City are supported by twelve districts which are held in captivity and forced to send the majority of their resources to The Capital.  The citizens of the districts live in abject poverty and the elderly often starve to death while younger adults and children do their best to survive.  This is the perfect recipe for revolution, which indeed occurred 75 years prior the time of this story.  The Capitol City prevailed, and as punishment and as a reminder to the Districts as to who is in charge, the tradition of the Hunger Games was proclaimed.  A male and female child (called “Tributes”) is chosen annually from each district to fight to the death in a contrived battle zone concocted and manipulated by the Game Masters in The Capital.  The one surviving Tribute brings great glory to his or her district as well as increased rations for the following twelve months. 

  

       The main character is Katniss Everdeen, an older teen who is fiercely independent and protective of her younger sister Prim.  Katniss has held her family together, hunting for food in the forbidden zones using her advanced archery skills and psychologically supporting her despondent mother.  Katniss lives in District 12 which was formerly Appalachia.  District 12 supplies coal and minerals to The Capital but still is one of the poorer Districts.  Katniss’ father was a coal miner and died in a mine accident.  When the time comes for the annual “Reaping” (selection of Tributes) Prim’s name is drawn but Katniss volunteers to take her place.  The male selected from District 12 is the son of the local baker and has a romantic interest in Katniss.

     

     The remainder of the story, told by Katniss, carries the reader through the preparation for and, finally, the Hunger Games themselves.  Katniss and the other Tributes are fed like royalty and put through vigorous training.  Katniss and Peeta Mellark (the male Tribute from District 12) are coached by the only previous District 12 Hunger Games winner, Haymitch Abernathy.  Haymitch is a bumbling alcoholic and is very pessimistic about the survival chances of the current two District 12 tributes.  He does convince Katniss and Peeta of the importance of providing good entertainment value for all of the citizenry who will be watching the games live.  They play up the romance angle and Peeta and Katniss become known as “The Star-crossed Lovers.”

   

     The Games are dominated by Tributes from the richer Districts, many of whom have been trained since birth to fight.  Katniss uses her unique cunning and archery skills to remain in competition.  Each time a Tribute dies a cannon sounds and at the end of the day pictures of the Tributes who perished that day are projected on a giant screen which takes the place of the sky.  The obstacles to Katniss’ survival go beyond the other Tributes and include forest fires orchestrated by the Game Masters, unpredictable weather, genetically altered killer bees called Tracer-Jackers and, finally, the dead Tributes themselves who are reincarnated as huge dog-like carnivorous beasts. 

     

     The movie is extremely well done and follows the book fairly closely.  Several minor characters and plot lines were not included, but they added a television commentator who narrates the events of the day to TV audience watching in The Capital City and in the Districts.  This character allows a lot of detail to be revealed at a fast pace, keeping the story in motion.  The characters of Katniss and Peeta are played very convincingly by Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, and Woody Harrleson (yes, the same guy from “Cheers”) does a marvelous job as Haymitch.  The cinematography is wonderful and most of the outdoor scenes were shot around Asheville, North Carolina.  Charlotte was used for The Capital City, but I didn’t see a lot of resemblance.

  

     For a 200+ page Young Adult book, this story packs a huge punch and the areas for discussion here are almost limitless.  Much has already been written about the political and social issues brought forward by The Hunger Games.  What can be said for a society which lives of the back of its poorer citizens, each year increasing the gap between the wealthy and the less fortunate?  What can be said about a society which receives thrills from watching the “agony of defeat” on live television reality shows?  This story speaks volumes about the ability of a few to control the many by abusing their position of power by economic means.  Panem is an extreme, but is it really that different from our current culture of greed?

     

     There are also a plethora of religious symbols in The Hunger Games.  There are churches that have started Bible study groups based on a discussion of this story.  There is the self-sacrifice which Katniss exhibits early on, volunteering as Tribute to spare her younger more fragile sister Prim.  There is also the theme of placing the good of a group over individual goals.  The survivor endures a terrible ordeal, but at least for twelve months, the lives of citizens in his or her home district are much improved.  Katniss also makes many decisions based solely on what she thinks is the morally right thing to do rather than what she feels society or others expect of her.  As Krishna states in the Mahabharata, “It is not right to stand by and watch an injustice being done.  There are times when active interference is necessary.”

