If You Liked ‘Wild,’ You’ll Love ‘Tracks’

Though it didn’t get the awards recognition it deserved a few months ago, I thought Wild was one of the best films of 2014. The Reese Witherspoon-starring drama caught me by surprise when I saw it with a friend just before Christmas; I had not read Cheryl Strayed’s memoir on which it was based, although I couldn’t escape the accolades that friends had bestowed upon it. Wild follows, of course, Strayed’s 1,100-mile journey north on the Pacific Crest Trail, a trip she embarked upon following the death of her mother and her divorce. The film, written by Nick Horny and directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, is a beautifully shot and crafted rumination on grief and self-discovery.

It surprised me to learn this week that neither Strayed’s memoir, nor the film it inspired, were the first of their kind.

In 1977, Robyn Davidson journeyed across from Alice Springs in Central Australia to the west coast of the Island nation, taking with her two adult camels (which she tamed herself) and a calf, her dog, Diggity, and a bare minimum of camping equipment. She wrote about her arduous 1,700-mile trek first in National Geographic (which helped fund the hike with her freelance assignment) and later in a 1980 memoir, which inspired the 2013 Australian film Tracks starring Mia Wasikowska as Davidson.

The film, which premiered at the 2013 Venice Film Festival, had a truly limited release in our country, which is a shame because it is as good as Wild despite Wasikowska not sharing Witherspoon’s star pedigree. It’s not too different from Strayed’s story; although Davidson was not embarking on a journey to find renewal and cleansing (she does, however, still express grief over the suicide of her mother when she was a young girl), Tracks exhibits the same inspirational quality as Wild. Seeing first-hand the struggles of the Aboriginal population in Australia, as well as nodding to Davidson’s life-long interest in nomadic peoples across the globe, the film works less as an introspection as much as it sheds a light on one woman’s extreme curiosity about the world and a desire to live in it more simply and more authentically.

The film is also a stylistic feat, taking inspiration from National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan’s photos of Davidson. Smolan encountered Davidson three times on her trip (he’s played in the film by Girls star Adam Driver), and the pair had an on-again, off-again relationship. But what’s striking about the film is Davidson’s reliance upon herself as opposed to the help of others (which she accepts, begrudgingly, along her journey) — particularly avoiding Smolan’s influence on her own outcome.

If you’re in the mood for an stirring and moving film, add this one to your list. Think of it as a Wild companion piece, with a similar all-encompassing line of dialogue at its climax: “Like with any journey, it’s not what you carry but what you leave behind.”

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Photos: Weinstein Company; Courtesy Everett Collection