1St Draft for Film Analysis

Jae Yong Kim

ESL220/Section 8/Ms. Stahl

1st Draft for Film Analysis

March 19, 2010

Into the Wild

It was lucky to have a chance to meet the movie, Into the Wild (2007) in a certain day of late winter in 2010. This movie was welcome rain at the end of long drought to me, even though it could not attract people who were tame with special effects and great spectacle movie such as

Avatar. While opponents criticize behavior of a callow 20-year-old man, every moment in a long journey of a short life of young man brings up quite meaningful conversation topics about our lives including all – good or bad aspects with brilliant acting, beautiful music and various cinematic settings.

Into the Wild is a story based on real record about a young man named Christopher

Johnson McCandless, who lived a short life. Chris (Emile Hirsch) graduates Emory University with honors. After graduation, he donates his all savings to Oxfam and cuts up all things which show he belongs to this society, such as a bank card, a student ID and a social security card. And, instead of finding job or going on the graduate school, he hits the road and walks into the wild.

At the beginning of journey, he renames himself Alexander Supertramp goes all the way down to

Mexico and all the way up to Alaska. During this journey, he meets many people such as a hippie couple(Brian H. Dierker and Catherine Keener), a positive farmer(Vince Vaughn), a retired officer(Hal Holbrook) and so forth, with whom he shares spiritual communion. Finally, he reaches to Alaska, his ideal destination and stays in an abandoned bus, but he eats poisonous plant on the illusion of the moment, and dies. Kim2

When you traces protagonist’s journey of life through the film, you can encounter several significant moments, which gives us strong messages. There are two special moments among others, one is the time of hanging out with Wayne in a bar, and the other moment is, when all is said and done, the very last several minutes.

We often say one tells the truth when drunk. In a bar, drunken Chris tells the truth of his heart at first. Neither putting letters on the screen nor narration by others, he speaks with his own voice:

I’m going to Alaska. I’m gonna be all the way out there. Just on my own. No

watch, no map, no ax. Just be out there. Just be out there in it. In the wild. Just

wild. You’re just there, in that moment, in that special place and time…You

know, about getting out of this sick society. Society, society… You know, what I

don’t understand? I don’t understand why people, why every person is so bad to

each other so often. It doesn’t make sense to me. Judgment. Control. All that, the

whole spectrum. [I’m talking about people such as] parents, hypocrites,

politicians, pricks. (Into the Wild)

In this scene, he does not hesitate to reveals his hidden scars from parents, hatred for materialism, and aspirations toward Alaska as they are.

In addition, there are two different theses conflicting with each other constantly throughout whole movie. One is “you’re wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from human relationships,” the other is “Happiness only real when shared.” (Into the Wild).

Chris keeps asking which one is true and struggles with finding an answer for his entire life.

Although one reviewer says that “He’s too secure in his self-righteousness, too smug in his conviction that his is the only viable path to self-fulfillment.”(Schickel, par.4), Chris chooses his Kim3 family at the very last moment because he finally realizes the importance of family. He leaves his real name, Christopher Johnson McCandless instead of his road name, Alexander Supertramp and he sees his parents with light that can shine on you when only you love others just before the last exhalation. This last scene shows us that he forgives his parents and even after dying, he wants to go back home.

“Christopher McCandless [chose] to walk the line,” says Schickel, “between heroic martyrdom and psychopathic self-destructiveness” (par.1). But, he neither pursuits heroic life, nor intends to destruct himself thoughtlessly. He is just exhausted from his parents and contradict society. What he needs is just consolation of nature, and what exactly he says is “rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness, give me truth.”(Into the Wild). Although his destination is Alaska, it is not final destination. He always implies that he has a plan to come back: “Maybe when I get back, I can write a book about my travels.”(Into the Wild). He just makes a mistake just like one reviewer’s say: “He does not court danger but rather stumbles across it” (Scott, par.2). The only mistake he get is to believe that there are truths and facts only in books. He believes books from Jack London and Thoreau, and he also believes books on local flora and fauna. The books which he pores over lead him to dreamy Alaska, whereas the books he buys in a small book store of Fairbanks lead him to death. Therefore, you must watch this movie, “If, like Penn, you mourn Chris’ tragedy and his judgment errors but also exult in his journey and its spirit of moral inquiry” (Travers, par.1).

Before watching this film, I have thought all the time that human beings cannot live without relationships but we hurt from relationships all the time. All the way through the movie, one thought came to my mind: Does freedom which is not tied to relationships exist on earth? If it does, how awesome it is. For the past seven years since I went out into the society, I have got a Kim4 lot of hurts from others. And I also feel sometimes oppressed by the weight of life as years go by. Chris has the courage to leave. Even during the penniless journey, he doesn’t think himself

“not as homeless,but as a man freed from homes.” (Ebert, par.5). Those may be reasons why I envy Chris, his journey into the wild, and his thought so much.

If it is annoying to talk about tragedy of one young guy, there are other important something you have to watch carefully in this film: you must not miss acting of Emile Hirsch and music of Eddie Vedder. Hirsch’s acting is brilliant throughout the movie. But especially the last dying scene is enough to bring tears to many audience’s eyes. Mathewes-Green says, “it’s the acting that deserves the most praise.” (par.5). Vedder’s music fills up the empty space of the movie and completes story. Besides, his music is beautiful and determined. His strong guitar riff and deep voice are perfectly match fantastic sceneries and Hirsch’s acting. Actually, Penn left more space of scripts for Vedder after deciding to work with him, and he filled that space with poetic lyrics.(Murry 4)

Into the Wild is not a mainstream movie which has a magnificent spectacle. But it has a lot to think and gives us one importantmessage, which James Berardinelli statements cover most of: “It's about many things, and makes pointed comments about the ridiculousness of a ... The final truth it distills reveals something crucial about what it means to be human - something that

Chris doesn't realize until it's too late.”(par.8). Kim5

Works Cited

Berardinelli, James. “Into the Wild.” Rev. of Into the Wild, dir. Sean Penn. Reelviews 18 Mar.

2010. web. < http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=416>.

Ebert, Roger. “Into the Wild.” Rev. of Into the Wild, dir. Sean Penn. Chicago Sun-Times 28 Sept.

2007. 13 Mar. 2010. web.

070927/REVIEWS/709270305/1023>.

Into the Wild. Dir. Sean Penn. Perf. Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, and Jena

Malone. Paramount Vantage, 2007. Film.

Mathewes-Green, Frederica. “Into the Wild.” Rev. of Into the Wild, dir. Sean Penn. Christianity

Today 21 Sept. 2007. 13 Mar. 2010. web.

reviews /2007/intothewild.html>.

Murray, Rebecca. “Sean Penn and Eddie Vedder Team Up to Talk About Into the Wild.”

About.com: Hollywood Movies. 18 Mar. 2010. web. < http://movies.about.com/od/

intothewild/a/intowild092007_4.htm>.

Schickel, Richard. “Into the Wild: Bad End.” Rev. of Into the Wild, dir. Sean Penn. Time 21

Sept. 2007. 13 Mar. 2010. web.

Scott, A.O. “Following His Trail to Danger and Joy.” Rev. of Into the Wild, dir. Sean Penn. The

New York Times 21 Sept. 2007. 13 Mar. 2010. web.

/21/movies/21wild.html>.

Travers, Peter. “Into the Wild.” Rev. of Into the Wild, dir. Sean Penn. Rolling Stone 4 Oct. 2007.

13 Mar. 2010. web. < http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/12311956/review/164

94330/into_the_wild>.