He meets such people as Rainey and Jan (Brian Dieker and Catherine Keener), leftover hippies still happily rejecting society, and Wayne ( Vince Vaughn), a hard-drinking, friendly farmer. These are people who take in the odd youth, feed him, shelter him, give him clothes, share their lives, mentor him and worry as he leaves to continue his quest, which seems to them, correctly, as doomed.Д«y now McCandless has renamed himself Alexander Supertramp.

It was an impressive reporting achievement to track them down, and Penn's film affectionately embodies them in strong performances. In the book, Krakauer traces his movements through the memories of people he encounters on his journey. He sees himself not as homeless, but as a man freed from homes. In centuries past such men might have been saints, retreating to a cave or hidden hermitage, denying themselves all pleasures except subsistence. He keeps journals in which he sees himself in the third person as a heroic loner, renouncing civilization, returning to the embrace of nature. Why did he disappear from their lives, why was his car found abandoned, where was he, and why, why, why? He had good grades at Emory his future in law school was right there in his grasp. We meet Christopher ( Emile Hirsch) as an idealistic dreamer, in reaction against his proud parents ( William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden) and his bewildered sister ( Jena Malone).

Sean Penn's spellbinding film adaptation of this book stays close to the source.

Into the wild book awards