    

       It is purely by coincidence that I was reading Karl Marlantes’ new book What It is Like to Go to War at the same time as I was reading The Hunger Games.   Marlantes, you may recall, is the author of Matterhorn,   the monumental novel of the Viet Nam War reviewed in these pages a few years ago.  This author is an Ivy League graduate, served as a Marine Lieutenant in the Viet Nam war and has struggled to understand his war experiences ever since.  He notes how societies send their young men (and now women) into combat very poorly prepared psychologically and spiritually for this experience.  Soldiers are trained in the efficient use of more and more lethal weapons, but are never counseled in how to deal with the anguish of violence and killing.    In this new non-fiction work Marlantes calls on Jungian psychology to state that we all have an evil inside of us (a “shadow” person) which under normal circumstances we are able to suppress.  In the extremes of stress, such as in combat, the evil side can surface and enable a human to kill another.  This “shadow” can also explain atrocities such as My Lai during Viet Nam or, more recently, the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib .  No soldier really “gets over” the experience of combat and killing and Marlantes feels this is the main cause of the high rates of suicide and incidence of alcoholism and drug abuse among veterans.  As Marlantes says:  “Warriors will always have to deal with guilt and mourning.  If we perform with a noble heart and dedicate our efforts to some higher good we minimize the suffering of guilt afterward.  This unfortunately will not eliminate the suffering of mourning.   Guilt is different from mourning.”  Even more telling, Marlantes says further:  “To survive psychically in the proximity of Mars, one has to come to terms with stepping outside conventional moral conduct.”

   

       It is enlightening to read The Hunger Games book and even more startling to watch the movie through the prism of Karl Marlantes’ important work.  I think that what Suzanne Collins has forged is an incredible anti-war statement.   Katniss Everdeen certainly is forced to step outside conventional moral conduct to survive.  The character of Haymitch (again so ably performed by Woody Harrelson) is really the symbol of the prototypical veteran consumed by survivor’s guilt and regret and drowning his later adult life with alcohol.  The evil side of human nature is Exhibit A in The Hunger Games.  There is even one time in the movie where Woody Harrelson’s Haymitch, referring to Rue, a younger Tribute who is following Katniss around The Capital City during training exercises, stares into Katniss’ eyes and says “You have a shadow!”  There is a long pause which seems to me to be a reference to the “self-preservation at all cost” nature hidden inside the outwardly humble and backward Katniss.   Marlantes describes night terrors where he sees North Vietnamese soldiers he killed years earlier.  The demons at the end of the story, the snarling, mad, flesh eating monsters created by The Game Masters from the killed Tributes have to represent the combat survivors’ nightmares. 

  

       Young Adult literature?  The Hunger Games has been pegged as such.  I think that this story deserves a much larger audience and greater discussion.  It succeeds on so many levels.  I recommend the book and the movie interpretation highly.

“Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected.” – Carl Jung, from Psychology and Religion

Movie Review: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" directed by David Fincher

                                              Movie Review: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”


     The new American version of the first installment of Stieg Larsson’s “Millenium Trilogy” is very, very good.  For those who don’t know the story, a discredited journalist named Mikael Blomqvist is hired by Henrick Vanger,  a wealthy Swedish family patriarch, to solve the decades old disappearance and presumed death of his beloved niece, Harriet Vanger.  Harriet disappeared as a sixteen year old on the same day that a truck accident blocked the only bridge leading off of the island which contains the family compound.  Her body was never found.  The only lingering clues are framed wildflowers which are sent annually to Henrik, presumably by the girl’s killer.  Mikael enlists the aid of Lisbeth Salander, the girl of the title, an ace researcher who can get around any computer security encryption.  Lisbeth is a deeply troubled young woman prone to violence, revenge, bisexuality, body piercing and tattoos.  Mikael’s search for the long lost niece uncovers a probable serial killer, most likely one of the Vangers, but which one?  Several of the uncles were Nazi sympathizers and all of the Vangers have issues, either with alcohol, anti-Semitism or anti-social behavior.  Eventually Mikael and Lisbeth independently identify the culprit, ableit nearly too late to save Mikael’s life.  The solution to the fate of Harriet Vanger is revealed, although simplified in this version of the story.

