"I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth."
Into the Wild is one of the most interesting films I've seen in a while. It's quite a character driven piece from our protagonist - Chris McCandless (played by Emile Hirsch). Chris graduates college, only to burn identification, give his life saving to charity and travel across country in an adventure that will lead him to living in the pure wild of Alaska. He chooses to do this because he says he wants to get away from society and be apart of nature.
What's interesting about this dynamic is while he tries to do the most unselfish thing - he becomes selfish in doing so. He never tells a sole where he is going, thus affecting his entire family. He meets many friends all of which, worries about his high spirits to Alaska will destroy him. He's a kind person, but he doesn't realize how his alienation effects those who love him and how it will later affect that he needs people.
The core of the film is seen through flashbacks of the different people he meets and makes friends with. With any of them, he could have just stayed with and lived out his life perfectly happy - but after he wears out his welcome, he travels on westward to Alaska to reach his nature.
The film is a celebration of his life, but at the same time through the subtle changes in screenplay, Sean Penn shows how Chris actually condemns himself. He chooses to disown society, but he realizes that society is something that human beings need - not nature. We thrive on each other. There's a certain balance to this film which I love. You can view it two sided. You can see Chris as a free-spirit with the right philosophy of life, or you can see Chris' actions as a mistake and misjudgement of humanity. I love the self-awareness of the movie and the tragedy that it turns out to be. It feels like a beautiful epic journey, but shows the realness of it all.
On the outside, it can be seen as a film about the idealism of nature, but on the inside it's about relationships we share with others as human beings. At times, the movie is frustrating for an audience watching someone make such a mistake because the man character fails to see what life is really about but Sean Penn brings a lot to the table as a filmmaker. It's a brilliant thing to do as a filmmaker to be able to show the dual perspective of two sides to a character and a film.
1 comment:
Sounds pretty awesome.
I love your commentary, it makes me intrigued to see a movie that I probably wouldn't go see otherwise. I'm definitely on the side that abandoning everything just to be "one with nature" is absolutely absurd. People man, people over the wild any day.
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