A Walk in the Woods | Book vs. Movie
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2024
- Today I'm discussing Bill Bryson's travel memoir A Walk in the Woods, and comparing it against the 2015 movie adaptation staring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.
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book: amzn.to/2xnWDgQ
movie: amzn.to/2JfyV93
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Outro music by Bensound (www.bensound.com)
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I think I found the movie far more entertaining than most. Perhaps because I am an early 40's man who has the AT as a goal.
When I was a kid, my grandparents lived in Franklin NC. I would visit in summers for 2-3 weeks and we'd often take a trip to Albert Mountain and hike part of the trail up to a fire watch tower.
My grandfather passed in October 2016, and my grandmother is 98 to be 99 in January.
I'm saving cash enough to be able to start this coming spring. I need enough to be able to keep health insurance during the trip.
I have loved the book for many years (and it partly inspired to do a completely digital Appalachian Trail hike this year - I'm currently somewhere in Virginia!), and so was very excited about the movie coming out. I think I made it about 20 minutes in before I noped my way out due to complete boredom and, like, you said, the fact that the actors are SO much older than the characters they're portraying. Sigh. (I've met Bryson twice and I think the best way to describe him in person would be "bumbling professor"...)
I totally agree! My husband and I loved listening to the audiobook while on a long drive-and while we definitely enjoyed the film in many ways, in general we were a bit disappointed. “Pedestrian” is a perfect and hysterically appropriate description!
Now you have to get your hands on Grandma Gatewood's Walk by Ben Montgomery - it's the true story of a 65 year old woman in 1955 or '56 who walked the entire trail by herself. This was in the early days of the AT when it wasn't even as "nice" as it is now. She carried all of 20 lbs of food on her back and a slept with a shower curtain over her to keep the rain out. It's SUCH an inspiring story. The books goes into her back story which I will not divulge here but suffice it to say that you find out WHY she was compelled to just go outside one day and continue on walking... I have long adored Bryson and all his travel and info books, BUT I agree with you that his humor can tend to go from amusingly droll to downright mean. IN AWITW, he wrote a few sparse lines about Emma "Grandma" Gatewood writing her off as a loon, basically. And she absolutely deserves respect and the biggest round of applause.
I just read the book and then watched the movie. I agree with you 100%. The book is great on many levels where the movie was more of a let down. Nick Nolte was great as well as the side characters but Robert Redford was not bringing any energy to the role. Most scenes he seems to be trying to do as little as possible. I do highly recommend the book and now have a batch of other Bryson books on order.
The movie Reader's Digest would make if they were a production company.
Very much agree with the reviewer's comments. The movie was okay Somewhat slow Fairly enjoyable But without much plot whereas the book was funny and fascinating, allowing the reader to vicariously hike the trail along with the author. In the movie Bryson comes off as arrogant at times while in the book this was not the case.
I read the book. Didn't see the movie because I only read tepid reviews. I still don't plan to take the hike, beyond the tiny part I did in upstate New York, or because of it (my knees punked out on me).
Very good review - your view comports with my own thoughts on the movie. :) I thought, given the raw material available in the book, that the movie could have been SO much better. I actually conveyed that sentiment to Mr. Bryson right after the movie came out. I am a big fan of the book and, while I enjoyed the movie well enough, it really was "pedestrian" unfortunately.
I loved the book so much. I read it. My husband asked me to pick a book to listen to on a car travel...we loved hearing the book, laughter was good
Interesting take in your video since I like how you comment on a story and its adaptation which is a majority of the time very different than the source material so its nice to hear thoughts like yours on different versions of a tale. As a guitarist who composers and performs original music for book trailers about comics, I like hearing thoughts like yours since it helps one write narratives for bk trailers that give clearer blurbs but also entices by considering readers reactions to past stories. So knowing why you thought characters are flat or too mean is great to learn and nice presence which is friendly. Cheers!
That's awesome! I glad this helps :)
I have not read this book. But I did something similar with Wild and the movie adaptation. I enjoyed both...but then again I am a bit biased because I adore Reese Witherspoon.
I read the book and really enjoyed it! Then on the insistence of my massage therapist I attempted to watch the movie.... I barely made it to the halfway point and HAD to turn it off it was so boring. I loved Nick Nolte, but you’re 100% correct Redford falls super flat.
I agree! And I’m glad you read another book of his. The Body was not his best.
Is the book and movie has same character and content?
The book was great ... I should have known better as I generally don’t like movies from books I’ve read but watched the movie and ... 😒 meh
Didn't care for the film. For many of the reasons given here. There's some stories that don't benefit from an adaptation to film. And this may be the best example I can think of. It did feel like a movie Redford wanted to make because he loved the book. And the film was much too hard on Katz.
I read the book and didn't like it. I wanted more travel and less history lesson
Understandable. I enjoyed the history, but I also think there probably weren't enough stories from the hike to fill up a whole book, so it probably needed the padding, content-wise.
Book fantastic, film garbage