Walk in the Woods - the movie

[peakbagger]

When the book came out there were several long term AT folks who searched registers and checked with Hostel owners, they reported that they could easily track Bryson but didn't find any evidence for Katz or anyone else actually hiking with Bryson. I really couldn't care but I know that the controversy raged for awhile.

I generally regard the book as work of fiction written by an amusing author that knew that his target audience were urban elites who wanted reasons why they would never want to hike the AT.

 

[hikerbrian]

I loved the book! I am admittedly a "book about hiking" snob - Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Wild all left me irritated that someone would glorify stupidity. (Oddly, Between a Rock and a Hard Place was enjoyable - I think because right from the beginning Aaron Ralston discusses how his reckless behavior endangered others and caused him to lose friends and ultimately got him in hot water. I liked that he acknowledged that).

Hahaha, funny, I LOVE Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Wild because they DON'T glorify stupidity, they present a realistic picture of the very real consequences of stupidity, while Ralston, I feel, DOES glorify stupidity! It's so remarkable that two people, presumably both hikers/outdoorspeople, can read the same set of books and come to wildly different viewpoints about them. I'm sure we could debate into the wee hours whose viewpoint is actually "right" but who cares, it takes all types, as they say. And I value differing viewpoints and have no desire to "convert" anyone to mine. Too funny though, how polar opposite our impressions are!

So I regard your review as COMPLETELY unreliable. Might go see the movie anyway, there are worse ways to spend a couple of hours...

 

[Peppersass]

Hahaha, funny, I LOVE Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Wild because they DON'T glorify stupidity, they present a realistic picture of the very real consequences of stupidity, while Ralston, I feel, DOES glorify stupidity! It's so remarkable that two people, presumably both hikers/outdoorspeople, can read the same set of books and come to wildly different viewpoints about them. I'm sure we could debate into the wee hours whose viewpoint is actually "right" but who cares, it takes all types, as they say. And I value differing viewpoints and have no desire to "convert" anyone to mine. Too funny though, how polar opposite our impressions are!

So I regard your review as COMPLETELY unreliable. Might go see the movie anyway, there are worse ways to spend a couple of hours...

My point being that I turned my nose up at other books but loved "Walk in the Woods" - go figure. It appealed to the silly in me. Terribly disappointed they didn't show him tossing the jar of peanut butter. Didn't Katz smoke?

 

[Grey J]

Real or not, Katz' line in the movie, "I spent half my life drinking and chasing pussy and I wasted the other half" was pretty funny.

 

[peakbagger]

There was a comment that ATC encouraged the movie to downplay non LNT principles thus ditching gear in the woods was downplayed.

 

[egilbe]

That's too bad, because in the book, that was some funny stuff

 

[Puma concolor]

while Ralston, I feel, DOES glorify stupidity!

This.

You just moved to the top of my list of favorite VFTTers.

 

[Mike P.]

May see "Walk" because my wife wants to. Can't decide if I am going to see Everest or not. The special effects of the storm make me feel like they will go way overboard. This wasn't the Blizzard of 88 or 78, it was a storm at the roof of the world. The location is epic, typical weather is a problem but how do you sell that to people. Assume we'll miss the weeks of boring planning that go into a trip like this too and they'll focus on Jon K.'s thoughts that the guides may have been competing to get people up for their own publicity. Competition, (real or inferred) large egos and monster storms make movies the general public may watch. Triple checking ropes not so much.

Wonder how quickly they will gloss over the small town on the way to base camp that had a few toilets with excrement overflowing and sick westerners just vacating their bowels outside the buildings.....(Was going to grab the book and quote the page but I think you get the picture.... People paid $70K for that kind of experience....)

 

[Peppersass]

"while Ralston, I feel, DOES glorify stupidity!"

No argument that Ralston was living large and stupid but unlike "Wild" there wasn't a happy ending - in reality or in the book, just a very bad outcome. And as I understand it Aaron Ralston is still dealing with infection in that arm.

