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Wild Innocence
By bukkhead | October 6, 2007
FILM REVIEW: ‘INTO THE WILD’
Written by Sean Penn, based on the book by Jon Krakauer
Directed by Sean Penn
Rated R
140 mins.
Alexander Supertramp, nee Christopher Johnson McCandless, decides one day to leave it all behind and walk the earth. After graduating from Emory University in 1990, he eschews a chance at Harvard law, gives away all his money, cuts up his credit cards, his social security card, his driver’s license, and drives off into the sunset. Once his car is rendered inoperable by a flash flood, he is truly free of his earthly possessions, so he literally burns his remaining cash and begins his journey, hitchhiking around the USA.
Into the Wild is based on the book by Jon Krakauer, itself based on his article “Death of an Innocent” in Outside magazine. It tells the story of a young man disillusion by the ills of society, hypocrisy, his parents, and civilization in general.
We’ve all had dreams of giving everything away, mostly in an attempt to abandon our responsibilities. Into The Wild is a fantasy treatment of this dream, as Alexander spends most of the film in state of wide-eyed happiness. He experiences occasional frustrations, of course, but most of these serve to temper his resolve to stay removed from the diseases of mankind.
Alexander’s story is told in flashbacks, juxtaposed with his final experiences alone in the Alaskan wilderness, living and surviving in an old abandoned bus. The technique serves to showcase his desire to be alone contrasted with the lives of the people he touches along the way, each with his or her own inner and (outer) demons. From California “rubbertramps” (caravan hippies) Rainey and Jan, to South Dakota grain-harvest manager Wayne, Alexander learns not only the lessons he’ll need to survive for a time in Alaska, but also rediscovers the beauty and love that humanity are capable of.
Contrasted with this are the narrative elements voiced by his sister, who balances Alexander’s soul-searching adventure with the history of his family’s life, and the effect his disappearance has on herself, and especially his mother and father.
Sean Penn directs, and once again delivers a heartfelt story without getting too political, letting the camera speak for him: interiors are flat, colorless, and muted, while exterior shots are less in the style of a Peter Jackson or even an Ansel Adams, and more in the style of low-budget travel magazine photographed by eager amateurs.
Emile Hirsch (The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dogs) as Alexander maintains the boyish innocence and joi-de-vivre of a young man still only on the verge of manhood. As much a character in the film, the soundtrack by Michael Brook, and featuring original songs by Eddie Vedder, not only supports, but accompanies the lyrical poetry of the film.
For some, Alexander’s story is a tragedy, a man lost who’s end is, at best, bittersweet. And at 140 minutes, one wonders what’s the point of watching what amounts to a prolonged suicide. But the film is funny in places, moving in others, and the ultimate lesson is that love, and forgiveness, can defends us from all the world’s dismay.
(This review was printed in the Newport Mercury.)
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