MovieChat Forums > A Walk in the Woods (2015) Discussion > Why bother doing it if you're not at lea...

Why bother doing it if you're not at least gonna try do it right?

posted 8 years ago by shoutatthesky
13 replies | jump to latest

I expected great things from this film but was seriously disappointed! Firstly, the story itself is lacking any real substance. Bryson's wife is such a cliche and so unlikeable as to be my least favourite character of the film. I mean what sort of man takes such disrespect, negativity and lack of support from his ugly wife with not a sign of displeasure. The man doesn't really want to go hiking, he just wants to get some peace and quiet before he loses it and commits a terrible crime.

Now Bryson is not a great writer by any stretch of the imagination. He appeals to a certain strand of semi-educated yet world, and reality, naive suburbanites who don't want to read anything too deep or illuminating lest their comfortable view of the world be tainted with any uncomfortable truth! Nevertheless, to present such inaccuracies in regards to the hiking gear the characters carry is not only irresponsible but downright disrespectful. Hiking is hard work. You don't hike on a fine day with big thick jackets on, you don't carry walking poles to decorate your pack and you don't go to sleep without eating no matter how hard your day was. Food is a major part of hiking. and it takes work when you are in the wilderness yet all we see in the film is when they find a diner to order food at while drinking beer and hooking up with fat sluts.
Oh and did you catch that for every ten male hikers (always slim twenty-something caucasians) there is precisely one highly neurotic, slutty and unattractive female?

So basically it was a stupid waste of time to even make this "movie", and in a year filled with such stellar cinematic masterpieces - such as the stunning genius creation The Revenant - I feel quiet embarrassed for anyone whose name appears in the credits of this disaster!

[–] landa803 8 years ago

I just knew some nerdy walking/hiking enthusiast was going to pick up on the mistakes about their favorite past time/hobby. The general public doesn't care actually, and no one is bothered about walking poles and packs being used incorrectly in this movie. It's totally missing the point of what this movie is truly about. Geeks everywhere... they are not more intelligent then the rest, they are only more annoying. The Revenant was boring too.

[–] silvercometred1 8 years ago

A person that hikes is not nerdy. As a matter of fact a hiker is an anti-nerd. Real men and women. But out of all books to make a movie about thru-hiking the AT "A Walk in the Woods" should have the last book to make a movie out of - Bryson was whiner and a quitter. He never finished the hike and he admits to yellow-blazing parts of his hike. An AT no-no.

Hollywood should have made a movie about the Barefoot Sisters, Lucy and Susan Letcher. Not nerds at all; but REAL women out of the woods of Maine, who thru-hiked the AT SOBO barefooted. Then arriving at Springer Mountain decided to do a Yo-Yo and turned around and hiked the AT all the way back to Maine NOBO.

[–] petsitter 8 years ago

That would be an interesting film probably. But not a laugh out loud comedy. I love bill bryson books and I'd like to see what the film of this turns out like as the book was great.

[–] StrongCarl 8 years ago

But out of all books to make a movie about thru-hiking the AT "A Walk in the Woods" should have the last book to make a movie out of - Bryson was whiner and a quitter.

If you think that the book or movie is about hiking the AT, then you've completely missed the point.

[–] petsitter 8 years ago

That would be an interesting film probably. But not a laugh out loud comedy. I love bill bryson books and I'd like to see what the film of this turns out like as the book was great.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] shoutatthesky 8 years ago

So being authentic makes me pretentious?

I do like to laugh and enjoy life. That's why I do things like hiking. I get to go places many residents of "suburbia" will never see - places of such beauty that a person such as you could never imagine. Right, enough of this crap. I'm off to perform some Shakespeare to my gorgeous reflection!

[–] liscarkat-2 8 years ago

"He appeals to a certain strand of semi-educated yet world, and reality, naive suburbanites who don't want to read anything too deep or illuminating lest their comfortable view of the world be tainted with any uncomfortable truth!"

Calling people "semi-educated" with this tortured chunk of illiteracy is transcendent irony.

[–] joe_538 8 years ago

You don't hike on a fine day with big thick jackets on

It's hard to guess the onscreen temperature.

you don't carry walking poles to decorate your pack

They are supposed to be new to hiking, and not everyone use them constantly.

they find a diner to order food at while drinking beer and hooking up with fat sluts.

They had been away from civilization's comforts. After a while a person needs certain things they're accustomed to; a bottle of beer, a bowl of Cocoa Puffs, a comfortable bed, etc.

Oh and did you catch that for every ten male hikers (always slim twenty-something caucasians) there is precisely one highly neurotic, slutty and unattractive female?

Were you expecting to see a lot of old, fat, black women hiking? I don't scrutinize the demographics represented by the extras while watching movies, but the man who criticized Bryson's backpack wasn't an attractive twenty-something, nor were the scouts who passed them.

[–] signlady 8 years ago

I'm a few years over 50 - not in the best shape of my life - I can walk about 5 miles - lol.

But I have always wanted to do the AT.

For two old guys over 65 - not regular hikers, stayin' out there for two weeks - much less 3 months - PRETTY good,
and I thought, portrayed fairly realistically considering one of the main plot points WAS how inexperienced they were.

Also - it didnt seem like his wife was disrespectful - I think she was guenuinely scared and being realistic based on the fact that her husband was an inexperienced hiker.

[–] aprilfool47 8 years ago

You clearly didn't read the book.

[–] nuwanda-23246 8 years ago

I stopped reading after the "ugly wife" comment. Totally uncalled for. As for hiker "no no's" - the only "rule" is Hike Your Own Hike!