Into the Wild Movie Poster
What would drive a man to live in the wilderness of Alaska without a map and compass? What would drive a man to hitchhike around the country when a comfortable life awaits at home? What would drive a man to change his name, donate his money, and destroy all contact with this old family? What would this man learn and experience? What would this man find on his journey?
And what happens to those left behind? Is he selfish for leaving everything behind, foolish for abandoning his old life and especially for trekking into the wilderness unprepared? Is he adventurous and bold for the attempt? Is it running away or finding something new? Is the journey worth the inevitably tragic destination? What of society? What of nature?
Between the plotline, the philosophy, the hints of Thoreau and Jack London, and the sheer eccentricity, there’s also a reality. In 1990 Christopher McCandless, soon self-renamed Alexander SuperTramp, left Emory College after graduation, changed his name, and disappeared without a word to anyone. Two years later he was dead of starvation in the Alaska wilderness after a journey from the American southwest, to Dakota, to California, and Alaska. It took four years for the book, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, and another eleven for the movie to be released. All in all over seven times the length of the original journey.
The movie is a journey, interweaving Christopher’s past and troubled childhood, his writing, the great beauty of the locales he traveled, shots of the family in mourning and shock. It shows the many people who helped the young tramp through his journey, each touched by the trip, but all knowing how it would end. It explores his quest to escape the world, or perhaps embrace it even more. It shows his triumphant march into the Alaska and the painful collapse as nature takes one more victim in its unforgiving grasp.
It is a gorgeous movie and a moving story, enjoyable throughout. The acting is strong, the cinematography lyrical. Whether he was heroic or moronic will be left to each his own, but Christopher made his decisions in his own particular way and likely wouldn’t have cared either way what was thought of it. The worst that can be said is he wrote a story of his own. The worst that can be said of the movie isn’t it didn’t capture it well enough. With all the beauty, the tragedy, the whimsy, the heartbreak, the great sense of exploration and wonder, and the deep sense of loss and regret, I have no complaint.
