The Writer's Life 11/7 - Wild

Last night I caught up to Wild (2014), courtesy of Netflix. It is based on a memoir by Cheryl Strayed: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. It stars Reese Witherspoon as a wayward soul devastated by the death of her mom, played by Laura Dern, from cancer at 45. At first she fights the pain and fills the void with promiscuity and drugs, which destroys her marriage. Sober, she embarks on the 1100 mile hike from the Mexican border to the Canadian border in British Columbia, hoping to get back to the person she was before the passing of her mother. There are flashbacks along the way, and many of them are ugly. There are also perils. It is not a pleasant journey physically or psychologically. Music is integral to the narrative, chiefly forms of El Condor Pasa (If I Could), an old Peruvian song made famous by Simon and Garfunkel. Will the journey turn her life around? Well, the memoir was an Oprah Book Club selection. The best aspects of the film are the performances of Witherspoon and Dern, both nominated for an Oscar. My main objection is its links to feminism, which are strained but, thankfully, not belabored. I also did not like Cheryl saying, during her voice-over of what ensues years later, that she had no regrets, something that has become fashionable these days. I realize that life is a learning process and that the good as well as the bad teaches one, but wouldn't a person be liable to repeat the despicable behavior he/she doesn't regret? Maybe that's just the musing of a dumb guy who has many regrets. Novelist Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy) adapted the screenplay. Jean-Marc Vallee directed, my first encounter with his work. By no means a blockbuster, Wild was modestly successful at the box office, taking in $37 million in the U.S. alone on a budget of $15 million. It runs just shy of two hours. 68,000+ users at IMDb have rated it, forging to a consensus of 7.2 of ten. On a scale of five, I rate it three.

Deroy Murdock takes on the lies of Black Lives Matter in an op-ed piece in today's NY Post. Here are excerpts, edited by yours truly: "For every black man — criminal or innocent — killed by a cop, 40 black men were murdered by other black men. The, at most, 2.5 percent of the problem generates relentless rage. And, yet, it is rude-to-racist to mention 97.5 percent of the problem... The five deaths in NYC (at least four of them justified) total last year’s NYPD 'genocide' against black men. They equal 4.95 percent of Gotham’s 101 black-on-black murders in 2014. Other blacks are 20 times deadlier to black New Yorkers than is the NYPD." Kudos to Murdock, who will no doubt be attacked for espousing these ugly truths.

In another op-ed piece, George Will's goes after Bill O'Reilly's new book, Killing Reagan, dubbing it shoddy and untruthful. The main premise is that The Gipper's decline in mental health began immediately after he was shot just months into his presidency.

It's no surprise that President Obama put the kibosh on the Keystone Pipeline. He has always been an enemy of fossil fuels. I'm sure environmentalists are gloating, but it's not a victory for them. The oil will still be extracted and it will be delivered in ways -- rail, truck, boat -- potentially more hazardous than the pipeline. And the U.S. will not gain the jobs construction would have afforded.

My thanks to Adam, who bought Killing, and to Bad News Billy, who jumped on my remaining VHS and DVD inventory, and to the gentleman who purchased Suze Orman's The Money Class.

Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/l84h63j

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/