![]() ![]() ![]() He donates all his money to OXFAM, torches his ID, then goes walkabout. Even as he earns his degree, he is turning his back on the materialistic life his parents have mapped out for him. We meet him as a child, trapped between his warring parents (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden), then as a newly minted graduate of Emory University. Into the Wild is narrated by Chris' sister, Carine (Jena Malone) Chris' perspective is too narrow to allow him to present the "bigger picture" that Carine sees. In the end, however, there is a simple lesson to be learned: happiness is meaningless unless you have someone to share it with. He shows admiration for a man who would go to these lengths in pursuit of a dream and a cause. He does not lionize the character or his actions. Chris' story is both heroic and cautionary brave and foolish. Meanwhile, interspersed with these lengthy glimpses of the past, the narrative in the present moves forward, gradually straying into darker territory. Flashbacks are employed to show how he got there. He finds an abandoned, non-functional bus in the middle of nowhere that provides shelter. As the movie begins, Chris (Emile Hirsch) has already reached his goal: the unspoiled Alaskan wilderness. Both are handled well by Penn and their interweaving is effective. Into the Wild combines two popular genres: the road trip and the struggle of man versus nature. McCandless' story was told through first-hand written fragments and second-hand accounts in Jon Krakauer's book, and this is the material filmmaker Sean Penn has used as the skeleton of his latest movie, Into the Wild. Then there's Chris McCandless, a disillusioned young man who discarded his entire existence so he could make his way to Alaska and survive in a society of untamed solitude for a season. ![]() Treadwell died as he lived - with the bears, mauled and devoured alongside his girlfriend. Consider Timothy Treadwell, whose video diary of life among the Alaskan grizzlies was chronicled in Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man. From time-to-time, we hear stories about those who make this courageous, irrational leap, although many of those tales have unhappy endings. Many of us entertain this thought during a daydream or in those gentle minutes between wakefulness and sleep, but we don't view it as the act of practical, responsible human being. There's something seductive about the idea of turning one's back on civilization and all its trappings. ![]()
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