‘Into the Wild’: Has the Truth About Christopher McCandless Been Lost?

Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 08.27.07 | 12:57 PM ET

As the hype for Sean Penn’s movie adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild” grows, and Outside revisits one of its most famous stories, Men’s Journal has weighed in with a less-reverent take on the life of Christopher McCandless. Matthew Power asks: “Was his death a Shakespearean tragedy or a pitch-black comedy of errors? What impact has the tale and its renown had on our perception of Alaska? And perhaps most tantalizingly: Did Krakauer, and now Penn, get key parts of the story wrong?”

Power makes the pilgrimage to the bus in the Alaskan wilds where McCandless died, and he talks to locals who are baffled why the kid who called himself Alexander Supertramp and who seemed to lack the basic skills needed to survive in a difficult environment has become a hero to many. Brent Keith, a local hunting guide, tells Power: “We’re hard up for heroes if that’s what it takes—some guy who starved to death in a bus.”