Scan and Pan
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Into the Wild
It tells the controversial true story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch), an idealistic young man who decides to donate his college fund to charity and leave behind what he sees as a meaningless existence to wander around the country under the name of Alexander Supertramp with the goal of making his way to Alaska to live off the land, a quest that ultimately leads to his death from starvation in the Alaskan wilderness.
Writer/director Sean Penn (The Indian Runner, The Pledge) transforms Jon Krakauer's book about McCandless into a powerful film that seduces the audience from the very first frame and doesn't let go until the end credits roll. Penn finds both grace and tragedy in the life and death of a remarkable young man, albeit one who was naive and even arrogant in overestimating his ability to survive in the wild. There's poetry in the telling of this story that is as intimate in scale as it is epic in theme, recalling the films of Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven, The New World).
In exploring how one character on a journey touches the lives of others and in turn has his life touched by them, it also makes an interesting companion piece to David Lynch's The Straight Story. In the end, we're defined by the lives we touch and our relationships with our fellow humans. What lends strength to this film is its refusal to judge McCandless or to attempt to neatly explain what drove his actions, showing Penn's respect for both McCandless and the intelligence of the audience.
Cinematographer Eric Gautier (The Motorcycle Diaries) captures the beauty of the natural landscapes McCandless travels through, allowing us to appreciate them in the same way the character does. A combination of music by Michael Brook (An Inconvenient Truth), Kaki King, and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder with original songs written and performed by Vedder results in a soundtrack that matches the story's intensity.
Penn's direction of his cast is sharp, obtaining the kind of electric performances he's known for as an actor. Hirsch's fervent portrayal of the central character burns up the screen, and he goes so deep into his role that only McCandless seems to remain as a charismatic presence that you can't take your eyes off of even for a second. The cast includes William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden as McCandless' parents, Jena Malone as his sister, Brian Dierker and Catherine Keener as a hippie couple he meets on the road, Vince Vaughn as a man he works with in South Dakota, Kristen Stewart as a teenaged girl he meets in California, and Hal Holbrook as a lonely retired soldier who takes him in and begins to see him as the grandson he never had. For some of them, this is their best work in years, for others, it's their best ever.
Into the Wild is one of those rare films that works on every level. It's not something that can merely be watched, instead it begs to be experienced and even endured as an ordeal as emotionally draining as it is life affirming.
[5 out of 5 stars]
At times it's easy to despair about the state of filmmaking, but then a film comes along to remind you that there are still films that have something to say and say it well. This is one of those films.
It tells the controversial true story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch), an idealistic young man who decides to donate his college fund to charity and leave behind what he sees as a meaningless existence to wander around the country under the name of Alexander Supertramp with the goal of making his way to Alaska to live off the land, a quest that ultimately leads to his death from starvation in the Alaskan wilderness.
Writer/director Sean Penn (The Indian Runner, The Pledge) transforms Jon Krakauer's book about McCandless into a powerful film that seduces the audience from the very first frame and doesn't let go until the end credits roll. Penn finds both grace and tragedy in the life and death of a remarkable young man, albeit one who was naive and even arrogant in overestimating his ability to survive in the wild. There's poetry in the telling of this story that is as intimate in scale as it is epic in theme, recalling the films of Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven, The New World).
In exploring how one character on a journey touches the lives of others and in turn has his life touched by them, it also makes an interesting companion piece to David Lynch's The Straight Story. In the end, we're defined by the lives we touch and our relationships with our fellow humans. What lends strength to this film is its refusal to judge McCandless or to attempt to neatly explain what drove his actions, showing Penn's respect for both McCandless and the intelligence of the audience.
Cinematographer Eric Gautier (The Motorcycle Diaries) captures the beauty of the natural landscapes McCandless travels through, allowing us to appreciate them in the same way the character does. A combination of music by Michael Brook (An Inconvenient Truth), Kaki King, and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder with original songs written and performed by Vedder results in a soundtrack that matches the story's intensity.
Penn's direction of his cast is sharp, obtaining the kind of electric performances he's known for as an actor. Hirsch's fervent portrayal of the central character burns up the screen, and he goes so deep into his role that only McCandless seems to remain as a charismatic presence that you can't take your eyes off of even for a second. The cast includes William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden as McCandless' parents, Jena Malone as his sister, Brian Dierker and Catherine Keener as a hippie couple he meets on the road, Vince Vaughn as a man he works with in South Dakota, Kristen Stewart as a teenaged girl he meets in California, and Hal Holbrook as a lonely retired soldier who takes him in and begins to see him as the grandson he never had. For some of them, this is their best work in years, for others, it's their best ever.
Into the Wild is one of those rare films that works on every level. It's not something that can merely be watched, instead it begs to be experienced and even endured as an ordeal as emotionally draining as it is life affirming.
[5 out of 5 stars]
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