[Closed] Sobering films that you've watched- into the wild

Interesting article [url= http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-chris-mccandless-died ]http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-chris-mccandless-died[/url]

read the book, the film is about half of the story.

Soundtrack the album is good too, Eddie Vedder.

Only seen the film and thought the bloke was a tit.

Book may throw more light on him and his motivation.

Only seen the film and thought the bloke was a tit.

Tell us about your greatest struggles and achievements.

The amount of raw speculation in that article seems a bit toxic in itself. But then again, speculation and opinion presented as truth seems to be a trademark of Krakauer.

The Intouchables was a fantastic film.

[quote=Pigface ]Only seen the film and thought the bloke was a tit.
Book may throw more light on him and his motivation.
Read the book. That confirms it.(with the Krakauer proviso)

You can see the bus on Google maps: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Magic+Bus/ @63.8683101,-149.7711673,316m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x56cd41b721369a7f:0x7adea78ed34bbc45!8m2!3d63.8683101!4d-149.7689786

Blackfish

Blackfish was really upsetting.

Read the book many years ago so vague memories but do recall I had zero sympathy for his death which seemed to be entirely of his own making, so more in the

people who think he was an idiot who came to grief because he was arrogant, woefully unprepared, mentally unbalanced, and possibly suicidal

camp that Krakauer describes. The book Into Thin Air was pretty harrowing, and as a result of reading it I possibly got more out of Everest than people who hadn't (and Everest also drew on Boukreev's response "The Climb" for a bit of balance to Krakauers speculative version).

If you include fiction that left an impact, Dead Man's Shoes with Paddy Considine, and the Brit horror flick Eden Lake with Michael Fassbender.

Three Fish I cycled from Vancouver to Mexico, over to you.

Define sobering! As in makes you stop and think, or makes you stop being drunk? 😉

Or maybe makes you stop and re-evaluate world and the stuff that's in it?

mentally unbalanced, and possibly suicidal

Is there any evidence for this? I haven't read the book, or seen the film, but I found that article above quite interesting, so I may have to change that.

From just that article, it seems to me that anyone who is relying on guidebooks for survival tips is asking for trouble. If this was the case, then his main mistake was being "woefully unprepared", and possibly naive: He won't be the first, nor the last.

Unthinkable....Makes you think

I read the book first. I think the book makes him out to be an even bigger nobber than the film does.

Chris Whatshisface = a bloke who died climbing Everest in flip flops. Metaphorically.

Natural selection is good, remember that.

[i]It might be said that Christopher McCandless did indeed starve to death in the Alaskan wild, but this only because he’d been poisoned, and the poison had rendered him too weak to move about, to hunt or forage, and, toward the end, “extremely weak,” “too weak to walk out,” and, having “much trouble just to stand up.” He wasn’t truly starving in the most technical sense of that condition…. [But] it wasn’t arrogance that had killed him, it was ignorance…, which must be forgiven, for the facts underlying his death were to remain unrecognized to all, scientists and lay people alike, literally for decades.[/i]

[url= https://medium.com/galleys/how-chris-mccandless-died-992e6ce49410#.r4fywe2us ]https://medium.com/galleys/how-chris-mccandless-died-992e6ce49410#.r4fywe2us[/url]

Three Fish I cycled from Vancouver to Mexico

Why?

over to you

Overcoming sobriety. Back to you?

The Road. Think post-Trump.

Ethel and Ernest. Animated film by Raymond Briggs about his parents.
Simple, honest and devastatingly sad.

Three Fish you asked

Is there any evidence for this? I haven't read the book, or seen the film, but I found that article above quite interesting, so I may have to change that.

as I said above I read the book when it first came out so memory is hazy, but my recollection was that he seemed to be wilfully poorly prepared and equipped, and that he was sufficiently intelligent for any recklessness to be down to arrogance rather than ignorance.

Grave of the Fireflies

and in a similar vein

When the Wind Blows

What I took from the book, and I guess the film to, is that it asks what makes a person give up all of their possessions and risk their lives to live isolated in the wilderness. You can, of course, just wrap it all up neatly in your mind and decide that they did it because they are a tit, but the that's not really exploring the issue, is it?

Into the Wild. Never has Death by Misadventure been more appropriate. If he'd just had a map he would have been fine. I enjoyed the film but he was incompetant, as above sad but natural selection at work. If you intend to live in the Wilderness it's best to be prepared.

Not sure we've watched a really sobering film this year. Maybe "Eye in the Sky" or Room ?

EDIT: tearful film of the year was "Stepmom" made 20 years ago but had never seen it before. Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts

Three Fish you asked

I asked why you did it. Why did you cycle from Vancouver to Mexico?

I had run out of milk, so cycled down to the corner shop, it was closed so I went to the market across the road, before I knew it I was at the border fence near San Diego.

I have both the book and the film. In both he was portrayed as a bit of a tit. Although that's not really a criticism, most of us are quite frankly tits.

He did seem woefully ill prepared. Primarily in skills and experience.

I'll go with the nobber opinion on the grizzly guy. Everything I've been told or read about grizzlies is that you give them space and avoid them.

I've camped solo in grizzly territory and no matter how much I told myself the odds were tiny if the rules were followed I still jumped anytime there was a noise outside the tent.

It's one time I'm happy to pay fees for using organised sites. Bear boxes, safety in numbers etc.

