'Into the Wild' is a road movie of sorts. It is written and directed by Sean Penn, based on a real-life novel. The main character, Christopher McCandless, has just graduated from college. Despite getting good grades, he is unhappy with his life. He resents his parents and their marriage, though perhaps for good reason and he dislikes our hollow, materialist world (who doesn't?) and decides to do 'something' about it. So without a word, he donates his $24,000 savings to Oxfam and goes off in his old Datsun.
Calling himself 'Alexander Supertramp', he hits the road, possibly to find a meaning for his life or perhaps simply to hide from it. His goal is to get to Alaska, but on his way there, he hits many other states and at one point ends up in Mexico, which is totally the wrong direction. We know he gets to Alaska because the film cuts between his days there living in the abandoned 'Magic' bus, where he keeps a diary of sorts, and his two-year road trip that preceded it. On the way he makes several foolish decisions but gets away with most of them, such as illegally running the Colorado rapids in a kayak, other times he is not so lucky, like when he is caught riding the railways and is beaten for his troubles.
For someone who appears to want to leave the bad old world behind and live a life of solitude, he meets and befriends an awful lot of people, people who are slightly oddball like himself. They are almost all very good to him but he avoids getting too close to anyone. He believes that this is not necessary for happiness. It is this rejection of human contact that strikes you the most, without these people he could not have survived. He bonds with the kind old Mr. Franz, a lonely widower and also a very genuine ageing hippie couple. He touches these people but then just walks away. He develops a 'friendship' with a 16-year-old female singer, who fancies him so much that in the end she offers herself to him on a plate and again he simply walks away.
He is also very inconsiderate of his family; he appears to love his sister, who voice-overs the film, but even keeps her in the dark about his whereabouts and safety, as if a single phone call would spoil his rebellion. He is certainly cocky and self-assured but often he just comes across as a pretentious and arrogant young man.
The ending is dramatic although you can see it coming because the build up to it is slow. Alone in Alaska, he realises that he is out of his depth, cut off by the river so he can no longer leave, he struggles to kill the animals he needs for food and falls victim to poisonous plants. You still kind of hope for the cavalry to arrive and rescue him but somehow you know this isn't going to happen.
The movie itself is gorgeously shot; there are fantastic scenes of Alaska and other parts of America. Great tracking shots of mountains, plains, rivers, and the wild animals. The film, though, is too long at around two and a half hours.
In the end, the power of the film is in its final scenes, when he realises that he has made a dreadful mistake. Not just in his misguided adventure into Alaska alone but in his misconception of what constitutes happiness. You could say that in the end he reaps the consequences of his naivety and stupidity. What he learns in the end, and scribbles in his diary, is that 'Happiness is only real if shared'. If only he had realised it sooner.
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