into the wild delivers on the promise of film. unlike so many movies of great style and little substance, or those that assemble a memorable soundtrack albeit detached from the film, or blockbuster hollywood films that cater primarily to the baser senses, neglecting to engage the mind, into the wild works well on virtually every level imaginable.
chris mccandless' life story proves timeless, perhaps growing more poignant in the time since he lived it. penn and emile hirsch discover a soft balance in coloring mccandless' days on earth. the man lived an amazing life because he believed so greatly, with such ardor, that life could be different, that the trappings of our utilitarian society did not represent an unchangeable sentence neither to be deviated from nor struggled against. this, in and of itself qualifies mccandless as extraordinary. that the film portrays large aspects of mccandless' life and imagines myriad details in such a way as to avoid being patronizing or sensational but rather artfully realistic, is a testament to the quality choices penn and his crew made.
the story follows mccandless from his college graduation to a solitary lifestyle in the wilderness of alaska, flashing back on occasion to a typical american family life rife with so many contradictions which surely contributed to mccandless' overall sense of dissatisfaction with the status-quo. what really comes through though is not that mccandless is an insecure kid who acted irrationally or was disillusioned because he held too many illusions to begin with. rather, mccandless is seen as one of the sane few, living boldly and without pretense. this is not a cowboy movie and when mccandless is caught freeloading a train ride, he is beaten up just like would happen in the real world. despite the fact the train car was empty and the door was wide open and in no way did the train line lose money because of his ride, (he did not have the money to pay for a ride in any case,) mccandless is physically punished for freeloading, which seems ludicrous.
penn is fair, too, in his treatment of his characters. in some stories mcandless' character would be seen as irrational and irresponsible while hal holbrook's elderly retiree would be seen as safe and respectable. here we see the two characters as equals. holbrook's character has something to learn from mccandless, something about getting up and doing while one is still able, something about getting out in the world and staying busy with the business of living. mccandles in turn begins learning his own personal ultimate life lesson, the one thing he overlooked or took for granted when he was growing up in georgia, the simple fact that man is a social animal and therefore, man thrives in company and dies when cut off from it.
into the wild could easily have been an imax film. the cinematography is that breathtaking. and it's not just the footage in the alaskan wilds. yes, the views mccandless woke to every morning were sumptuous to behold on screen and the lighting guy for this production crew comes off looking like a genius, but when mccandless kayaks into mexico, or emerges from a homeless shelter to a menacing night time los angeles, or when he is seen working in the fields of the midwest aboard heavy machinery, the camera work is amazing. it takes you to these places and does not even seem to try to make it look beautiful, it just is and as the viewer, you know it.
the soundtrack for into the wild is an extension of the overall artistic endeavor. watching and listening it becomes obvious that eddie vedder was privy to a screening of the film without music because in crafting the songs, he succinctly matched them to the movie, to the characters, to the settings, to the feel of it all, and it touches the viewer listener in the heart and brain, yeah, but mostly in the gut. these songs are basic. they're that sound you make out loud or in your mind when you achieve something; "unnh." they're as simple and sparse as the alaskan wilderness and as complex and substantive as the notions of personal freedom and utilitarianism the film addresses.
Ed’s voice is unconventional and so sometimes it may not fit certain sounds or genres but it is achingly beautiful here. The recording is of a high quality as well but when his voice cracks on the front end of some words, it is fitting. it gives the song and the lyrics a crackling, hollow sort of quality that fits with a certain theme of wide open disconnection.
emile hirsch is superb as mccandless. while some may complain his performance was understated, they would be missing the point. mccandless did what he did for himself. his story is worth the telling because of how atypical he was in the choices he made, in his actions. there are no indications in jon krakaur's book nor sean penn's film that mccandless was in any self-serving. the fact that he considers writing a book about his experience later in life merely reveals the introspective nature he obviously possessed and one would expect from a writer. at times hirsh stands aside and lets the settings tell the story. at other times, he is keenly keyed in to the emotion mccandless must have felt at failing to translate what he read in books into his real life experience in the wild.
they really do not make films like this in hollywood anymore. it is complex and it embraces contradiciton, revealing it as not only the norm, but worth embracing in order to ask the appropriate questions, in order to have a full life. into the wild is perhaps edifying before it is entertaining, and as art, it satisfies at the highest aesthetic level. sean penn achieves something through this film few american directors achieve these days; art.
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