     David Fincher's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" has many strengths.  The casting is brilliant.  I thought that Daniel Craig would be a bit too macho to portray Mikael, but this former James Bond displays enough wariness, uncertainty and even fear to be convincing.   Rooney Mara is superb as Lisbeth, portraying the character’s twin natures: vulnerable waif and vengeful control freak.  The supporting cast is excellent also, particularly Chritopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger.

     The cinematography adds to the general creepiness of the story.  The snowy landscapes of the Vanger estate make you feel at times like you are watching a black and white Hitchcock film rather than a modern blockbuster.  The city-scapes are also draped in winter drab, adding to the somber atmosphere.

      The highlight of the film, though, may be the opening credits, played over a heavy metal remake of Led Zeppelin’s classic “Immigrant Song” which was director David Fincher’s idea brought to life by Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor.  This American movie is very similar to the Swedish version, although the lack of subtitles is a definite plus for this one.  Rooney Mara’s interpretation of Lisbeth Salander is different from Noomi Rapace’s, but not necessarily better.  I thought Mara’s occasional humorous moments helped the character seem more real.

     This is not a movie for the faint of heart, however.  The violent rape scenes are disturbing and the photos of the serial killer's victims which Mikael and Lisbeth uncover are equally difficult to view.

      All in all, though, this is a very good rendition of Steig Larsson’s haunting story.

The Millennium Trilogy, Part 2 - The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

The Millennium Trilogy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

By Stieg Larsson

           

(Blogger Note: This review was published in the October, 2010 edition of "LAMLight," the phyician newsletter of the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine and completes my review of the The Millennium Trilogy begun in the previous blog post.)

In my last blog post I began a review of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy.  As you may recall, these books have sold over 27 million copies in forty countries over the past five years.  The author, Stieg Larsson, was a Swedish political activist and journalist who died at age 50 from coronary disease shortly after turning the books into his publisher.  Again, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was reviewed in my last blog post and I will conclude in this post with a review of the final two books of the trilogy, The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. 

             The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo introduces the two main characters who dominate all three books.  They are Lisbeth Salander, a mysterious and socially awkward young woman in her twenties and Mikael Blomqvist, a discredited journalist.  In Dragon Tattoo the two team up to investigate a decades old missing person case which eventually discloses a serial killer and sexual predator.  Lisbeth uses her skills as a computer hacker to help with the investigation.  As Dragon Tattoo concludes, Lisbeth also provides the information which vindicates Blomqvist.  Her new information (obtained by illegal computer investigation) overturns Mikael’s previous libel conviction and puts him back in good standing with the journalism community.  Using her abilities as a computer genius,  Lisbeth also steals all of the industrialist’s money (billions of dollars).  Lisbeth proceeds to leave the country in a jealous rage when she sees Mikael back with his part-time lover and editor of the magazine he works for.       

