Sometime in the year 1990, 20 year old Christopher McCandless graduated from the Emory University in Atlanta. He donated all his money to charity, burned his cash and identity card and went on the road in his beat-up economy trailer van. Geographically, his destination was Alaska. But deep down it was a quest of self and being one with nature – “Just be out there in it. Big mountains, rivers, sky, game. Just on my own, in the wild.” No wonder, with this act he first inspired John Krakaur to write his bestseller ‘Into the wild’ and much later made Sean Penn tell his story through the celluloid by the same name.
If I have to use one word about the movie it would be wanderlust. Penn’s film is a very moving and human tribute to one young seeker – to this beautiful yet flawed individual and dreamer of a pilgrim soul. Mc Candless is nothing if not a wandering vagabond, a disciple of Jack London and Thoreau; and Penn as the director does a brilliant job of exploring McCandless’ journey, his fears, his exhilarations. This could be as much a tale of the connection between man and nature as much about that ever elusive search for self.
The movie
The story of Chris is narrated by his sister Carine who is the only one he loves in his family. After Chris leaves home, in a flash flood he loses his trailer van and decides to hitchhike his way to Alaska. His denouncement of society is suffused with irony – almost all the people he meets on his way are nice and he shares some kind of a symbiotic relationship with them, only to move on later. Be it the South Dakota farmer Wayne Westerberg(Vince Vaughn) who acts as his friend and mentor, the hippies Jan and Rainey(Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker) who come closest to be a family for him, beautiful and a visibly smitten Tracy(Kristen Stewart) –(the relationship remains unconsummated as she is underage), and last but not the least 80 year old widower Ron Franz(Hal Holbrook) who mentions adopting him as a ‘grandchild or something’ - Chris trades experiences of basic yet strong human connection with all these and moves on in his journey.
And then his dream journey takes a sharp turn becoming a journey into oblivion. This part shows how ill prepared he had been for the wild and here he also comes to realize(as he writes in his notebook) ‘happiness is real only when shared’. This is the time when words like lonely and scared enter his notebook. He wants to go back into the civilization but now nature has closed the doors on him. The contrast between the two parts is brutally visible – you keep wishing things for him, but he has already written his own story. Irony or otherwise, the end is painful and it breaks your heart. And in spite of or may be because of the end, the story of Chris McCandless remains an overpowering experience.
Cast and crew
Could not have been better. This is penn’s labour of love and his direction exudes dedication and intensity – may be because he had to wait 10 years for the permission from the Mc candle family for the making of this movie. Based on a real life character, there could have been limitations to the screen persona portrayal but this is where Penn is in his elemental directorial genius. He gives us a story with intriguing reality - his protagonist a very real character with his own limitations, he is neither a hero nor a tragic hermit.
Emile Hirsch as the lead character has done a splendid job. He manages to get completely into the character of McCandles masterfully portraying the inner struggles.(As we hear of his family in the flash back told thru his sister, we wonder if he is just another wanderer, a rebel or an escapist. Did he have a very selfish motive of hurting his family? Or was he just an adventurer?) In any case, no doubt it’s his movie – his screen presence in most of the 150 minutes long movie never feels over the top. He lost 40 pounds to play the part of the starving Chris in Alaska, and its unbearable to see the way he keeps making new holes in his belt to be able to wear his pant.
The rest of the cast have done an equally commendable job. Hal Holbrook needs a special mention – his act of a few minutes is hardly laudable enough – only fitting that he was nominated for an Oscar for this role. Kristen Stewart does it all thru the body language including the eyes that spoke volumes. Keener is brilliant as the traveling hippie and Dierker is originally a whitewater rafting guide who was chosen on the location for the role. Yet he seems to fit so well into the character.
The cinematography is no less than brilliant. Its such a refreshing break from the skyscrapers. Shot entirely on location, you will gasp at the beautiful country roads, breathtaking wilderness, Alaska and the rocky mountains. And you might just want to get out of that secure life of yours and get on the road.
Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder supplies the songs for the soundtrack and the music is such an easy extension of the moods of the characters, you will need no words to know what they are going thru.
Excerpts
Title Card: There is a pleasure in the pathless woods; / There is a rapture on the lonely shore; / There is society, where none intrudes, / By the deep sea, and music in its roar; / I love not man the less, but Nature more. / - Lord Byron
Rainey: That poor girl’s just about ready to vault herself onto your fencepost.
Christopher McCandless: It should not be denied that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape from history and oppression and law and irksome obligations. Absolute freedom. And the road has always led west.
Christopher McCandless: The sea’s only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now, I don’t know much about the sea, but I do know that that’s the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once. To find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions. Facing the blind death stone alone, with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head.
‘Into The Wild’ is both innocent and harrowing. At one point you adore the sweetest light shining through Chris’s eyes and the next moment you have to avert your eyes when he’s trying to cut the meat out of the moose’s body to smoke it and save for the winter. You can not help being a part of Chris’s search – in however a remote way. It reflects a commitment, a dream most of us have given up, in a way he reconnects us with these dreams. Like in his parting words to Tracy - When you want something in life, you just gotta reach out and grab it.