Into The Wild

Release date: September 28, 2007
Directed by: Sean Penn
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone

Based on Jon Krakauer's bestselling book of the same name, Sean Penn's Into The Wild is a breathtaking piece of art from beginning to end. The film tells the story of a young, idealistic and fully realized Christopher McCandless, who sheds all vestiges of his upper middle-class American materialistic life to travel to Alaska, the one place where he feels he can find true happiness by living off the land.

After graduating from university, McCandless (Hirsch) promptly hands over the majority of his remaining college fund to Oxfam, burns the rest by the side of the road and then sets out on foot to travel across the country. The film, beautifully shot and magically paced, carefully tracks the journey of McCandless, who takes on the alter ego of Alexander Supertramp, as he travels around the U.S. from California to Mexico and back again. Along the way he meets a cavalcade of interesting people, all of whom are touched in a way by his energy and help him with his eventual goal of making it to Alaska.

Penn has stated in numerous interviews that he wanted the landscape of Into The Wild to be as much a character as McCandless himself. It's impossible not to be aware of this throughout every single moment of the film, from the beautiful shots that pan incredible tree-filled mountain ranges of Alaska to the moments of glorious sun-filled days spent on the glistening beaches of California. Even when the landscape is the grungy, underbelly of Los Angeles, there's a magical quality about it all — as if you're truly seeing the world through the eyes of McCandless. Penn's dedication to the landscape's portrayal is even further heightened by its coupling with the clearly inspired soundtrack by Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, whose music seems to match the visual images note for note.

This Wasn't Mentioned In The Travel Brochure
A majority of the movie is narrated by his sister Carine (Malone), who provides a balanced look at what was happening to the other people in McCandless' life, namely his parents, while he had abandoned all contact. While Krakauer's book made a point to deftly tell the story in a journalistic fashion, Penn's film makes a point of exploring the conflict between McCandless and his parents, and openly posits his hostility towards them as one of the main reasons for his wanting to give up his bland middle-class existence.

McCandless' leather-tramp philosophy is celebrated with a sharp undercurrent of reality: you can't skate the edges of reality, burn your money in a heap and leave all your material possessions behind without consequence. Yet there's a fundamental belief in his spirit that drives the film. And in no place is this more determined than in the enigmatic, enthralling performance by Emile Hirsch, who commits to being McCandless/Supertramp in such a way that it becomes impossible not to identify with him. There are moments, when he's white-water rafting, climbing a California mountain to prove a point, or floating naked down a cold Alaskan river that transcend even Penn's hand and seem to embody the experience in a way that's hard to put into words.

The excellent performances in the film elevate it to new heights. Catherine Keener's Jan Burres (a mother-figure who forms a special bond with McCandless), Vince Vaughn's crazed, magnetic Wayne Westerberg, and Kristen Stewart's awkwardly charming Tracy all support the picture's main goal: to prove that McCandless was so much more than a boy who wasted away in the wild, but a survivor who was truly someone special.