Movie Review - Into the Wild

Once in a blue moon, the desert of American cinema experiences the rare and wonderful sight of an absolute downpour. The rain fills in the dry and lonely cracks of the sun baked ground and brings fresh life to what would have otherwise appeared completely dead. Such is the cleansing of the cinematic masterpiece "Into the Wild."

The thing I love about the arts being an actor as I am is it's such a great bullshit filter. I'm weary of using sports analogies excessively when talking about the arts but bear with me for a moment. In sports you can talk and talk and talk but at the end of the day you either get a hit or run the fastest race or you don't. So too is the plight of the artist. All the bullshit and verbal diarrhea fades away leaving only the performance of the artist standing for evaluation. Sean Penn may have issues with Hollywood and they with him. They may even hate each other. There may be all kinds of talk surrounding his personality and his history in the public eye and in the industry of film making but at the end of the day he hit a bottom of the ninth, game winning grand slam with this film and all the talk and gossip in the world won't change that.

I'll do my best to limit spoilers here. "Into the Wild" is based on the true story of Christopher McCandless who became estranged from his east coast family, changed his name to Alexander Supertramp, gave away all of his savings, burned what little money remained, and took off for the wild west in search of an elusive truth which evaded him to his very last days. His travels brought him to far off corners of our American culture and reveal the darkest and most beautiful parts of our country and its citizens. He faced many enormous self imposed challenges in nature and in society leaving us to wonder about what made this guy this way but more importantly to impatiently ask the obvious question, "What is this guy's PROBLEM???"

Many of us live our lives internalizing all kinds of lies. Lies to ourselves, lies to each other, lies from our Government, and even and especially, lies from our very own families. Most of us are able to find ways to cope with these lies either consciously or buried deep down inside. Usually by internalizing these lies, we allow small parts of ourselves to die. Alexander Supertramp was both unable and unwilling to do so. He was a martyr in the truest sense of the word. It can be maddening and quite upsetting to watch the downfall of a martyr suffering for our sins and the bravery Sean Penn brought to this film forced us not only to grit our teeth in anger and frustration at this young man's plight but much more importantly to cry a release of tears for the loss his humanity in all of its searing beauty.

This film is one of the rare cases where the movie is far better than the book. In fact the book and the movie while sharing the same "story" really have little to do with one another. The book is a reality book not unlike the reality TV we've become so accustomed to. The movie is a dark, brave, and tragic opera which challenges us to face our own humanity dead in the eye and ask ourselves what really is important about these modern fast paced materialistic lives we live - and also to ask in the immortal words of fellow martyr Jim Morrison in the film "The Doors", "How many of you people know you're alive?"

Notable outstanding performances in the film were offered by newcomer Emile Hirsch movingly and unpretentiously playing the lead Alex, Katherine Keener who brilliantly portrays a mother estranged from her son and who is touched deeply by Alex's plight, veteran Hal Holbrook who touchingly plays a former Army man who tries to adopt Alex, and Vince Vaughn who deftly plays a wild and free spirited rancher in North Dakota. Yes you read that right. This snobby actor is giving huge props to "Wedding Crashers" cheese ball Vince Vaughn. Again, Vince Vaughn's personality and resume are wholly irrelevant. He did an excellent job and deserves due credit for it. There are many other memorable performances in the film too numerous to list.

Also, for those interested in directing whether it be film, TV, or theatre, pay very close attention to Penn's use of music in this film. There are few examples of music adding to a film's impact while allowing it to breathe at the same time as much as this one.

Usually I try to avoid talk of Oscars in my reviews but the Academy's refusal to even nominate this film for Best Picture is a stunningly revealing omission. The violent and cynical nature of the admittedly well made and well acted "No Country for Old Men" earning it the best picture nod while "Into the Wild" was utterly ignored says so much about our culture.

Those who watch "Into the Wild" are compelled to ask so many important questions. Who are we as Americans? Why are we here? What do we do with the culture we live in? How do we extract truth from all of these lies? And is there room for love in all of it?

Yes there absolutely is room for love and there is room for compassion and a most heartfelt thanks goes to Mr. Sean Penn for reminding us of that.

-DJ Freak