              Played with Fire opens with Michael hard at work as a publisher of “Millennium” magazine.  He is working with two free-lance reporters on a story to expose sex trafficking in Sweden.  The research that these two free lancers have produced implicates some police as well as high placed Swedish politicians and security officers.  One mysterious character keeps turning up in the investigation, identified only by the letter “Z”.  Meanwhile, Lisbeth has returned to Sweden, mainly because of boredom, but also to reconnect with her lesbian lover Miriam Wu.  As the article on sex trafficking is near completion, the two free lance writers are found shot in their apartment by none other than Mikael Blomqvist.  On the same evening that the two writers are murdered, Lisbeth’s previous legal custodian is murdered as well.  Circumstantial evidence links Lisbeth to the crimes and a nationwide search is begun.  The only person in Sweden who is convinced of Lisbeth’s innocence is Mikael Blomqvist.  The book then follows a chase to find Lisbeth – by the police who are convinced she is a mad serial killer, by Mikael Blomqvist who loyally wants to prove that she is not guilty of these  crimes and, finally, by members of the Swedish security community who have much more sinister motives.  The reader eventually discovers that the mysterious “Z” character is actually a Russian spy named Zalachenko who defected to the Swedes during the Cold War.  He was “handled” and protected by a small cadre of special security agents within the Swedish secret police.  Zalachenko also turns out to be Lisbeth Salander’s father.  He has a record of physical violence, including beating Lisbeth’s mother into a coma.  He also is the mastermind behind the ring of criminals responsible for the trafficking of young Eastern European girls for the purpose of prostitution.  The plot of this second book is nothing if not tortuous.   Following the trails of Lisbeth Salander as she eludes the police, Zalachenko’s various compatriots as they try to cover up his crimes and the actual police who are clueless as to the complexity of the situation, is difficult.  The many Swedish names are similar and therefore difficult to remember.  The fact that two main characters are named Nieminen (a biker dude who tries to destroy evidence and find Salander under the direction of Zalachenko) and Niedermann (Zalachenko’s son and Salander’s half-brother who operates as a bodyguard and hit-man) makes the whole thing difficult to decipher.  The conclusion of Played with Fire is really just a “page break” and resolves few of the issues raised in the plot:  The relationship between Salander and Zalachenko is well-defined, but their fates are literally hanging.  Both of these characters are critically injured in a final confrontation on an isolated farm.

            This is the way that Kicked the Hornet’s Nest begins:  Salander is in the operating room for a gun shot wound to her head.  Zalachenko has a severe ax wound to his face and other less critical injuries.  Niedermann is on the loose, having killed a policeman during his escape from the final confrontation in Played with Fire.  During most of Hornet’s Nest  Salander is in the hospital recovering from her injury.  Zalachenko is assassinated in his hospital bed (by whom is a critical plot line).  It has become clear by now that Lisbeth was not responsible for the murders in the Played with Fire, but she is being charged with the attempted murder of her father.  Blomqvist is even more determined to prove Lisbeth’s innocence and find out who has been protecting Zalachenko all of these years and why.  Blomqvist also discovers the identities of the security agents who controlled Zalachenko over the decades and unravels all of their misdeeds.  These injustices included falsifying psychiatric evaluations of the teenaged Salander, thus committing her to years in a mental institution to keep her from exposing her infamous father (Zalachenko).  Blomqvist (with the aid of a recovering Salander and her computer skills) finally figures out the whole mess, writes a huge expose and Salander is finally vindicated.  During all this, Blomqvist also falls in love with one of the female police investigators, but does manage to reconcile with Salander by the end of the Trilogy.

            Upon completing The Millennium Trilogy I am reminded of a quote attributed to  Sir Winston Churchill.  When asked about a colleague Churchill is reported to have said:  "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."  These novels have many “virtues”.  They have fast-pace action sequences with explicitly detailed violence and sex (often together).  The three volume plot is very sinister and complex; by the mid-point of Played with Fire the plot is complex to the point of being almost impossible to follow.  There is an almost obligatory court scene at the conclusion of Hornet’s Nest which, while wrapping up some plot-line “loose ends”, seems anti-climactic.   The “vices” which I relish in a good novel include these:  First and foremost, I prefer likable characters.  The author, while developing his characters well and giving us plenty of back-story to really get to know them, never makes any of his characters very sympathetic.  When a story concerns a tragic victim, especially one of such epic proportions as Lisbeth Salander, I want to like the character.  It’s hard to really like Lisbeth Salander.  The reader can’t help but feel sorry for her, but like her?  I think not.  Mikael Blomqvist, who represents the hero of these stories, is ethically sound as an investigative journalist but has the sexual mores of an alley cat.  Blomqvist’s own sister, an attorney who represents Salander, even describes her brother as someone who “screws his way through life without regard to the consequences”.  This represents a contradiction which was hard for me to resolve.  The cabal of government security people, psychiatrists and lawyers who conspire to imprison Lisbeth and protect her despicable father are not flawed characters with mis-guided good intentions.  They are egotistical, delusional and (for the most part) sex driven maniacs.  What’s to like or relate to in these characters?  Not much.   I also enjoy and appreciate thorough description of place and setting, which the author did a great job of in the first book but abandons in the last two. 

