Thought I'd do something different than the usual Friday night routine and went to see "Into the Wild." I've been down so I figured a movie about a guy who treks into Alaska and starves to death would pick me up.
I enjoyed the movie but it did leave me wondering more about Chris McCandless. We're led to believe that it is his rejection of his parents world, anger at their less than perfect union and a general disdain for society is what leads him on his journey. I didn't read the book but the reviews said Sean Penn stuck pretty close to Jon Krakauer's book.
That Chris--as portrayed on the screen--was this easygoing, outgoing, socially apt guy who was pretty fearless and disdained materialism just didn't wash with the alienation we are supposed to swallow as the core of his motivations. I don't know what his family life was like. I know what the movie portrayed and it didn't look great. It also didn't look like the worst thing in the world either. For all his anger at his parents, somehow this kid turned out to be a smart, polite and, at least as shown in the movie, a genuinely happy at peace with himself person. He knew right from wrong. He didn't end up a junkie on the streets or a hood or go crazy.
Now I can only go by what I see on the screen and there are elements to Chris that should've probably been explored a little. He is obviously pretty self-centered. No matter how traumatic his childhood was to him (if not to me), to vanish like that and never contact them is an an incredibly cold and callous act that ironically--again if we are to believe what we see on the screen--served to bring his parents together in a way they never were when he was around. He also leaves his sister behind and that is lightly brushed over but for the most part the movie turns him into a saint.
I understand that to many, Chris's "angst" will seem like complete bullshit. It's not for me to judge how one's upbringing impacts them. My upbringing was less than ideal and I don't and will never have the self-confidence that Chris displays throughout the movie. Either Sean Penn downplayed some stuff both about Chris's family and his own mental state or there is something else we're not being told. Otherwise, I'm just not quite buying it.
Oh, Hal Holbrook is great in this. Now that guy has some good hair and even his face and neck are still pretty together.
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4 comments:
I've never heard of this movie. Note to self: Push upward with force and crawl out from under the large rock. Anyway, good review. And now I am quite curious to see what the hell you are writing about!
It only just opened in NY and LA. Will go wide next week. True story of this kid who graduates college and goes on two year journey across country to end up in alaska...beautifully shot and good but lots of unanswered questions that will never be answered. And a friend of mine saw it and loved it and the freedom it represented in the characters disdain for the ways of society, materialsim, etc. I can relate, but there was something else there that needed more explanation..but then again we don't always get all the answers
read the book. pretty amazing.
It may seem strange in this day and age, and country, that anyone could find themselves starving to death. We do take so much for granted.
I crossed the country a few times, and once with a BF where neither of us had a credit card. Low on gas and down to the last couple of bucks in Wyoming, it came down to one decision: Oreos or Hormel?
We wired home and sat tight in the back in the truck. Poor Chris with no Western Union out in the back country.
Maybe rent a happy movie? no?
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