Robert Redford as Bryson
And it is that if there is something worse than the stiffness of a trekking, it is without a doubt that they tell us about it with hair and signs. If we did it, we would possibly be left without friends. It would seem fair to us. No one except Bryson should be licensed for it. , because his ability to put us in his backpack and transport us to places we might never go is as amazing as that A walk in the woods has been made into a movie . Even more so the fact that the person who embodies the American writer is Robert Redford. Good times for sarcasm.
If at this point you still don't know who we're talking about, it's because you live in a cave, although there are more chances that it will be him who introduces himself: "I'm from Des Moines, someone had to be." This is William McGuire Bryson, better known as Bill Bryson, the man who invited us to get into his car to tour The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America in 1989 and, defying our mothers, we did not get off again. It was our first trip with him, a contact that served to enter his homeland through his childhood memories and visiting, as usual, those lesser-known American towns. As luggage we take with us his bad milk, irony and high doses of humor. Because if something characterizes each of this author's titles, it's laughter. Those in which you don't know whether to cry from laughter, or because your jaw has dislodged.
A walk in the woods, at the movies
Always critical of his country, Bryson fled Des Moines for the same reason you fled your town. : “When you are from Des Moines you immediately accept without resignation that you will end up with a girl named Bobbie, working in the Firestone factory and living there forever. The other option is that you will spend your teenage years complaining that everything is rubbish and wanting to go abroad to end up with a local named Bobbie, working in the Firestone factory and living there forever. Although this has not been the only time that he questioned his beloved America, even if it was from affection, Notes from a Big Country delights us again by taking the lace, in this case to New Hampshire : “America is an extraordinarily dangerous place. Consider this: Every year in New Hampshire a dozen or more people die crashing their cars into a moose. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but this is not something that is likely to happen on the way home from the Sainsbury's. After two decades in Britain, it seemed that Bryson felt much more comfortable in the Anglo-Saxon environment. , to which he returned years later and to whom he dedicated his book Notes from a Small Island: "The British really believe that their country is great."
And, although these first three books were the ones that gave him a certain popularity, it was not until _En las Antipodes (Down Under) _ when he managed to be crowned one of the best travel writers . Before his great success A brief history of almost everything, popular science; the title about Australia was the most remembered among European readers of it. Personally, the best of all. The story begins by listing the most dangerous animals in the world, although for him any living being was a threat: "All the dogs in the world want to see me dead." Fortunately, his list was considerably more rigorous. The story of how the country arose in the wake of British prisoners, the plague of rabbits, the creation of its great cities such as Sidney, Melbourne or Canberra , or the best marketing work in history: Surfers Paradise are some of the aspects that we find and that, despite having seen or read about it, no one before had managed to fascinate us so much and, at the same time, take away our want to travel to Australia.
The Adventure: In the Appalachian Mountains
THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS
The hope was that any of those trips would have been brought to the big screen. But no, the first title that has achieved it is precisely the most unknown to us: A walk in the woods. And I say us because, what we Europeans ignored is that none of the previous ones had been as successful in the United States as A walk in the woods. According to an interview conducted by the Town and Country Magazine with Bryson, the author explained that “ It is probably the most popular book in America. Although not outside the country, of course, since if you live in Wales I don't think you'd be too interested in going hiking in the Appalachian Mountains." The truth is that it would have made much more sense. The trail, created by Myron Avery in the late 1920s, It is the longest route in the world with 3,300 kilometers that go from Georgia to Maine through 14 states and 350 peaks of more than 1,500 meters , is also one of the most virgin. With no escalators, hotels, Starbucks or K-Mart in the way, the surprise is that Americans might be drawn to it.
In fact, although these mountains are visited each year by 2-3 million Sunday people from all over the world, only slightly more than 15,500 people have managed to walk the entire length of it since the 1930s , according to official data from the Appalachian Trail. Some of them as well known as Grandma Gatewood, who started the route in 1955 at the age of 63 and finished it in 1964 getting to be the first person to finish it . Others managed to finish it in less time and, in fact, today the estimate is 6-8 months.
Of luggage: bad milk, irony and humor
They say they live in it bears, skunks, snakes, deer, salamanders and many other wildlife , some more dangerous than others with which the writer has known how to entertain us, despite the fact that his excursion had no more risk than a few stiffness and the possibility of dying of cardiac arrest: “I am in the middle of the forest in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, face to face with a bear and in the company of a guy who has nothing to defend himself except a nail clipper. We'll see. If it's a bear and it jumps on you, what happens then? Do you do a pedicure? ”. In reality, few hikers have been the ones who have been killed during the journey. Most of the events occurred in the 1990s and were due to kidnapping or murder.
An adventure that, despite how little it promised, has surprised us by taking us to the sports and adventure store. Once again Bryson had done it again: we cried, a lot, from laughter. Now we look forward to doing it again in the cinema.
A WALK IN THE WOODS OR WHEN ROBERT REDFORD BECAME BILL BRYSON
Or when the writers Rick Kerb and Bill Holderman they had to translate their entire book to adapt it to the big screen, as this was Bryson's condition when the director Ken Kwapis He asked permission to make the film. Well, that one and the one about bringing in the supposed bears. As it has not yet been released in Spain (it was released in the United States on September 2), we do not know if the harsh criticism received is deserved or not, although the trailer already brings together the essence of the author : “Are you camping? - No, we live here”, the conversation with another of the key figures of the book, mary ellen , who the author has declared that "he did exist, although I have changed his name and appearance to preserve his anonymity."
What does seem to us to be part of Bryson's own irony and sarcasm is that it is Robert Redford who is going to embody him And not just because when the author toured the Appalachian Mountains he was in his forties and the actor is now twice his age; but because the one who plays his friend Katz, Nick Nolte, could be the twin of the American writer . How long has his wife been laughing at this? Well done, Brison.
Robert Redford as Brysol
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