            In summary, The Millennium Trilogy, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, is an international publishing phenomenon.  These books are well written, fast paced and intriguing.  The subject matter contains details which are not for the faint of heart. The characters are multi-dimensional and (at least Lisbeth Salander) unusual but not particularly likable.  The story is complex, but, in the end, complete.  Apparently there is a nearly finished fourth book that has been found in Mr. Larsson’s laptop.  Who knows where this will lead?

The Millennium Trilogy, Part 1 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Millennium Trilogy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

By Stieg Larsson

(Blogger Note: This review was originally published in September, 2010 in "The LAMLight", the physician newsletter of the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine.  It is posted here in anticipation of the new American movie based on this book to be released December, 2011.)

            Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy has become an international publishing phenomenon over the past five years.  The author’s tragic story adds a dimension to these novels which has played a part in generating enormous public interest.  Stieg Larsson was a political activist and the editor of a Swedish Trotskyist journal.  He exposed racist and extremist groups in his role as editor and journalist.  He was also an avid science fiction fan.  He was an admirer of such authors as Val McDermid, Sara Paretsky and Carol O’Connell and first entertained the idea of writing his own crime novels in the late 1990s.  He proceeded to write outlines for ten books.  He had the first two written and the third nearly complete before seeking a publisher.  After initial rejections he received a publishing contract in Sweden for three books.  In 2004, shortly after finishing the third novel in what has become known as The Millennium Trilogy, and before the first book was published, Larsson died of a heart attack at age 50.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was published posthumously in 2005 and by 2008 he was the second most read international author (behind only Khalid Hosseini).  By 2010, after publication of The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, his novels have sold over 27 million copies in forty countries.  Stieg Larsson is also the first author to sell one million e-books on Amazon.com.  In the September 5, 2010 edition of the “Lynchburg News and Advance” Larsson owned the top spot on the hard-back fiction list with Hornet’s Nest and the top two spots on the paperback fiction list with the first two installments.  His novels have won too many awards to list and continue to fascinate an international audience.  So, what’s all the fuss about?

            The trilogy really is one moderately long story (contained in Dragon Tattoo) and a second really long story divided between Played with Fire and Hornet’s Nest.  I decided to review them that way as well and so in this blog post I’ll discuss the first book and in the next post I’ll conclude with the last two.

            The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo introduces the two main characters who dominate all three books.  The first is Lisbeth Salander, a mysterious and socially awkward young woman in her twenties.  She intermittently plays bass in an all girl alternative rock band and works for a security company doing free-lance work.  Her main skill in this arena is her ability to hack into any computer or server with record speed.  She has very little affect, reacts inappropriately to social cues and, generally, is a misfit.  Although the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome is never used in any of the books, it is apparent that she probably has a variant of that disorder.  Interestingly, the author created the character after a conversation with some of his colleagues regarding what characters in children’s literature would be like as grown-ups.  Lisbeth, apparently, is based on a grown-up Pippi Longstocking as imagined by Stieg Larsson. 

