Based on Jon Krakauer’s novel and adapted by Oscar winning actor Sean Penn, “Into the Wild” recounts the true story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch from “The Girl Next Door”) who, after graduating with honors from Emory University, abandoned his predetermined life amid society to commence on a self-proclaimed aesthetic voyage to Alaska, his purest depiction of nature.
McCandless’ journey to Alaska grows its wings in the western United States, where he travels up and down the coast with hippie-esque “rubber tramps” (Catherine Keener of “The 40 Year Old Virgin”), takes up residence with a retired army general (Hal Holbrook) and earns his plane fare for Alaska by the likes of Vince Vaughn (“Wedding Crashers”) on a South Dakotan farm. These encounters are what make the movie, providing the most insight and understanding of McCandless as well as giving the movie a much needed comedic punch from Vaughn.
The raw score by Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder streams through the film and is structured as the musical counterpart to McCandless.
“I had structured the movie around song and wanted one voice to be the corresponding voice of Emile’s soul. Musically, clearer and clearer, it became Eddie’s voice,” Penn said in a phone interview with The Hatchet.
The raspy desperation of Vedder’s voice parallels the raw performance of Hirsch with great success and adds a surrounding layer of insulation to McCandless’ character.
The movie begins achingly slow, depicting McCandless as acting on brash impulse and needing the countersociety feel of Alaska to merely cool down. However, as Penn digs deeper into the character, McCandless’ courage and virtuosity come full circle. Emile Hirsch’s dedication to the role and boyish likeability makes it easier to paint McCandless as an individualist rather than as brazen and unfounded. Hirsch’s dedication is visibly evident throughout the film, portraying McCandless’ evolution from vibrant traveler to gaunt isolationist.
As McCandless’ tale subsides in the Alaskan wilderness, he finds himself alone, disheveled and on the verge of death inside an abandoned school bus. Despite knowing from the start that McCandless ultimately falls victim to his own Alaskan imagination, it is hard not to take Penn’s pitch that McCandless could make it out alive and be a more balanced, loving and understood individual.
The sweeping shots of Alaskan wilderness in tandem with Vedder’s score provide the perfect backdrop for the story of McCandless’ selfexploration, with Penn’s writing keeping you in tune with the character until the very end. “I want to do something in which I have a complete investment in,” Penn yearned. “I want them to take away as complete a vision of their own as I offer to my own.”
The vision and different perspective that you take away from “Into the Wild” is well worth the price of admission.
