Into the Wild (Two-Disc Special
Collectors Edition) starring Emile
Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Catherine
Keener, Marcia Gay Harden, William
Hurt
Doomed By His Own Hubris And Lack Of Compassion
A superb cast and an even-handed treatment of a true story buoy Into the
Wild, Sean Penns screen adaptation of Jon Krakauers bestselling book.
Emile Hirsch stars as Christopher McCandless, scion of a prosperous but
troubled family who, after graduating from Atlantas 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 doesnt 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 idy llic 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. Itd 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
for his own family. McCandless was able to form quick friendships which
were more deep and sincere on the parts of the other people, his were
rather more superficial at that point in time. He was filled with the angst
and implacable censoriousness of youth and none of the appreciation for
the fallibility of people, e.g., his own parents. Ostensibly it was the
revelation that his father had continued relations with his first wife while
married to his second and this sin, in McCandlesss eyes, colored his enti re
life including his education, a career and any and all things that were in
any way reminiscent of his parents. He nursed a cold rage against his
father especially and used this revelation to justify his extreme callousness
and carelessness toward his entire family including the sister he was so
fond of and the abandoment of his car, a vehicle he supposedly treasured.
He planned to inflict the ultimate hurt against his family by plotting his own
disappearance and was so focused on this goal he lost sight of right and
wrong and only considered his own wants which doomed him to die of
starvation alone in the wilderness.
His arrogant, brash nickname Alexander Supertramp was another
symptom of his hubris which ultimately seared his family with sorrow and
drove him to a cold and lonely death in the old bus with no one around to
comfort him in his last moments. He had fun playing the adventurer, for a
while, then when he faced the reality of the situation he placed himself in,
the fun and adventure vanished and he was left only with his very bad
decisions. He went into a cold, forbidding environment virtually unprepared
and without any supplies to speak of; tiny changes to his venture would
have ensured his survival but it was not to be. Something as simple as
slicing thin strips of the moose he killed and air drying them as opposed to
smoking the meat and ending up with a maggot filled mess. Carrying beef
jerky and dried fruit with him would have helped, pretty much any common
care would have resulted in life instead of death and I do not believe for
one second he intended or wanted to die. But he chose to ignore wise
advice from people who had successfully gone into the wilderness and
tried to give him the benefit of their own experiences...he even refused one
man who offered to take him to buy adequate supplies. McCandless
refused. It is a waste, it is not romantic at all, it is a tragedy and all the
young men and women who find this event adventurous and exciting and
worship McCandless and deify him are all sadly mistaken. The film was
excellent and the music and actors all superb, but ultimately it describes a
vengeful, angry, selfish, self centered young man who harbored a horrible
grudge against his family and never even discussed this with them, but
chose to plot to wreak revenge on them instead, which he did succeed at,
his only success in this doomed adventure.
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