Into The Wild

I watched this movie a couple weeks ago and it took me a while to gather my thoughts on it. I furiously scribbled notes after I watched it, kept adding to them when a new revelation would come to me and so I kept putting off and putting off typing this stuff out. Plus it was Christmas. Then, finally, my wife and I sat down to watch Mamma Mia! and that movie was so awful I wanted to tell everyone. Unfortunately, my mental defect is my own self-imposed need to arrange things chronologically. If I saw Into The Wild first, I need to get this review done before I move on to Bomb-a Mia! (I'm working on more puns for the title, they'll get better.) Thankfully this movie was pretty good...

I N T O     T H E     W I L D

Theatrical Release: September 2007

Genre: Drama? Sure, drama...

Sub-genre: Biographical bummer

Starring: Emile Hirsch, who you might remember from nothing at all. Unless you saw Speed Racer. Then you'd say, "Hey, that's the guy from Speed Racer! That movie gave me seizures..." Also starring Marcia Gay Harden (whose name I know from researching for The Mist), William Hurt (with guest appearance by his mustache!), Vince Vaughn (yes, he's drinking in THIS movie, too), Zach Galifinakis and HIS beard, and an 

impressive Hal Holbrook

The overview: In the early 90's, an intelligent, well-off kid graduated college and then disappeared. He sold his belongings, donated his college money to Oxfam ($24,000!!!), and drove his used Datsun into an empty ravine. His ultimate goal: Alaska. Along the way he meets old hippies, drives his dysfunctional parents nearly to the asylum, grows a ridiculously sparse beard, works in a Burger King, and farms with Vince Vaughn. He DOES make it to Alaska, though, where he spends a few months living in an abandoned bus. But hey... Some people NEVER go to college.

What I thought: Two things you need to know before I go into this. 1) The movie is based on a true story. There really was a Christopher McCandless who went by the name Alexander Supertramp (which is now the name I use at Red Lobster to reserve my table), he really did abandon his worldly possessions and relationships, and he really did trek to Alaska after graduating from Emory University in 1992. 2) I'm an incredible cynic (no way!) so for me to be this profoundly moved by a movie should say something. True, when I popped the movie into my DVD player, I was expecting some hippie lifestyle promoting, Birkenstock wearing, patchouli burnin' love-in but you quickly realize there's very little of that in the film. Oh sure, McCandless meets a few of those people and lives in their desert squatters communes but even that lifestyle doesn't quite fit him. The movie is more Buddhist at its core, as Buddhism teaches that all suffering is caused by desire and McCandless wants nothing from the material world. He only wants to experience it for what it is, which is why he chooses Alaska, the last great frontier, as where he needs to go to figure it all out. Unfortunately, to get anywhere in the modern world, you DO have to play the game for a little while, either to get gas money, buy food or clothes, or just to get what you need to survive (guns and ammo, deodorant, etc). In 2008, I don't think I saw a movie as thought-provoking as Into The Wild. Confession: For about the past three years or so, when I'm on long flights or lying awake at night restless, I daydream about hiking the entire 2,176 mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Not so much for the wilderness but for the escape. Getting away from everyone and everything, hoping that something will just click inside of me. I don't have traumatic adolescent experiences like McCandless did but I more than understand his need to "check out" for a while. I think he needed to go somewhere devoid of civilization and reboot. There are no ulterior motives in nature, no passive-aggression. It just IS. Good or bad. And the want of material things keeps us from exploring that purely honest part of OURselves. Think about it: If you didn't have to make money to pay your mortgage, or your credit cards, or your snowmobiles, would you really be doing what you are right now? I don't mean winning the lottery and going away with your money and never having to worry about if you can afford it, I mean never WANTING anything other than your basic needs. What would you do with your life, who would you BE if you could provide your own food, shelter, and entertainment? Take a minute to consider that, really. If you knew you WERE (or knew you could become) self-sufficient enough to not have to be bound by the trappings of the work-to-pay-for-food-and-shelter cycle, it would open up an immense world of possibilities. I think McCandless realized this. Or maybe he just really needed to be away from everyone. Either way, the movie will get you thinking about it all. 

