Christopher McCandless goes into the wild

Into the Wild (2007) is Sean Penn’s adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s 1996 nonfiction bestseller that tells the story of a young man called Christopher MeCandless (Emile Hirsch). Taking a very real young man’s story, originally told in print by Jon Krakauer, Sean Penn creates a character that reflects Christopher’s personality and temperament, and attracts the attention of audiences who don’t hesitate to identify with it.

Christopher was an ardent reader of literature. He read London, Tolstoy, and Thoreau; he was also impacted by their ideas. Determined to lead a life of desolation and poverty, he leaves his parents (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden), marked by their volatile marriage and obsession with appearances, in pursuit of freedom from relationships and obligations. Sacrificing his material possessions by donating all his savings to charity and destroying his credit cards and identification documents, he embarks on an episodic journey, introducing himself as Alexander Supertramp to the people he meets, and aiming to travel into Alaska, into the wild, to live in nature and experience true happiness. On the road, he meets strangers whom he becomes more attracted to than to his own family that he is fleeing. Although Chris flees his parents, he finds himself, almost unknowingly, drawn to parental surrogates: a hippie couple (Catherine Keener and Brain Dierker), a grain dealer in South Dakota (Vince Vaughn), and a retired military man in the California desert (Hal Holbrook).

When Christopher gets to Alaska, he realizes he has been insufficiently prepared for the journey and the hardships to come. He lives there in a “Magic Bus,” used as a shelter for people walking in the area. In spring, he observes that he is cut off from civilization by waterways. When his food supply lessens, he resorts to eating plants, of which he confuses a poisonous kind which shuts down his digestive system, forcing him to starve to death. These details clearly demonstrate that Christopher is a nonconformist, who does not conform to that which his parents have set for themselves. Fed up with living in that materialistic society, he determines to shape his identity on his own and start a new life, dropping the past, and sacrificing all that is reminiscent of it. Determined to be himself, he performs many actions that reflect his inner feelings. He willingly chooses to go on this inward and outward journey into Alaska, into the wild.

Into the wild and Chris Mccandless photographs

This journey is an inward one because it gives him the opportunity to discover himself, to test his capacities, to examine and appreciate the world around him, and to reflect on his problematic relationship with his parents. It is also an outward journey because it helps him know the world and other people. In addition, this journey shows that he is capable of making choices, and that he is rebellious. Christopher’s journey is also a demonstration of his bravery and hunger for all the wondrous opportunities life offers. To me, Christopher is a young man who is confident of himself, innocent, conscious of what he does, capable of love, curious, good mannered, and intent on doing things his own way. He also epitomizes youth in all its glorious exuberance, that fleeting time when we feel that we are the masters of ourselves, that we are capable of making whatever choice we want, and that we are in a position to do whatever we want.

Penn’s film emphasizes Christopher’s motives and weaknesses as a human. Sometimes people feel trapped and start harboring fantasies of escape from certain countries where there are laws that restrict their freedom. This argument reveals that Christopher is a human with flaws but he is not a fool. Though he is a college graduate, he is still innocent and makes wrong choices, which provides an indication of the gap separating education from reality. This separation occurs because education does not provide graduates with the skills they badly need to solve their problems and do their jobs well without any training. The problem suggested here is that education focuses more on theory than practice, which adversely impacts graduates due to their lacking experience. Penn seems unable to gather enough insight from the original book to move beyond a superficial level, leaving him unable to enter Christopher’s mindset. Penn’s portrait of the other characters that Chris meets on the road is not satisfying either.

Sean Penn uses voiceover narration from Chris’s beloved sister (Jena Malone), and does a marvelous job in this film by using flashbacks skillfully instead of the linear approach, and shooting Chris in various poses – writing by the ocean, standing with his arms up in the air on top of mountains, etc. The shots are marked by meticulous care and attention to details. For example, Penn cuts to Christopher (Emile Hirsch) as he embarks in the direction of Alaska’s Mount Denali after a prelude in which the mother (Marcia Gay Harden) wakes from a dream in which she hears an estranged son’s cry for help. Other examples are the shots of Chris’s college graduation in the final weeks preceding his journey to Alaska. In addition to the afore–mentioned characteristics, every shot makes the audience feel that they are looking at objects afresh, from a different perspective. However, there are also scenes marked by slow motion such as those in which Hal Holbrook appears as a man who lost his wife and son to a drunk driver, and withdrew into himself (Edelstein, 2007: 3). Better than these scenes are the sequences in which Chris is alone in the wilderness, especially in the “Magic Bus” that becomes his home and sarcophagus.

The magic bus

Generally speaking, Penn’s movie is spectacular. The photography and soundtrack are both amazing. Penn and the cinematographer Eric Gautier let us directly into the scene of the action. The whole film is shot almost entirely on location, with everything including deserts, Alaskan wilds, and the gathering of travelers known as Slab city is shot with great care and extended treatment of particularities. Penn surrounds Hirsch with talented actors of whom every one gives a rock solid performance. The single slip is the occasional clumsy narration from Malone, but given the difficulty of the technique, she does a wonderful job and a slip of this sort won’t devalue the film. As the film nears the end, Penn shows that the battle is not between man and society. Rather, it is between man and nature, and society is a refuge to which man resorts to flee the hostility of nature.

Moreover, by casting Emile Hirsch as Christopher McCandless, a young man who lives simply, Penn probably wants to convey Christopher’s message echoing Henry David Thoreau’s call for Americans to live simply in nature and do without complex technology. Besides, Christopher himself teaches us a number of lessons. One of these lessons is to be self-reliant and self-made, that we should stop relying on our parents, and make ourselves by working hard. Another lesson is that we cannot enjoy happiness alone; we enjoy happiness while living with others in the community. A third lesson is that young people should think deeply before making a choice. If they don’t, they may make wrong choices with grave, untold consequences. In brief, if you have a chance to see Into the Wild on the big screen, seize it at once.