Into the Wild

A couple months ago, I went to visit my brother, who lives in Alaska. For part of the time I was there we went camping in Denali National Park (completely amazing, but that's another story). Before I went, I had seen the trailers for the movie, "Into the Wild" and I vaguely knew that it was based on a book, which was based on a true story and that the true story was about a kid who went into the woods right near Denali and never came out alive.
In northern New Jersey, where I'm from, the story doesn't create much of a stir. But up in Alaska, people have some pretty strong feelings about what that kid did. Many that I heard were along the lines of how irresponsible and ill prepared he was for what he was trying to do.
After being up there, it piqued my interest so I picked up a copy of the book, by Jon Krakauer and read it on the plane ride home. I'll say this: it's a worthy read. Is it going to go down in history? Probably not. Win any awards? I'd be surprised. But what it will do is give you a little more insight into who this kid, Christopher McCandless, was and what went wrong. It'll make you understand a little better and maybe even sympathize just a little bit.
All that being said, after I finished the book, of course I had to see the movie. The book is worth reading, yes. The movie... well, let's just say read the book. I hate to sound like your 10th grade English teacher here but in this case, I'm telling you, read the book.
The book, like I said, gives some insight into what happened. And you get the definite sense that the author really identifies with this kid (in fact I'm pretty sure he comes right out and says it) and what you end up with is as complete a picture as possible of a very real, very lost kid who took things just a little too far.
The movie, however, did a very superficial job of painting a picture of an overzealous, overindulgent spoiled little rich kid trying to piss off his parents. It's entirely possible that some of these things are true, but without giving you the whole story and the background information, the movie makes it difficult to draw any other conclusion.
One final note: If you do take my advice, and decide to read the book, make sure what you're reading is the most current edition. Obviously, this story struck a chord with Krakauer because even after it was finished, he kept researching what had happened. He's edited to add new information and when I watched the movie, it became pretty clear that the screenwriter was working from an older version than what I read.