A Walk in the Woods Movie Review

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

A Walk in The Woods by Bill Bryson is the well known story about American-born Bryson’s attempt on the nearly 2200-mile long Appalachian Trail (AT). Published back in 1998, the book is by far the most well known book about a journey on the Appalachian Trail. With the possible exception of Cheryl Strayed’s more recent Wild, it is possibly the most well known book about any long trail…

@PaulMags reviews the film adaptation of Bill Bryon’s A Walk in the Woods – Read the review in Issue 24:

A Walk in the Woods Movie Review



Issue 24 Page 1

 

[seano]

I guess I'll skip it.  I greatly enjoyed the book when I read it many years ago, but more for Bryson's writing than the narrative, and I can't imagine it translating well into a movie.  His "The Mother Tongue" is also a great read.

[Darwin]

After Spending over 1500 miles & 4 months on the trail this year, I went to see it & can say it was one of the most disappointing representations of the AT I've ever seen. The sad thing is that the ATC supported it & it was the farthest thing from the trail as it could be...... Also it didn't hold a candle to Bryson's book, which is great.

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

Finally caught this one on demand the other night, for a while there I was reminded of some 80's movies that aren't great but you can't not watch for some reason...thus, made it through and while I can't say I'd watch it again there were a couple humorous parts. It felt like it was reaching a bit to capture the hiking without truly arriving there and in the personal journey aspect as well, but in any event as soon as I managed to convince myself that I needed to be invested in the story, it was over! 

[PaulMags]

Renting or streaming is probably the best way to watch it. It wasn't TERRIBLE... just unbelievably mediocre. 

[KYhiker40]

I thought Wild was an excellent movie, which fell short of the humor and connection a backpacker has to reading the book.

I found A Walk In The Woods to be a poorly written story line with poor acting and horrible representation of what the book was about.  It has nothing in common with the book, short of the title, and even less in common with the experiences of hiking and backpacking.  

[S Katz]

I really enjoyed the movie (A Walk in the Woods). But it was only inspired by the book (as I understood it). The movie isn't a travel guide or camping movie. It is a comedy adventure.... and a coming of age... buddy movie. The trail only provided a plausible backdrop for the personalities portrayed by Redford and Nolte.