Nicole Bursach

Bursach - 1

Nicole Bursach

English 101.16 – Leah Vetne

Paper 3 – Film Review

16 March 2009

Into the Wild Film Review

Have you ever felt the strong urge to drop out of society and live secluded in the wilderness? If you have, you will enjoy Into the Wild. If you have not felt that urge, you will after watching this film.

Into the Wild is full of courage and adventure thanks to great acting, a true storyline, and underlying yet obvious theme.

Into the Wild is written and directed by actor Sean Penn. It is a drama that is based from a novel by Jon Krakauer that tells the true story of a young man, Chris McCandless, who is troubled by his parents’ success and materialism and gives up his life’s savings to Oxfam and decides to make his way to the Alaskan wilderness shortly after graduating from Emory University. He travels by car until he cannot go any farther, burns his money, and begins hitchhiking north towards Alaska. Along his journey, he meets several people who feed and shelter him, but as their attachments become stronger to Chris, he flees to resist their companionship. Meanwhile, his parents and sister do not learn of his disappearance until their letters come back to them in a bundle from the post office. It turns out to be impossible to locate Chris – he is already two months into his journey by the time his parents receive their letters. Little to their knowledge, Chris’ parents and sister would never hear from him again.

I can understand why there could be a few objections to this film. Frederica Mathewes-Green writes in her Christianity Today review, “It would have been just that much better if it had given us to see the real, flawed Chris McCandless, rather than a version made over into Shirley Temple” (par. 8). I disagree with Mathewes-Green. The film managed to show the real impact Chris had on the people he Bursach - 2 met as he traveled due to Emile Hirsch’s excellent acting. Hirsch accurately portrayed Chris as who he really was, in part due to Krakauer’s extended research to find the people that Chris met. The actors that played the people he met – Jan and Rainey, Wayne, and Ron Franz – provided additional support to

Hirsch’s character. The strong bond between the characters was developed around the film’s central theme and Chris’ own words (“Happiness is only real when shared”) further shows that despite Chris’ impact he made on other lives, he wasn’t perfect. His biggest flaw was rejecting the notion that happiness must be shared. For these reasons, I would say that Chris had his flaws and was a very real person.

I personally like how Peter Travers, in his Rolling Stone review of Into the Wild, who divides the readers of Krakauer’s book into two camps:

If you read the book and pegged Chris as a wacko narcissist who died out of arrogance and

stupidity, then Penn’s film version is not for you. If, like Penn, you mourn Chris’ tragedy and his

judgment errors but also exult in his journey and its spirit of moral inquiry, then this beautiful,

wrenching film will take a piece out of you”. (par.1)

I identify myself with those who mourn, mainly because I don’t think he was stupid in any way because I also have felt the sudden urge to give up my life and live off the land. I think that there are sometimes circumstances or accidents outside of anyone’s control, like Chris’ death, that are unavoidable.

I agree yet again with Travers when he says, “But Into the Wild celebrates the person, not the myth.

Mistakes didn’t make Chris unique, his courage did” (par. 3). The film was centered on Chris’ courage, not the mistakes he made – particularly because Penn doesn’t focus on them nearly as much as Krakauer does in his book. I think by focusing on the courage of Chris, we get a real idea of who this young man really was.

The first quality I like about the movie is the true storyline. Chris’ story is real for so many people, whether they actually went to the wilderness or not. This is particularly true for Roger Ebert, who makes Into the Wild personal. He suggests that the movie is great because it means so much for not only Bursach - 3 the writer and director, but it also has meaning for many audience members as well, including himself.

Ebert claims that “Certain young men, of which I was one, lecture patient girlfriends about how such a life of purity and denial makes perfect sense. Christopher McCandless did not outgrow this phase” (par.

1). Ebert continues by revealing a personal story about a neighbor boy who acted similarly to Chris, who left his home without a word. His body was later discovered in Nicaragua and was identified as a

Sandinista freedom fighter. Ebert says, “From a nice little house surrounded by evergreens at the other end of Washington Street, he left to look for something he needed to find. I believe in Sean Penn’s

Christopher McCandless. I grew up with him” (par. 10).

What makes the movie’s storyline so realistic and true is the actors. Christopher McCandless is played well by Emile Hirsch, who dropped an astonishing forty pounds during filming to play the role.

Peter Travers from Rolling Stone even goes so far as to say, “Following Penn’s lead, Emile Hirsch gets so far into Chris’ skin that they seem to share the same nerve endings” (par. 2). Hirsch is supported by Hal

Holbrook, who plays the memorable widower Ron Franz; Catherine Keener, who plays the mother-like figure of Jan to Hirsch’s character; Kristen Stewart, Chris’ potential love interest named Tracy; and

William Hurt, Chris’ stone-faced father who shows a softer side after his son’s disappearance. Once again, each of these characters epitomizes the film’s central theme – happiness is only real when shared.

Jan and Rainey develop a relationship with Chris when they pick him up as a hitchhiker. Jan is concerned for Chris and his estrangement from his parents – particularly because her own son had done the same to her. Chris leaves when he sees the love and attachment between Rainey and Jan rekindle. Tracy falls in love with Chris, but her happiness is quickly shattered when Chris decides it’s time for him to move on to

Alaska. Ron is an old man who lost both his wife and son in a tragic car accident and develops a fondness for Chris. He asks to adopt Chris, like a grandson, but Chris quickly tells Ron they would have to discuss it when he returned from Alaska. Chris and his sister Carine (Jena Malone) had a deep bond with one another particularly because of their so-called illegitimacy. They told each other everything – which is Bursach - 4 why it was hard on Carine when Chris left with never telling her where he was going. All the characters show Chris’s eagerness to strip his life of all personal attachments and live his life in the wilderness.

I think that the theme or message of the movie is exactly what Chris writes in the book at the end of the movie – Happiness is only real when shared. The theme, I believe, is expressed well throughout the storyline. The film constructs all its meaning through the characters and their actions – particularly

Chris’s interactions with the people he meets as he travels. Each of those characters leads up to the final realization for Chris when he discovers that leaving the bus would be impossible and that it would be his final place. The theme is not so obvious until almost to the end when Chris begins to feel lonely and expresses that through reading and writing such words in his books and talking to himself. The characters all form a similar attachment to Chris and despite his rejection of these people, in the end he realizes that he can only be happy if he shares happiness with others. The theme of the movie is stated perfectly by

Chris when he is leaving Ron: “I will miss you too, but you are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God's place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things” (Into the Wild).

Into the Wild is a drama full of great acting, a fulfilling storyline, and a strong message. Ebert sums the film up well, “Two of the more truthful statements in recent culture are that we need a little help from our friends, and that sometimes we must depend on the kindness of strangers” (par. 9). It will be difficult to find another director that can exemplify Chris’ motto and lesson – Sean Penn has done an excellent job transforming a book into a classic film. Finally, a film has been made well enough that I can say it was much better than the book. Bursach - 5

Works Cited

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

28 Sept. 2007. 19 Jan. 2009

AID=/20070927/REVIEWS/709270305/1023>

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

Vince Vaughn, Hal Holbrook. DVD. Parmount Home Entertainment, 2007.

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

28 Sept. 2007. 19 Jan. 2009

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

28 Sept. 2007. 19 Jan. 2009