Into the Wild (***½)
Director: Sean Penn (The Crossing Guard, The Pledge)
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Catherine Keener, Hal Holbrook
Seen: January 25th 2008
***½ Out of ****
If you haven’t at least once thought about leaving everything behind and just running off into the wild, then, the lyrics from a song by the Counting Crows: “If you’ve never stared of into the distance then your life is a shame…” seems appropriate.
I have not seen more beautiful scenery and a more enticing invitation to simply leave everything behind in any film before this one. Sweeping landscapes take your breath away at almost every turn. Accompanying this is some of the most beautiful and fitting music I’ve ever heard in a film (I’ve also since purchased the soundtrack by Eddie Vedder, this is great music for everyone).
Into the Wild tells the true (even though slightly speculative) story of Chris McCandless (Emile Hirsch), a young man who gave up his life, his education, a bright future; to trek across America to Alaska and spend a season on the Alaskan plains. McCandless did keep a diary of his travels, and John Krakauer wrote a novel based on these diaries, which Sean Penn based Into the Wild on.
Into the Wild shows us how hard surviving in nature can be, how, like animals, man has to really fight for everything he needs in order to stay alive. And I found it glorious and invaluable. I believe everyone who wants to head out should see this film first, primarily as a warning, but also, if they so choose, as a motivation for good preparation. The story starts with all of McCandless’ “good intentions” and over time his travels turn from pure happiness because he did what he always wanted to do, to the eventual realisation that happiness means nothing unless you can share it, amidst his struggle for survival on his own in the wild.
This struggle for survival, as we learn through flashbacks, was always present in McCandless’ life, although not necessarily as physically. As Carine (Chris’ sister, Jena Malone) narrates, he grew up with warring parents, something that will always confuse a child and make them yearn for something more, in this case his tragic travels. When he graduates and his father (William Hurt) wants to buy him a new car it causes yet another rift between the two, since he has already started leaving materialistic needs behind. The rather sizable amount of money he does have he gives to OXFAM, and he cuts up and torches his ID and credit cards.
On his way to Alaska, Chris encounters quite a few colourful and just as interesting characters, real people that you might find on the road anywhere in the world today. A couple of hippies (Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker) with whom he blissfully stays for a while. A grain harvester (Vince Vaughn) with whom he starts a friendship, but then his friend gets arrested for his “extracurricular” activities. Then reuniting with the hippies Chris starts up a quick romance with a young singer in a hippie camp, but by now you can see his urgent need to get to Alaska has become an almost self-destructive necessity for him, and he simply moves on to his last stop before Alaska where he is adopted by a lonely old man (Hal Holbrook), who further enriches the film with true humanity and wisdom for Chris. And we also find that he did not meet these people randomly or without reason. Reaching Alaska now seems hollow to him, because it is so beautiful, and he can’t share his happiness from these sights with anyone.
By the end of the film you are left with a tragic longing for Chris. You wish you could have been one of the people he met on his road trip, if only to try and give him a piece of your mind, try to make him figure out his final realisation earlier. Chris’ story does remind us however, that society has bent itself around the rat race to such a degree that happiness can only be found outside of the busy nature (pun intended?) of the city, or at least it tries to make that point. Eventually, wherever you are, true happiness can only be experienced once it’s shared.
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Catherine Keener, Hal Holbrook
Seen: January 25th 2008
***½ Out of ****
If you haven’t at least once thought about leaving everything behind and just running off into the wild, then, the lyrics from a song by the Counting Crows: “If you’ve never stared of into the distance then your life is a shame…” seems appropriate.
I have not seen more beautiful scenery and a more enticing invitation to simply leave everything behind in any film before this one. Sweeping landscapes take your breath away at almost every turn. Accompanying this is some of the most beautiful and fitting music I’ve ever heard in a film (I’ve also since purchased the soundtrack by Eddie Vedder, this is great music for everyone).
Into the Wild tells the true (even though slightly speculative) story of Chris McCandless (Emile Hirsch), a young man who gave up his life, his education, a bright future; to trek across America to Alaska and spend a season on the Alaskan plains. McCandless did keep a diary of his travels, and John Krakauer wrote a novel based on these diaries, which Sean Penn based Into the Wild on.
Into the Wild shows us how hard surviving in nature can be, how, like animals, man has to really fight for everything he needs in order to stay alive. And I found it glorious and invaluable. I believe everyone who wants to head out should see this film first, primarily as a warning, but also, if they so choose, as a motivation for good preparation. The story starts with all of McCandless’ “good intentions” and over time his travels turn from pure happiness because he did what he always wanted to do, to the eventual realisation that happiness means nothing unless you can share it, amidst his struggle for survival on his own in the wild.
This struggle for survival, as we learn through flashbacks, was always present in McCandless’ life, although not necessarily as physically. As Carine (Chris’ sister, Jena Malone) narrates, he grew up with warring parents, something that will always confuse a child and make them yearn for something more, in this case his tragic travels. When he graduates and his father (William Hurt) wants to buy him a new car it causes yet another rift between the two, since he has already started leaving materialistic needs behind. The rather sizable amount of money he does have he gives to OXFAM, and he cuts up and torches his ID and credit cards.
On his way to Alaska, Chris encounters quite a few colourful and just as interesting characters, real people that you might find on the road anywhere in the world today. A couple of hippies (Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker) with whom he blissfully stays for a while. A grain harvester (Vince Vaughn) with whom he starts a friendship, but then his friend gets arrested for his “extracurricular” activities. Then reuniting with the hippies Chris starts up a quick romance with a young singer in a hippie camp, but by now you can see his urgent need to get to Alaska has become an almost self-destructive necessity for him, and he simply moves on to his last stop before Alaska where he is adopted by a lonely old man (Hal Holbrook), who further enriches the film with true humanity and wisdom for Chris. And we also find that he did not meet these people randomly or without reason. Reaching Alaska now seems hollow to him, because it is so beautiful, and he can’t share his happiness from these sights with anyone.
By the end of the film you are left with a tragic longing for Chris. You wish you could have been one of the people he met on his road trip, if only to try and give him a piece of your mind, try to make him figure out his final realisation earlier. Chris’ story does remind us however, that society has bent itself around the rat race to such a degree that happiness can only be found outside of the busy nature (pun intended?) of the city, or at least it tries to make that point. Eventually, wherever you are, true happiness can only be experienced once it’s shared.
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