Into the Wild | Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden

Into the Wild | Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden | Best Film of the Decade

DVDs:

Into the Wild

	Into the Wild Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden Paramount, 2008 average customer review:based on 220 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This is the true story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch). Freshly graduated from college with a promising future ahead McCandless instead walked out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of adventure. What happened to him on the way transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for countless people -- a fearless risk-taker who wrestled with the precarious balance between man and nature.System Requirements:Running Time: 148 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/COMING OF AGE Rating: R UPC: 097363481249 Manufacturer No: 348124

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An existential odyssey

Into the Wild will not be to everyone's liking. Some people will dislike the protagonist, Christopher McCandless, and others will find the movie's pacing to be slow. Yet, I was fascinated by and even a little envious of Chris's dogged attempt to find meaning in life and his disregard for other people's expectations. Like the ascetic monks who would wander into the desert to find enlightenment, Chris was determined to find the answers to spiritual questions by renouncing all worldly things and, ultimately, all contact with other people.

Jaded by the shallowness of America's consumer culture and the poisonous dynamics of family life as he grew up, and inspired by writers like Tolstoy, Thoreau, and London who praised simplicity and being connected to nature, Chris decides after graduating from Emory University to give away his money, break off all contact with his wealthy family, and take off on the mother of all road trips. He does not get far before his car is damaged in flash flooding, so he abandons the automobile and makes the remainder of his journey by walking, canoeing, hitchhiking, or sneaking onto freight trains. Chris travels to various places in America and Mexico and plunges into new experiences, new friendships, and a new romance. Drawing him onward is the lure of his "great Alaska adventure" in which he would live alone in Alaska's big sky country. Along his circuitous route to Alaska, he breaks the hearts of many people he leaves behind, including a lonely old man, Ron Franz (played by Hal Holbrook, in a touching performance), who offers to adopt him. Although Chris shows his fondness for Ron, Chris keeps him at a safe emotional distance by saying that happiness cannot be found in human relationships.

[SPOILER ALERT] After Chris at last makes his way into the Alaskan backcountry in April, he makes a series of mistakes (not properly preserving his wild game and eating poisonous berries) that bring him to the brink of death. At last experiencing the most profound type of solitude--that of an isolated person confronting his imminent end--Chris concludes that a happy life is one shared with others, not one spent alone. The viewer is left to ponder the question of whether, if Chris had recovered, he truly would have reintegrated into society or whether the "call of the wild" would have led him back onto his solitary path. In other words, even if Chris did not want to die alone, it's unclear whether he would have wanted to live alone.

Raising perennial questions about whether society improves or spoils its members, whether happiness is found in social settings or in confronting nature alone, whether a person should live by uncompromising ideals or should make his peace with society's numerous and serious flaws, whether someone who so completely rejects society's shared ideals is a genius or a madman, and whether Chris was running away from his problems or engaging in a necessarily private spiritual quest, Into the Wild gives the thoughtful viewer much to think about. Yet, the movie also engages the viewers' emotions by showing Chris's desperate yearning for a pure and intensely lived life and the fragile and combustible dynamics of human relationships. For viewers who are more interested in a mature and contemplative film, Into the Wild is highly recommended.

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Best Film of the Decade

There's not much to criticize in this film, it's almost flawless, a seamless piece of art. It's the composite of the True story of Christopher McCandles, The Jon Krakauer novel, the screen play directed by Sean Penn and the sound track By Eddie Vedder. I've never heard a better cohesiveness between a soundtrack and a screenplay than in this movie, it's haunting. Sean Penn uses a chapter format sequence for the movie in the sense of the Krakauer novel and the literary prowess and potential of McCandles himself who may quite possibly have become a great writer had he not encountered the profound and inadvertent course of advents that culminated in his fate. The performances by all the actors were great and the Eddie Vedder songs are powerful. A must see film for anyone who loves dramas about "push the envelope" type personalities.

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