Synopsis:

Growing up in a broken home, Chris detached himself from his materialistic parents and began attempting to gain a larger grasp on what life truly had to offer.  After graduating from Emory University as a top student and athlete, Chris made a life choice to leave all his worldly possessions behind and go out on his own.  He made every effort to completely disappear from everyone he knew.  After meeting many folks along the way, Chris began to truly desire the Alaskan wilderness.  He learned everything he could about how to survive on his own and did so successfully for an extended period of time.  Finally succumbing to a horrible mistake, Chris passed away in the "magic bus" he called home in the Alaskan wilderness.  Into The Wild is the story of his journey.

The Freak's Rating: B- : Not long ago, my wife Jen, her mother Joyce and her sister Laura all read the book, Into The Wild.  Since then, I've been wanting to see the film based on the book.  Anxiously awaiting my review, as I'm sure they all are, here it is.

First of all, the disclaimer to those who haven't read the book.  Into The Wild is based upon a true story, therefore I will assume that all who venture out to see it know the ending.  It is, after all, revealed on the DVD case.  So, with a SPOILER WARNING AHEAD, I proceed.  If you want the review only and no synopsis, skip the next paragraph.

I started watching this film thinking this guy was an idiot.  There are millions of people who would kill for the opportunities that Chris had in life.  Why on earth would you choose to take such a idealistic view of the world without an ounce of realism?  Where the hell is your brain kid?  Now I'm not going to say that those feelings completely disappeared after watching the film, but they did tame.  I don't completely agree with Chris' idealistic view that we conform to our surroundings such that we miss the simplicity of happiness.  I receive happiness from my life, filled with conformity or not.  The thing that you must respect of Chris is that he walked the walk.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard an idealist speak about how we should all do things differently.  These people are usually quick to leap onto a soapbox to tell you about how the simplicity of the old days was better than today, that we shouldn't place value on material items and that we should "get back to basics".  Before you think I'm bashing them, let me say that I partially agree with those statements.  However, I am a realist and have entirely too much logic to change my lifestyle in that way.  I like indoor plumbing and enjoy my high definition television.  You can call me a conformist and that's fine, I'll accept that I am on some level.  However, don't tell me I should live my life differently unless you are truly living that way yourself.  Often people will say something bad about Wal Mart, but still shop there.  I am as guilty as everyone else, but we should all learn a lesson from Christopher McCandless; that very few of us truly walk the walk we talk about.  I wouldn't be able to do what Chris did and I'd guess you wouldn't either. 

This film was directed by Sean Penn and is his first major foray into directing.  As is apparent with many first time directors, he hasn't found his style yet.  At some points the cinematography is great, at some not so much.  Sometimes still shots are intermixed with live action and at one point the lead actually gestures to the camera as if it is a documentary.  The different camera tricks are obvious and distracting from the film.  Acting is good throughout, as William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden are wonderful as usual.  Emile Hirsch is the true star of the film, doing a good job of portraying the innocence, ignorance and courage of Christopher.  A few of his lines seem cheesy, but I blame the writers for that.  A side note is that Eddie Vedder penned an entire array of songs specifically for this film.  The soundtrack is wonderful and completely captures the mood intended.  Though I don't think the film has repeatability, this is a solid film worthy of seeing. 

Joyce's Rating: C : I read the book, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, so that automatically knocks the ratings down a few notches. The book and the movie depicts Chris (the person who walked into the wild) as a troubled person. The things that he hated in his former life became the realities in his nomadic life. He had a selfish and simplistic view of relationships and commitment. The things I liked about the film was his sheer determination. The end of the film shows that he realized his destructive behavior but unfortunately was too late. 

Brian's Rating: C- : Whew, this was a boring one.  I do not think the kid was respectable for following through on his whole anti-society thing.  In the end, it was just a rationalization for cowardice, in running away from the problems a dysfunctional family caused.

The kid liked poetry by Henry David Thoreau, and apparently wanted to have the Thoreau seclusion experience.  However, Chris (the lead character) lacked the survivalist skills to have this make any sense at all.

