| This Wednesday (Tomorrow) "Into the Wild" for Cultural Evening |
| Cafe Amsterdam English - Cultural Programme |
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Dear All Tomorrow, Wednesday the 25th of August for Cultural Evening we have a film to show: "Into the Wild" by Sean Penn. Into the Wild recounts the life of Christopher McCandless, a real-life student-athlete at Emory University, as told by his sympathetic sister (Jena Malone as Carine McCandless). In rejection of a materialist, conventional life, and of his parents (William Hurt as Walt McCandless and Marcia Gay Harden as Billie McCandless), whom McCandless perceives as having betrayed him, McCandless destroys all of his credit cards and identification documents, donates $24,000 (nearly his entire savings) to Oxfam, and sets out on a cross-country drive in his well-used but reliable Datsun towards his ultimate goal: Alaska and, alone, to test himself and experience the wilds of nature. He does not tell his family what he is doing or where he is going and does not communicate with them thereafter, leaving them to become increasingly anxious and eventually desperate. Nearly two years after leaving his family, McCandless crosses a stream in a remote area of Alaska and sets up camp in abandoned school bus, the "Magic Bus", used as a shelter for moose hunters. Initially McCandless is exhilarated by the isolation, the beauty of nature around and the thrill of living off the land as the spring thaw arrives. He hunts and gathers, and reads books, and keeps a diary of his thoughts. However life becomes harder; his supplies start to run out and although he kills a moose the meat is spoiled by flies and maggots. He realises that nature is also harsh and uncaring. Ultimately on his journey of self-discovery he concludes that true happiness is to be found in sharing, and in the joy of realisation seeks to return from the wild to his friends and family. Hope to see all there Team Cafe Amsterdam |