I was hooked on "Wild" from page 1 as I liked her writing but wondered if unprepared people were going to venture out hoping they will learn on the trail like she did - the source of my irritation (did not see the movie). I was captivated by Into the Wild and Into Thin Air and yes they too had unhappy endings too but perhaps it was because I felt the allure of those places reading it - I wondered if others were going to go to Alaska looking for a bus to live in.

It is difficult not feel negative toward the reckless and grossly unprepared and I struggle with that (in spirit I too am a bit like the judgmental hiker that Kristin Schaal plays, though I would never dis your tent!). There are two hiking books I really liked and they are "Just Passin Thru" and AWOL on the Appalachian Trail. Perhaps it's just the mood I am in when I read them.

 

[Brambor]

I was apprehensive of Wild (the movie) and was pleasantly surprised that I liked it.

(did not read the book)

"while Ralston, I feel, DOES glorify stupidity!"

No argument that Ralston was living large and stupid but unlike "Wild" there wasn't a happy ending - in reality or in the book, just a very bad outcome. And as I understand it Aaron Ralston is still dealing with infection in that arm.

I was hooked on "Wild" from page 1 as I liked her writing but wondered if unprepared people were going to venture out hoping they will learn on the trail like she did - the source of my irritation (did not see the movie). I was captivated by Into the Wild and Into Thin Air and yes they too had unhappy endings too but perhaps it was because I felt the allure of those places reading it - I wondered if others were going to go to Alaska looking for a bus to live in.

It is difficult not feel negative toward the reckless and grossly unprepared and I struggle with that (in spirit I too am a bit like the judgmental hiker that Kristin Schaal plays, though I would never dis your tent!). There are two hiking books I really liked and they are "Just Passin Thru" and AWOL on the Appalachian Trail. Perhaps it's just the mood I am in when I read them.

 

[Driver8]

Count me as a non-fan of the book. Guy gets a book advance to hike the AT, manages to walk a few short segments (what, fifty miles total?) in a few months? Still makes a best-seller out of it... maybe I'm just jealous.

By his reckoning, Bryson walked about 800 miles of the AT that year, maybe half of them with "Katz." A lot more than many others have done.

****Spoiler alert:****



Redford and Nolte don't complete the trail, but their story arc is altered from the book. Much of the book is followed, however, including many of the more enjoyable tales. I liked it and found it mostly faithful to the spirit of the book and to much of its letter. Redford and the screenwriters even worked in some of Bryson's observations about the fate of the forests and fauna along the AT, which I was pleased to see. It did lack some character development that the book included, but made an effort to portray Bryson and Katz's relationship as it developed on the journey.

Overall, for me, an enjoyable B.

 

[hikerbrian]

No argument that Ralston was living large and stupid but unlike "Wild" there wasn't a happy ending - in reality or in the book, just a very bad outcome. And as I understand it Aaron Ralston is still dealing with infection in that arm.

I was hooked on "Wild" from page 1 as I liked her writing but wondered if unprepared people were going to venture out hoping they will learn on the trail like she did - the source of my irritation (did not see the movie). I was captivated by Into the Wild and Into Thin Air and yes they too had unhappy endings too but perhaps it was because I felt the allure of those places reading it - I wondered if others were going to go to Alaska looking for a bus to live in.

It is difficult not feel negative toward the reckless and grossly unprepared and I struggle with that (in spirit I too am a bit like the judgmental hiker that Kristin Schaal plays, though I would never dis your tent!). There are two hiking books I really liked and they are "Just Passin Thru" and AWOL on the Appalachian Trail. Perhaps it's just the mood I am in when I read them.