It is in her capacity as a computer hacker that Salander meets Mikael Blomqvist.  Blomqvist is a journalist and co-editor of a monthly political journal (named “Millennium”) who is investigating a Swedish industrialist.  An article regarding this industrialist’s misappropriation of funds and involvement in international illegal arms trafficking is eventually published by “Millennium”.  Blomqvist is sued for libel and loses his court case, owing the industrialist reparations and sentenced to three months in jail.  While awaiting incarceration, Blomqvist is hired by Henrik Vanger, the patriarch of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families.  Henrik wants the journalist to investigate the disappearance of his favorite niece Harriett.  Harriett Vanger disappeared during a family meeting forty years earlier and was presumed murdered, although her body was never found.  Blomqvist takes residence on the isolated Vanger estate and enlists Lisbeth Salander’s aid in researching the family.  Quickly the two discover closets full of Vanger family secrets, including Nazi collaborators, religious zealots and general family dysfunction.  What follows is a very complicated investigation with unexpected twists and turns.  Various family members come under suspicion regarding Harriett’s disappearance.  Sinister attempts are made to thwart Blomqvist and Salander’s investigation.  The conclusion of this book reveals a serial killer who abducted and sexually molested immigrant girls over the course of many decades.  The complicity of members of the Vanger family and the reasons (and the culprit) for Harriett’s disappearance are revealed.  Some of the gory details of the killer’s actions were a little graphic for my taste.

During the investigation Mikael and Lisbeth become lovers and we learn a lot about both characters.  These details play key roles in the plot lines of the second two novels.  We learn that Lisbeth was confined to a mental institution between the ages of twelve and fifteen and still must report to a case worker because she is considered mentally incompetent by the state.  Lisbeth is also revealed as bisexual and completely unpredictable.  Mikael has a complicated love life himself, carrying on a long-term affair with his married co-publisher while having other lovers (including Lisbeth) at the same time. 

This novel is more than just the introduction of the two main characters.  The plot is fast-moving missing person tale, is surprising and holds the reader’s interest.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the only novel of the three which has a plot which “stands alone” and can be read without reading the other two.  The supporting characters are well developed also and are all interesting.  The descriptions of Swedish cityscapes and the more rural settings of the Vander estate are rich and reminiscent of the work of another Scandinavian author, Norwegian Per Petterson (Out Stealing Horses). 

There are some troublesome aspects to this book, in my opinion.  I have talked to several people who have read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and steadfastly refuse to even consider reading the follow-ups.  First is the amount of graphic violent and sexual detail which I mentioned earlier.  I think that the most difficult feature, however, is the general disregard for the female characters in the book.   Ironically, Larsson’s original title for this manuscript was Men Who Hate Women.  Just as you wouldn’t judge English culture only on the writings of Ian Fleming, or American culture on the writings of say, Tom Clancy, then I don’t think you can judge Swedish culture based only on the writings of Stieg Larsson.  However, in this novel anyway, women seem to be held in low regard, viewed mainly as sexual objects and somewhat interchangeable and disposable.  The most extreme example of this is the serial killer who is identified at the conclusion, but some of the other characters (including Mikael Blomqvist) are guilty of the same tendencies. 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an intriguing read with a plot that holds interest and unique characters.  The setting in Sweden is a plus and the writing is excellent.  Twenty seven million readers tend to agree.  If you are only going to read one of the trilogy, this is the one, but be prepared for a wild ride.

There is an excellent Swedish movie with the same title based on this book.  The movie follows the plot of the book fairly accurately, although they simplify Michael Blomqvist’s love life and confine his list of paramours to Lisbeth Salander.  This makes Blomqvist a bit more of a sympathetic character than in the book.  The movie also alludes to Lisbeth’s early mental illness issues, but the reasons for this are not well laid out and I think would be difficult to understand without having read the book.  Cinematically, the movie is stunning.  The movie brings the images from the novel of modern Stockholm as well as the rural countryside vividly to life.  The Vanger estate, in the movie, is particularly beautiful, filmed during the winter and spring seasons.  This story has also been optioned by one of the Hollywood studios.  It will be interesting to see if the American movie is nearly as good as the Swedish one. 

(Next post I’ll conclude with a review of The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.)

Books Into Movies: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Books Into Movies


(Blogger note: This article was previously published in LamLight, physician newsletter of the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine)

Into the Wild

By Jon Krakauer

“Into the Wild” – the Movie

Screenplay and Directed by Sean Penn

“Climbing the Sphinx”

By Fred Bahnson

From “Fugue” Magazine and The Best American Spiritual Writing 2007, Philip Zaleski, Editor

“Solitude” by Lord Byron

To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;
Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;
This is not solitude, 'tis but to hold
Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled.