I'll go with the nobber opinion on the grizzly guy.

Are you thinking of a different film? Grizzly Man perhaps?

Have just started watching Blackfish for the first time and I'm feeling pretty disgusted with myself for going to SeaWorld 10 years ago and not realising how wrong it all was.
Sobering indeed.

I thought Blackfish was proved to be bollocks years ago?
Try Googleing - Blackfish inaccuracies

Fish Face. That is most pointless argument of 2016. Chapeau.

Are you thinking of a different film? Grizzly Man perhaps?

Duh. Yes. My comment on Chris McCandless withdrawn as I slap my forehead!

And stating the now obvious I found the end of "Grizzly Man" sobering.

I found The Mask You Live In pretty bleak, sobering when you think although made in America it could be anywhere in the world.

I've seen most of the ones listed so far. I was sad for a week after "into the wild".
My contribution, which IMO sums the thread title up... "come & see".

I thought Blackfish was proved to be bollocks years ago?
Try Googleing - Blackfish inaccuracies

Good point. I mean, it's not like there's some multi-million pound cooperation out there wanting you to think this, is there?

Not seen the film but I read the book - partly because I've read Into Thin Air and liked it so something else by Jon that wasn't all about climbing (I've read most of Joe Simpson's climbing books but a lot of them sort of blend into one) sounded appealing.

Got to agree with the "bit of a tit" comment though; wilfully going out that unprepared is kind of asking for trouble.

Schindler's List. I avoided it for many many years. I watched it and cried.

The bridge scene in Selma. It affected me for days. I had to talk about it. Get it off my chest. I wish I was there, then. Walking alongside.

Sausage party...

Savior, based around the Yugoslav wars.
[url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savior_(film) ]Savior[/url]

One from my childhood: Plague Dogs.

Kajaki. A war film, with no bullets fired, no interaction with the enemy, and the ridiculousness of combat.

Not seen the film but I read the book - partly because I've read Into Thin Air and liked it so something else by Jon that wasn't all about climbing (I've read most of Joe Simpson's climbing books but a lot of them sort of blend into one) sounded appealing.

To that end, I found Everest quite sobering. I'm sure it's full of Hollywood drama and I know Krakauer was quite scathing of it, but a good show of why not to **** with nature.

Changeling too, for wholly different reasons. Namely that people can be ****s.

after watching 'everest' i found out two things. sherpas are the best mountaineers in the world. secondly how many good mountaineers are there out there who may never get a chance cause of pompous toffs and their money.

schindler's list as said above. harrowing.

I balled my eyes out as a kid watching Plague Dogs

Grave of the fireflies is very tough.

Watched The Road just after my first son was born, bit dusty inthe room

Waltz with Bashir, last scene is dark

Requiem For A Dream, its not the abcesses,the desperation, the fall into drug dependency. It's his mum getting old, alone.

and the band played on.

I don't generally watch 'harrowing' films, I watch for entertainment, to escape from 'real life'. But Eye in the Sky was brilliant on both levels, great edge of the seat stuff and then really provoking after about how hard it must be to make decisions like that.

unfitgeezer - Member
Into the wild...

...sobering

Soundtrack is also good

Based on a true storey can't stop thinking about it...

Was a good film that, and interesting enough. Ultimately, I think I err on the side of naive fool though...

Savior was especially depressing. The Grizzly Man was interesting until you get to the end, then a bit disturbing.
Shindlers List and the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas are really sad...also Lassie come home had me blubbing

Not technically a film but the documentary "making of a murderer" about Steven Avery was both sobering and compelling.

Night Will Fall.

Watched Spotlight recently. That was fairly sobering... Not surprising but still.

Reefer Madness. Anyone who smokes dope should watch this.

In the name of the father

In the name of the father

Great film.

More of a 2 hour documentary than a film but HBO's Marathon - The Patriots Day Bombing about the Boston marathon bombing.

superman 3 where he turned into a ' bad' superman and his suit was dirty he went to a bar and started flicking peanuts at the bottles to smash them, well bad. And that woman got like turned into a bad robot woman.

^^ 😀

McCullin, dreadful to watch and makes you lose faith in humanity. It's hard to imagine what he sees when he closes his eyes.

superman 3 where he turned into a ' bad' superman and his suit was dirty he went to a bar and started flicking peanuts at the bottles to smash them,

Isn't that Spider-Man...?

+1 for Come and See and Kajaki

Come and See left me feeling empty like Killing Fields or Stalingrad.

Kajaki I've never been so tense watching someone kneeling down.

njee20 -
Isn't that Spider-Man...?

I don't generally watch 'harrowing' films, I watch for entertainment, to escape from 'real life'

just give mcCullin a spin on youtube. brutal.

Martyrs is a film that's stayed with me for a while. It's an endurance test, that's for sure.

Reefer Madness. Anyone who smokes dope should watch this.

I can't, I had to sell the telly to pay for drugs

I'm surprised Threads hasn't come up as yet. Gave me the heebie-jeebies then and now.

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Journey of hope - film must be pushing 20 years old. It's about the illegal migrants path into Europe. Basically there is no hope, and as a Dad watching it I couldn't sleep for a few days.

Kajaki. Utterly jaw dropping.

Solo - Lost at Sea.

The bit where McAuley first paddles off from his wife and son.

Shoah, I watched about half of it (albeit 4 hours) and couldn't continue.

Dead Man Walking