Maybe you've heard the name Dan Eldon, or maybe you just stumbled across a stray image of a vibrant, chaotic journal filled with African soil, blood, and colorful ink. If you haven't, you probably should. The movie The Journey is the Destination tries to capture the lightning-in-a-bottle life of this young photojournalist, but honestly, it’s a heavy lift for any film to bottle up that much energy. It’s a 2016 biographical drama directed by Bronwen Hughes, and it dives into the short, beautiful, and ultimately tragic life of a guy who lived more in 22 years than most of us do in 80.
He was special.
Eldon wasn't just some kid with a camera; he was a catalyst. The film, starring Ben Schnetzer, tracks his path from a charismatic teenager in Kenya to a Reuters photojournalist covering the devastating famine and subsequent conflict in Somalia. It’s not your typical war movie. It’s more of a "coming-of-age-in-a-war-zone" vibe, focusing on the collision between artistic innocence and the brutal reality of 1990s geopolitics.
What The Journey is the Destination actually gets right about Dan Eldon
Biopics are notorious for sanding down the edges of real people to make them fit a 100-minute narrative arc. You've seen it a thousand times. But Hughes, who worked closely with Dan’s mother, Kathy Eldon, tried to keep the grit. The film leans heavily into the visual aesthetic of Dan’s famous journals. If you've ever seen the book The Journey is the Destination (which the movie is named after), you know it’s a collage-heavy masterpiece. The movie overlays these textures onto the screen, trying to show us how Dan saw the world—not as a series of flat images, but as a layered, messy, tactile experience.
Schnetzer’s performance is solid because he captures that specific brand of "charming chaos." Eldon was famous for leading "Desperate Expeditions"—trips across Africa with friends where they’d raise money for charity while having the time of their lives. The film doesn't shy away from the privilege he had, but it also shows the genuine, bone-deep empathy that drove him. He wasn't just a tourist. He was a participant.
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The Somali conflict: A brutal backdrop
The middle chunk of the movie shifts gears hard. We go from the bright colors of Nairobi to the gray, dusty, terrifying streets of Mogadishu. This is where the film earns its stripes as a serious piece of cinema. It documents the "Black Hawk Down" era but from the perspective of the journalists on the ground who were trying to tell the story of the Somali people before the US military intervention became the primary headline.
One of the most poignant aspects is how the movie depicts the relationship between the photojournalists and the local community. They weren't just observers; they were often the only bridge between a starving population and the rest of the world. But that bridge is fragile. The film builds toward the inevitable, heartbreaking conclusion on July 12, 1993.
If you aren't familiar with the history, Dan Eldon and three other journalists—Hos Maina, Anthony Macharia, and Hansi Kraus—were killed by an angry mob in Mogadishu. It happened after a UN airstrike on a house where Somali leaders were supposedly meeting, which resulted in significant civilian casualties. The mob's rage was misplaced but understandable given the carnage, and the journalists, who had gone to the site to document the aftermath, became the targets. It’s a messy, nuanced, and horrifying end that the movie handles with a lot of respect, avoiding the trap of making it a simple "good vs. evil" scenario.
Why the movie didn't become a massive blockbuster
Let's be real: this isn't an easy watch. It’s also an indie film at heart. While it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, it didn't get the massive marketing push that a big-budget Hollywood biopic usually gets. Some critics felt the "journal-style" editing was a bit much, or that the first half felt too much like a travelogue.
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But I’d argue that’s exactly why it’s worth watching.
Life isn't a three-act structure with a clean resolution. Dan’s life was an explosion of creativity that was snuffed out before he could even reach his prime. The movie reflects that fragmentation. It feels a bit disjointed because Dan was a bit disjointed. He was a collage artist, a photographer, a social activist, and a bit of a party animal. You can’t tell that story with a standard "A to B" script.
Key figures portrayed in the film
- Dan Eldon (Ben Schnetzer): The heart of the story.
- Kathy Eldon (Maria Bello): Dan’s mother, who has spent her life keeping his legacy alive through the Creative Activism movement.
- Michael Hedges (Kelly Blatz): One of Dan’s close friends and colleagues.
- The Journalists: The film honors the collective risk taken by the Reuters and AP teams during the Somali Civil War.
How to actually watch it today
Since its release, The Journey is the Destination has bounced around various streaming platforms. You can usually find it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, or Google Play for rent or purchase. It’s the kind of movie that sits in your "Watchlist" for six months because you know it's going to be emotional, and honestly, you need to be in the right headspace for it.
Don't go into it expecting a fast-paced action movie. Go into it if you want to understand why people still talk about a 22-year-old kid thirty years after he died. It's about the power of the "Safari as a way of life"—not just a trip, but a constant exploration of the "other."
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The lingering legacy of the "Journal" style
Even if you don't watch the movie, you've likely seen the influence of Dan Eldon’s work. The "scrapbook" aesthetic that became huge in the late 90s and early 2000s owes a massive debt to him. The movie does a great job of showing how his art was a survival mechanism. He used his journals to process the trauma he was seeing in Somalia. It was his way of stitching the world back together when it was falling apart in front of his lens.
This is a recurring theme in the film: the ethical dilemma of the war photographer. Do you help, or do you take the picture? Dan struggled with this constantly. There’s a scene where he’s surrounded by starving children and he’s handing out biscuits while also trying to document their plight. It’s uncomfortable. It’s supposed to be.
Practical steps for those moved by the story
If you watch the film and find yourself wanting to do more than just feel sad, there are actual ways to engage with Dan Eldon’s legacy. His family started the Creative Activism movement, which is a real-world application of his philosophy.
- Check out Creative Commons: No, not the licensing, but the concept of "Creative Activism" via the Creative Visions Foundation. They support "media makers" who use storytelling to create social change. It’s basically the professional version of what Dan was doing with his journals.
- Read the actual book: The movie is a tribute, but the book The Journey is the Destination is the primary source. It contains pages from his actual journals. Seeing his handwriting and the physical dirt from his travels on the page hits differently than a digital recreation in a movie.
- Explore the history of 1993 Somalia: Understanding the context of the UN intervention (UNOSOM II) gives the movie much more weight. It wasn't just a random tragedy; it was the result of a specific set of political failures that changed how international interventions work even today.
- Support independent journalism: The journalists killed alongside Dan were working for major agencies, but today, freelancers often cover these zones with even less protection. Organizations like the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) work to keep people like Dan safe.
The film reminds us that the "journey" isn't about the literal miles you travel. It’s about how much of yourself you give to the world along the way. Dan gave everything. The movie is just a small window into that sacrifice. It’s a messy, imperfect, beautiful film about a messy, imperfect, beautiful human being. Watch it for the history, but stay for the art. It’ll probably make you want to go out and buy a notebook and some glue, and honestly, that’s probably exactly what Dan would have wanted.