The book may have been interesting, but the movie had too much narration, and I agree with Scott that the directing and editing was not great.

The best thing I can say about this movie is that it was not terrible.  It also was not entertaining.

Angie's Rating: C : I did not read the book, and I had no idea of what to expect.  I didn't mind the timeline jumping around... I think it is the only thing that kept me from sleeping.  I do agree with Jen, the main actor did a good job of carrying the scenes where he was alone, and the on location filming was nice, but I was bored out of my mind.  I am really not passionate about this movie one way or another.  

Jen's Rating: B : I read this book and of course the book is better but the movie did a good job.  The movie is better I think because I read the book.  Anyway, this is a true story and all scenes were filmed on location except those in the deep deep wild in Alaska.  I think that's pretty impressive!  At first I didn't like how the movie skipped around in his journey, but then I realized it would've gotten boring if they didn't do that...especially the times he was alone.  Main actor did a good job.

Matt's Rating: B : I watched this movie on my computer through the internet so that may have taken away some of the qualities of the film (i.e. poor quality, a little choppy etc.) Anyway I thought I would review the film.

The story is about a guy who had everything going for him in his life: a recent graduate of Emory college, the smarts to get into a great law school and the sky the limit for his future.  It seemed like the perfect story.

We soon find out that he is obsessed with moving away from society and making it on his own in the wilderness and not having the hangups that culture and society bring.  He feels that there is a true nirvana in being connected with the earth and with the primal feelings that one experiences.  His beliefs are that god has us as primal creatures and to really reach perfect bliss we must be in touch with nature and not depend on others for survival.  As Scott said he really does walk the walk in his beliefs, something I find extremely admirable.

First the things I liked:  This movie received as high of a grade from me as it possible could because I watched it at the best possible time in my life.  Had I watched it at ANY other time, either in the past or in the future it would not have gotten as high of rating.  The reason for this is multi-fold.  One: I just returned from 2 weeks in the Mountain west whitewater rafting down the Salmon river in Idaho where I slept under the stars every night followed by 2 days in Yellowstone national park.  2. I am a recent graduate of college who doesn't have concrete plans on what to do with his life (also thinking about law school like he was) 3. I love pearl jam and eddie vedder did the music for the movie which makes me love the movie that much more.  All those things being said I think the movie did a great job of showing the audience the beauty and power that nature can have.  I really believe that people can be consumed by this beauty and that it can be a good thing and a bad thing.  Everyone needs to realize how lucky we are to live in a country and a world that has the beauty it does for us to enjoy.  It became a bad thing for him but in moderation everyone should cherish the earth.  Also I think it did a great job of showing the need for young people to find their identity.  People talk about a midlife crisis but I feel that plenty of people my age go through a quarter life crisis.  Here we have gone to school for 4 years and plenty of us got majors in vague topics that don't apply to the real world.  It becomes hard for us to see what life path we should take.  He had the same problem and he chose an extreme.  I commend him for that and it makes me reflect on my own life and what path I should take.

Now for the bad.  One main thing stuck out to me that really left a sour taste in my mouth was the portrayal of his parents in the film.  It seemed like his extreme behavior happened because of his upbringning, with his parents being "violent" and "non loving".  I find this to be a bunch of bull.  Plenty of people have gone through hardships and they don't feel the need to run off into the wild to get away from all those relationships they had before.  To say the reason why he wanted to get away from society was because of the relationship he had with his parents is a disservice to him and to his family.  He also got canonized a bit too much for me in the film.  There was no dialogue on his lack of preparation for an Alaskan winter nor on the fact that he just up and left his family.  If he wanted to live in Alaska that is fine, but at least tell your parents where you are going, seems like a jerk move to me.  These two things really bothered me and made me hold back on my love of the movie.

Overall I thought it was a good movie, it showed how we all need to get away from society a little bit.  I feel that the emphasis on the family and making him out to be a patron saint really hurt my wanting to buy it but I would recommend the movie to my friends.

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