This film begins with a Lord Byron poem...
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods:
There is a rapture on the lonely shore:
There is socity where none intrudes.
By the deep sea and muic in its roar,
I love the man not less, but Nature more.
Sean Penn's film is about a young man's search for adventure. Based on the novel, Into the Wild, by John Krakauer--the true story of Christopher McCannliss is told from the point of view of his sister's diaries during the two years after he disappeared without telling the family.
Chris had been a top student who graduated from college and planned to attend law school. His parents (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden) are portrayed as a tightly-wound pair with high expectations for their son's future. Sister Carin is the family observer. We see the family gathered for a celebratory dinner when they announce to Chris that they were giving him a brand new car. He dismissed this gesture. "Why would I want a new car?" They mean well, but we see a pattern of conflict between parents and son. He returns to the college town where he planned to to remain throughout the summer.
The parents faithfully mail letters to him for several months. When they hear nothing back from him they contact the landlord who reports that Chris left at the start of the summer and mentions a stack of unopened letters he has kept in a drawer. Chris had headed west and abandoned his car in the Arizona desert--gave away his $24,000 savings to charity. He takes on the name Alexander Supertramp as he sheds his privileged life to work and travel. He meets a cast of interesting characters along the way. Hippies, Jan (Catherine Keener) and Rainey (Brian Dierkler) live in a trailer and are the complete opposite of his own parents. Underhanded farmer, Wayne (Vince Vaughn), shows him the rancher's life. Lonely widower, Ron (Hal Holbrook), takes him under his wing, but fails to desuade him from making the dangerous trip into the Alaskan wilderness.
Alexander reaches his destination where he finds a deserted bus for shelter. He kills animals and forages for plants. We see him living in harmony with the forces of nature for four months while he discovers the limits of resources and knowledge. Meanwhile, the family hires a private investigator to find him. Carin was closer to her brother than anyone else in life. In her diaries she is able to go along with him on the journey as she tells a universal story of misguided youth and the individual's need to seek and find truth.
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Hello! Making the LAMb rounds and wanted to stop and say hey from Above the Line practical movie reviews - come by and see me some time!!
ReplyDeleteI remember being really excited about seeing this film, Sean Penn being one of my favorite actors and a solid director in his own right. I remember wanting to avoid reviews and discussions because the premise was solid enough reason to watch the film. I must say, however, that I was disappointed with the film. I can't say that it was technically lacking or otherwise uninteresting, but the sense of dread at the end and the feeling that here was this young kid who had so many opportunities and so many beautiful people he met during his journey to certain doom just felt like a waste. I felt similarly about Up In The Air (George Clooney), the aloneness, the heavy feeling and the emotional wreckage. Of course to elicit such strong feelings from your work is a positive for any artist I tend to feel conflicted about reactions like this to cinema. Good points about the plot, the details of how and why Chris ultimately finds his union with "the wild" and your points about the pursuit and consequences of truth are right on.
Just stumbled over, I noticed you wrote a review of Winter Passing - I'm heading over there next. Looking forward to reading more.
cheers->
rory