This is the true story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch). Freshly graduated from college with a promising future ahead, McCandless instead walked out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of adventure. What happened to him on the way transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for countless people -- a fearless risk-taker who wrestled with the precarious balance between man and nature.
A superb cast and an even-handed treatment of a true story buoy Into the Wild, Sean Penn's screen adaptation of Jon Krakauer's bestselling book. Emile Hirsch stars as Christopher McCandless, scion of a prosperous but troubled family who, after graduating from Atlanta's Emory University in the early 1990s, decides to chuck it all and become a self-styled "aesthetic voyager" in search of "ultimate freedom." He certainly doesn't do it halfway: after donating his substantial savings account to charity and literally torching the rest of his cash, McCandless changes his name (to "Alexander Supertramp"), abandons his family (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden as his bickering, clueless parents and Jena Malone as his baffled but loving sister, who relates much of the backstory in voice-over), and hits the road, bound for the Alaskan bush and determined not to be found. For the next two years he lives the life of a vagabond, working a few odd jobs, kayaking through the Grand Canyon into Mexico, landing on L.A.'s Skid Row, and turning his back on everyone who tried to befriends him (including Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker as two kindly, middle-aged hippies and Hal Holbrook in a deeply affecting performance as an old widower who tries to take "Alex" under his wing). Penn, who directed and wrote the screenplay, alternates these interludes with scenes depicting McCandless' Alaskan idyll--which soon turns out be not so idyllic after all. Settling into an abandoned school bus, he manages to sustain himself for a while, shooting small game (and one very large moose), reading, and recording his existential musings on paper. But when the harsh realities of life in the wilderness set in, our boy finds himself well out of his depth, not just ill-prepared for the rigors of day to day survival but realizing the importance of the very thing he wanted to escape--namely, human relationships. It'd be easy to either idealize McCandless as a genuinely free spirit, unencumbered by the societal strictures that tie the rest of us down, or else dismiss him as a hopelessly callow naïf, a fool whose disdain for practical realities ultimately doomed him. Into the Wild does neither, for the most part telling the tale with an admirable lack of cheap sentiment and leaving us to decide for ourselves. --Sam Graham
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
a real film with a real story:
With so much Hollywood garbage forced down our throats in the form of overblown budgets, bad and superficial computer graphics, and explosions in place of substance, Penn's "Into the Wild" brings us back to a simple and powerful film that makes us look at the money-driven species we've become and the soulless idols we worship. This is a great movie because it is scary to see how many of us have lost the way in favor of material things we never needed but always felt compelled to buy. Hal Bolbrook's scene is... more info
Great movie:
I saw this movie and just had to buy the DVD for my son. He loved it too. Nice to agree on something.
Love the movie, not the book so much.:
I read this book years ago and had a hard time getting through it. But I kept going because I needed to read the details of how it happened. In the end, I was glad I did. Recently, I saw the movie at the video store. I was immediately drawn to it. For a book that didn't read so well, very slow paced, it always seemed to have stuck with me. I debated whether or not I should rent it. In the end, my curiosity won out. I couldn't imagine how they could have fit the book into a two hour movie. In the... more info
EXCELLENT MOVIE!:
I just watched this movie last night and it was so wonderful. It really takes you on an adventure. I was blown away at the end of the movie when they showed a self portrait photo that Christopher had taken of himself. The movie did an excellent job of matching up the actor to Christopher. I cried at the end of the movie. It was that good! I really wanted to figure out how to send a personal email to Sean Penn thanking him for such an excellent job he did in making this movie!!!!
