Although he lacked the necessary skills to survive completely it wasn't a totally blind attempt at wilderness survival, what really made him think he could do it is he lived for a month in the Gulf of Mexico on only a 10 pound bag of rice and what he could manage to catch, and considering he did quite well in the wild, better then the movie shows.
It is true that if he had only had a map he would not have died, the river he could not cross has a basket pulley system to get across only a couple miles down stream, although foolish you do have to consider the notion of how can you truly have a pioneer type experience in modern day when every inch of the earth is mapped? do like he did and dismiss the map all together!
I just relate to his story allot and am stuck in a debate with myself to take to the tramp life like he did because society has nothing to offer me.
The movie is still one of my favorites for sure:
trailer the 480p version of that doesn't seem to work but the 360p version does.
I saw the movie before I read the book and I liked it that way because I felt the book then was giving me more insight into the story.
