Into The Wild - A Movie Review By Andrew Lawrence

"I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth."

Into The Wild was recommended to me by a good friend a couple months ago, and based on what he told me, I thought it was gonna be yet another Robinson Crusoe story about someone who gets lost somewhere and has to survive alone for X amount of time. The funny thing is that I watched the movie Cast Away (IMDb link here) starring Tom Hanks just 24 hours before watching Into The Wild, a movie that follows the cliche Crusoe-recipe down to a tee. I thought Sean Penn's fourth directorial feature was gonna do the same, and I swear, I've never been as positively surprised by a movie as I was by this one. Cast Away and Into The Wild might seem similar in a lot of ways when briefly summarised and compared, but in my opinion, two movies that share the same main plot device could not be more different. The movie is based on real life events, so if you decide to watch it, keep in mind that the things that take place on screen are slightly "Hollywood-ised" and altered with.

In Into The Wild, straight A college graduate Christopher McCandles from West Virginia one day decides to leave his old life behind, and go on a backpacking adventure. Chris is a very uncommon 22-year-old who loves things like literature and philosophy and despises everything materialistic and superficial, so in other words, he doesn't fit into the normal 20th century way of living. He's very judgemental of the people around him who don't feel the same way as he does, something that often leads to fights with his rich upper class parents, and it's safe to say that Chris is a 'misfit' because of his very radical and outspoken personality. He gives away all his money and departs from his old life without telling his parents, and literally goes into the wild to start living life the way he thinks it should be lived; on the road and under the sun, with no possessions other than the bare essentials.

The most important thing about this movie is the main character Christopher McCandles and his way of thinking, along with his motivations for doing what he does. Going into the wild and providing for himself is something he chooses to do because he's fed up with the normal American lifestyle, and living by himself with no strings attached to anything is the only way for him to feel alive and free. I went on youtube to watch a couple of this movie's trailers prior to writing this review, and I found something very interesting and thought provoking in the comments section of one of them that I'd like to share, something that ties into the element of doing things that are out of the ordinary perfectly. One guy stated: "Sorry, this guy was an idiot. He went into the woods without prior experience, without proper equipment, and without appropriate knowledge of the place he was going into. Even Thoreau had a house, but the moron insisted on entering the wild world with a blank slate. Contrast this with Richard Proenneke, who managed to survive into his 80s in the wild.", to which another guy answered: "That's the beauty of it mate. No one takes risks anymore. If he was too cautious, he wouldn't have experienced what he experienced. I believe that he's an inspiration. He taught us that if we want anything in life, we just reach out and grab it. We all need to search for a higher existence." This perfectly summarises Chris' ideas and his way of thinking; he had no idea what he was doing, but he did it anyway, because he felt trapped and concealed in a world where everyone is afraid and cautious. 

Emile Hirsch does a good job of portraying his opinionated character in a way that makes the audience understand what kind of person Chris McCandles is, but with that comes the undeniable fact that he is somewhat of an arrogant douche. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but this guy literally has no respect for people that don't have the same opinions as himself, and I couldn't help but disliking his disrespectful personality, no matter how admirable and inspiring his attempt at finding his personal ideal way of living is. He does meet several people that are somewhat like himself though, and his interactions with those people is the source of some interesting dialogue that portrays certain parts of the human mind in a great way, and especially the conversations that Chris shares with Ron Franz, an old and lonely war veteran, struck home with me completely. Ron is nearing the end of his life, and his fears, concerns, reflections, regrets and thoughts on life's are incredibly emotionally effective, though provoking and true to my own thoughts on dying and growing old. For this reason alone, his character is my favourite supporting character in this film by far.

Sean Penn, the man who directed this movie and wrote it's screenplay, is a very politically outspoken and opinionated person, and you can definitely feel his presence throughout the entire movie. In my opinion, Penn uses this film to lash out at the elements of today's society that he doesn't agree with, and the result is a very interesting and original movie that has stayed on my mind for many days now. I believe that making his audience think about their lives was Penn's main intention when making this movie, something he succeeded in completely. No matter how thought provoking Into The Wild is though, the movie doesn't shine in any other aspects than it's philosophical take on life and modern society, and as a result of this focused way of telling it's story, a lot of things in this movie aren't as impressive as they could have been. This is gonna be a somewhat short review, simply because there isn't much else than the philosophical aspects to talk about. There's nothing about this movies that I straight up disliked, I just don't think that anything other than it's main message is spellbinding enough to earn the movie my highest rating. I had a very good time watching this movie none the less, and I'd definitely advise anyone that loves good movies to check it out. In the end, I'd say that Sean Penn's Into The Wild is worth buying on BluRay. (5/6)

Into The Wild IMDb page here

Into The Wild trailer here