Hey, you don't have to justify your opinion of these books to me, believe me. One of my closest hiking/mountaineering partners has completely opposite taste in books from me (he loved Twight's Extreme Alpinism, for example, and felt no love at all for Wild - the reverse of my feelings). I'd probably argue the point about Ralston's ordeal resulting in "a very bad outcome" though. His net worth, tied directly to sales of his book and the resulting movie, was estimated at $4 million as of 2011. He's set for life financially. I can think of worse outcomes than that. Chris McCandless, for example, expressed clear desire to share life and happiness with others as he wasted away, alone, in a remote part of AK, eventually starving to death.

I have no negative feelings at all towards folks who strike out, prepared or otherwise, on any adventure. Go get it, I say. [Of course there are caveats, but I stand by that sentiment in general.] But that's just me. I'll add one or both of your suggestions to my reading list; I haven't read either of them.

 

[Daniel Eagan]

I reviewed A Walk in the Woods in my day job and was not that impressed. I saw Everest and recommend it—it's not a movie about the storm so much as a movie about the people involved and why bad things happened to them. On the whole much better acting than in A Walk in the Woods. And much better filmmaking. Here is an interview with the director: http://www.filmjournal.com/features...s-all-star-cast-gripping-recreation-ill-fated

 

[Raymond]

My ladyfriend, Susan, and I saw ‘‘A Walk in the Woods’’ last night and enjoyed it. We both had some thoughts on things we would like to have seen included, but agreed that some parts were right on the money, like the sequence of Bryson trying to get to Kmart while Katz was at the laundromat. But why the astrological-signs sequence was changed, I don’t know. Their phony ‘‘signs’’ from the book would have been funny, and the movie was rated R anyway, so why not? The real Bryson isn’t a Leo, either.

There is, however, a set up for a sequel, so if it is a big-enough success, maybe they’ll do some photography in our stamping grounds after all. Or maybe that wouldn’t be a plus?

Regarding a post way above this one, Katz is a made-up name for the real-life person, so perhaps that was why no evidence of ‘‘Katz’’ was found along the trail 20 years ago. There was an episode of ‘‘The South Bank Show’’ on Bill Bryson, during which his friend is identified and shown. His facial hair looks like Nick Nolte’s does in the movie.

 

[J&J]

The real life "Katz".

Link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2015/09/01/bill-brysons-stephen-katz/71494350/

 

[Raymond]

Green square. Thanks for finding and posting that.

 

[Driver8]

Real or not, Katz' line in the movie, "I spent half my life drinking and chasing pussy and I wasted the other half" was pretty funny.

As was this:

Katz, upon meeting Bryson's wife: "So this is the English nurse I've heard so much about!"

Wife: "I sure hope so."

 

[LarryD]

Saw this movie last night (Friday). There were about ten people in the theater. None of the others looked like hikers (not that I do). Most of the audience was older women. My wife's opinion was that they were Redford fans.

An enjoyable movie, but not exactly a great, or even very good, one. As someone above noted it is more of a buddy movie than a hiking movie. Some good scenery, but none of it in New England. Nolte is over the top.

Funny the little things you notice. Like Peppersass, I noticed that the NH license plate had too many digits. Also, (partial spoiler alert) there is a scene in which they both lose their footing and stumble and fall into a creek/river. Yet in the scenes before and after that, they both have hiking poles attached to their packs. Seems that would have been a good time to use them.

 

[skiguy]

I thought the book was a lot of fun to read and the movie should be fun to watch. Great to see these two great actors put together in the same flick. Not really getting to critical of the whole thing just looking for some entertainment. This story's main message IMO is don't take life to seriously. So I plan on watching it with that mentality and hopefully get more than one good laugh in.

Saw the movie yesterday. Pretty much lived up to my expectations. A lot of fun. Anyone looking for a good laugh put this one on your list. Definitely room for a sequel.

 

[Tuck]

Book was great, movie was terrible. I felt like I was watching old Bonanza episodes because there were so many scenes with fake backgrounds (green screens). They left out most of the funny stuff from the book. Disappointed.