But midst the crowd, the hurry, the shock of men,
To hear, to see, to feel and to possess,
And roam alone, the world's tired denizen,
With none who bless us, none whom we can bless;
Minions of splendour shrinking from distress!
None that, with kindred consciousness endued,
If we were not, would seem to smile the less
Of all the flattered, followed, sought and sued;
This is to be alone; this, this is solitude!

Into the Wild is the story of Chris McAndless, an Emory University honors graduate who gave away the remainder of his college fund, packed his belongings into an ancient Datsun B-210 and departed on a “magnificent adventure,” purposefully neglecting to tell anyone where he was headed or why.  Jon Krakauer is a well-respected adventure writer.  The book, as well as the movie, are outgrowths of an article he wrote in 1991 for “Outdoor” magazine after Chris’ body was found in an abandoned bus in the wilds of Alaska.  The author has done a masterful job of tracking Chris’ two year odyssey through Arizona, California, Mexico, Nevada, Montana, North Dakota and, finally and fatally, Alaska.  He has interviewed many people whom Chris befriended on the road: employers, co-workers and fellow vagabonds.  Through these interviews and observations, the picture of a complex personality evolves. 

Chris McAndless appears to be a walking contradiction.  He wanted to live off of the land and survive on his own instincts (in the manner of his hero Henry David Thoreau) but dove into all of his quests completely unprepared.  Krakauer points out that his death was totally preventable if he had just taken a topographical map with him.  He had a strained relationship with his parents for reasons that are well enumerated in the book, but had a wonderful, caring and loving relationship with his younger sister.  Once he departed Atlanta he did not communicate with any of his family, even his sister who he had communicated with dutifully over the years.  He seems somewhat slovenly and unkempt but is described by employers (a MacDonald’s manager and the owner of a grain elevator in North Dakota) as diligent and extremely hard-working.  He proclaimed this personal philosophy of simplicity and humility, yet renamed himself “Alexander Supertramp.”  He introduced himself by that name on the road and left graffiti here and there over that signature.

The author spends a good deal of the narrative trying to justify Chris McAndless’ wanderlust and convince the reader that the youngster was not just completely off his rocker.  Read from a parents’ point of view, this book is a horror story.  The family did make an attempt to locate Chris through the use of a private investigator, but he had hidden his tracks too well.  Into the Wild also contains some of the author’s own experiences with mountain climbing and wilderness exploration.  He also includes stories of other ill-fated expeditions. 

In summary, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is an entertaining but disturbing read.  The reader never really gets a grip on the motivations of Chris McAndless, but certainly comes away from this with a true sense of tragedy. 

“Into the Wild” (The Movie)

Screenplay and Directed by Sean Penn

This movie made it to Lynchburg over two months after its release and therefore my wife and I made a road trip to the Vinegar Hill Theater in Charlottesville to see it sooner.  It was well worth the trip.  Vinegar Hill Theater is a small arts cinema on one end of the downtown pedestrian Mall.  The movie is really quite stunning.  The cinematography is magnificent.  The outdoor scenes, especially in Alaska, are breathtaking.  The film makers use odd camera angles and unusual lighting to great effect.  The soaring bald eagles, roaming moose and antelope and even bear make you feel like you are watching a “National Geographic” or Discovery Channel special.  I was curious as to how anyone could make a movie out of a book with such little dialogue, but Sean Penn has made good use of some of the written messages from Chris McAndless printed over some scenes to make the story move along.  The atmosphere and “feel” of the movie is aided dramatically by a surreal soundtrack written and recorded by former Pearl Jam vocalist/guitarist Eddie Vedder.  The sound track album is exceptional by itself, but even more so after having seen “Into the Wild”.

