Movie Review: ‘Into the Wild’ (2007)
The story of Christopher McCandless is one of amazement and inspiration, while at the same time being horribly tragic.
Last year I read Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, in anticipation of watching the film. I wrote a review about it if you want to know if it was worth reading and what the book was all about, but I can tell you right now that it was awesome and definitely something to add to your collection.
The movie Into the Wild basically takes the book and puts it on the screen for you to see, without any real changes to its heart, content or message. The chapters in the movie are really the only difference that I noticed. The film is broken up into segments, like a book, that describe Christopher’s journey as a trip through a human being’s life. Childhood, adolescence, adulthood and wisdom.
Emile Hirch, who was in the recent and very underrated Alpha Dog, gives a pitch-perfect performance as McCandless.
The main controversy surrounding this entire saga of McCandless is whether or not he was a selfish child who thought of nothing but himself. The way he leaves his family behind without a single word to any of them, even his beloved sister, causes most people to think of him as totally uncaring and selfish.
The other area of debate is McCandless’ mindset, especially concerning his Alaskan trip. Many think he was ill-prepared for such a huge undertaking and deciding to venture out into the wilderness was akin to suicide.
Was he suicidal?
I wont give you my answer, but I think if you read the book and watch the movie, you’ll come to the correct conclusion. At least, the one I think is correct.
As for whether or not he was selfish, that’s a different story. He was escaping something and trying to find out who he was, and this was the way he went about doing it. Did he hurt the ones who loved him? Absolutely. Was it right?
Who knows?
The movie is just a beautiful piece of film making, with amazing cinematography and some great supporting roles by actors such as Hal Holbrook (who won Best Supporting Actor), Kristen Stewart (right) and Catherine Keener. But I really loved Jena Malone and her overall narration during the film. Her voice conveyed a lot of the emotion that you could feel overtaking the family during the two years he was gone.
From what I can tell from the credits, the film is shot all over the country, presumably at most of the exact locations that McCandless was known to have visited or passed through. The authenticity this adds to the movie is very apparent.
The other wonderful aspect of Into the Wild was the soundtrack, done by Eddie Vedder. He agreed on the spot, according to IMDB, to do the soundtrack when director Sean Penn asked him about it.
You can view a sample of it below in a music video made for the film.
As I said at the time, I felt Atonement should not have been nominated for Best Picture this year, and in its place I would have put Into the Wild.
Mike’s rating: 9.5 out of 10
Hard Sun Music Video - Eddie Vedder - Watch more free videos
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