Sean Penn wrote and directed the movie (although Penn's adaptation is based on a 1996 book of the same name by Jon Krakauer) and he didn't do a bad job. Sean Penn is one of those actors whose body of work I usually like (except Mystic River, sorry Sean) but as a person, I think he's a little too full of himself. But I guess that's Hollywood for you. Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Martin Sheen, Amanda Peet, all of you — be grateful for the large paychecks you earn pretending to be other people for a living. Just because I know who you are, Jenny McCarthy, doesn't mean your opinion is more informed than mine or that I give two shits about what it might be. (Rant finished) The movie is shot using a split timeline, starting off by letting you know that, yes, McCandless did make it to Alaska. I like the slow reveal of his trek, especially because I never have to worry if he made it to Alaska or not. I was free to explore what happened to him along the way. I also noticed in the end credits that the McCandless family was thanked for their consultations during the film but if they had any idea how negatively they'd be portrayed, they'd have told Jeff Spicoli to shove his movie up his ass. Also, the soundtrack is full of original songs from Eddie Vedder who is quickly becoming my generation's Bob Dylan. If Dylan was cool with his songs being used for movie soundtracks. But Vedder and Dylan have identical singing styles (both make you say out loud, "What did he say there? 'Wants to ride out butterflies?' ") and are notorious for hating the press. Oh, artists! If only I were too much of a genius to appreciate the people who appreciate ME. But the songs, really, are very good.

I'll leave the message of the movie for you to discover. You wonder what it is throughout the whole film. If the story was just some dumb kid who discarded his belongings and pompously went to Alaska and lived in a bus, it'd just be an anecdote. But there's something substantial to take away from this movie. You're just sort of scratching your head the whole time, asking yourself: What the hell is this all about?! Christopher McCandless, in my opinion, didn't know what he was looking for but he knew had to go on this endeavor. For self-discovery, to reconnect with nature, to prove if he could do it, out of frustration with a materialist society, I don't know. I think for him, the journey may have been all he needed and even HE might not have realized that until the very end. Sometimes, when you get to your destination, you realize the trip there was the best part. And not just the anticipation of reaching your destination, I mean the actual traveling can be an amazing adventure. In the end, like Christopher McCandless, you realize what he was looking for the whole time and how he had it, he JUST had it, but he couldn't see the forest for the trees. It's not what I would call an "upper" of a movie but, like I said, you'll be thinking about it for the next week. 

Best Scene: Hal Holbrook plays Roy Franz, an old man who takes McCandless in for a few weeks before his final trip to Alaska. Franz's family was killed in a car crash when he was in the Army and has been completely alone ever since. Just before he drops Chris off at the highway, he very soberly and very emotionally asks him if, since Supertramp wants nothing to do with his real family, and Roy's family has been gone for so long and he's been so alone, if he wouldn't mind sticking around and letting him adopt him. As sort of a step-grandson, if you will. It's obvious that Roy has gotten the companionship back in his life that he's been missing for 30+ years and it's gut-wrenching what you realize what his friendship with Chris has meant to him. He just wants him around. I wonder if Roy even knew he needed companionship so much. But he also knows that all relationships have their timelines. Hal Holbrook was nominated for an Oscar for this movie and I'd bet it was because of this one scene.

Overall: 8 out of 10. Emile Hirsch did a great job as Alexander Supertramp but I think the one major flaw in the writing or in McCandless himself (whichever it might be) is that he doesn't seem to have any interest in GIRLS. He did have one girl but he treated her more like a friend. OK, so she was 16 and he was 23 (It's Miley!) but as a 23-year-old dude, with ambitions of Alaska or not, you wanna meet girls. NO ONE'S primary objective at 23 is eating an apple fresh off the tree or watching the sun go down on the California coast. Like it or not, disagree with me or otherwise, it's chicks, man. And I get it, from the Buddhist perspective, a Buddhist has no earthly wants but McCandless never professed to be ANY religion in the film. The Buddhist slant on the movie was MY take on it. So, c'mon! I mean, C'MON!!

Who would enjoy this movie: Sigh... Hippies. Actually, no, my dad would like it, too. Anyone who's ever stood on top of a mountain and been genuinely moved. 

Watch it if you like: Oddly enough, Grizzly Man. Werner Herzog's documentary of Timothy Treadwell, the man who also ran away to Alaska to be with nature and with the bears he deeply loved and respected. Right up until they ate him and his girlfriend. Netflix recommended Deliverance and Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants for those who liked this movie. I'll tell you right now, if you like this movie AND Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants, you and your pants need to travel away from me. Just because you like to take adventures doesn't mean you watch movies about travels. Here's an idea... If you like this movie, go to Amazon.com and pick up either of these books: Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer or A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson. Hurry up and get these paper books before Oprah and her Kindle make bookstores obsolete! But what you don't know is that Kindles are made out of people! IT'S PEOPLE!!!

Next In My Netflix Q: Mamma Mia! Oh God. I just threw up a little bit...

**Thanks to Google, Wikipedia, and IMDb for various reference sources**