The movie succeeds in several areas where the book falters.  First, Sean Penn makes Chris McAndless a very likable character.    The book spends most of the time trying to convince the reader that Chris just isn’t crazy.  The movie fleshes out the character and this version of Chris McAndless is really a terrific young man.   He comes across as the ultimate idealist and hater of hypocrisy.  The minor characters emerge as very sympathetic characters as well.  In the book, these characters are treated in a very journalistic or reportorial way, whereas in the movie they come to life.  It seems that peace and harmony follow Chris everywhere he goes.  Peace and harmony follows for everyone, that is, except for Chris McAndless.    In one memorable scene at Big Sur in California, Rainey, one half of a hippie couple who Chris helps resolve relationship problems, asks Chris: “Are you Jesus?”  He helps an old man (Mr. Frantz, played marvelously by octogenarian Hal Holbrook) come to grips with his loneliness and despair over being the last one of his family still living.  Mr. Frantz is so taken with Chris that he tries to adopt him.  Chris even helps a vagabond teenager deal with parental control issues.  This idealistic movie version of Chris helps everyone cope with their own demons even as he searches for the understanding of his own. The tragic death scene at the end of the movie is as haunting an experience as I’ve ever experienced in a movie.  I think it will stay with me forever.

“Climbing the Sphinx”

By Fred Bahnson

In contrast to the Chris McAndless story is the story “Climbing the Sphinx” by Fred Bahnson.  This was originally published in “Fugue” magazine and reprinted in The Best American Spiritual Writing of 2007 edited by Philip Zaleski.  This is an account of the author and his best friend’s climb of The Sphinx, a mountain adjacent to the Ennis Valley in southwestern Montana.  There is no doubt about Fred Bahnson’s motivation for mountain climbing.  He describes the area of Ennis Pass in the opening paragraph thus: “All that remains (after tourist season) is a comforting emptiness that broods over the bent world of mountain and valley like the Holy Ghost.”  These two decide to become the first to climb the icy slope without a rope.  This is a riveting description of a harrowing and near fatal trip.  The author describes one portion of the climb: “The passage upward was a passage through , a vertical portal into Meaning.”  Further along: “Flow dissolves self-awareness.  Gone are my flatland pedestrian worries about jobs and girlfriends – or lack thereof.  Gone my doubts and fears, even my joys and elations.  Those feelings will return, all of them magnified, but in flow I just am. Both climbers survive despite a broken ice ax and a sudden snow squall and return.  The author then asks the ultimate question: “This climbing business, this search for flow, for spiritual meaning – isn’t it just glorified selfishness?”  The author recounts a friend who died mountain climbing in Peru, leaving behind his new bride to grieve as a young widow.  “Where was Rob’s wife now?  How had she benefited from the risks he took?”  These are the questions that Jon Krakauer never answers in his examination of Chris McAndless in Into the Wild.  Sean Penn never really answers these questions either, although he does portray the anguish of Chris’ parents and sister quite dramatically.    Fred Bahnson eventually stops his high adventures while his companion on the Sphinx has an “Alexander Supertramp” type experience suffering a fatal fall while downhill skiing Mont Blanc in France.  Mr. Bahnson admits that even though  “from the mountains comes a welling up of deep-down things, a profound sense of life’s inherent majesty” that “the Sphinx and her pyramids had become idols.  Their loosening grip on me was being supplanted by the unshakable grip of God.  Augustine said that our hearts are restless until they find rest in God, but my Great Wanting was not so much a wanting to find as a wanting to be found.” 

Nowhere in the book Into the Wild is there a hint of a spiritual awakening.  The Chris McAndless story portrayed by Jon Krakauer seems like an aimless wandering, a wasted life.  Sean Penn does give more meaning to the “magnificent adventure” of Chris McAndless, scripting the last eighteen months of Chris’ life as an attempt to deal with the hypocrisy and lies of his father.  In the movie, just as Chris comes to an epiphany of sorts, he is betrayed by his lack of preparation and the cruelty and severity of the wild.  Therein resides the real tragedy of Chris McAndless. 

From “Guaranteed” by Eddie Vedder (Soundtrack to “Into the Wild”)

On bended knee is no way to be free

Lifting up an empty cup I ask silently

That all my destinations will accept the one that’s me

So I can breathe

Leave it to me as I find a way to be

Consider me a satellite forever orbiting

I knew all the rules but the rules did not know me

Guaranteed