Film Review: Into The Wild (2007)

Into The Wild (2007)

Dir: Sean Penn

Watched: 19/02/2022

Rating: 3 stars

Ok here’s the thing. I really wanted to like this movie. I did like it while I watched it. But now I’ve been sitting on it. I’ve ruminated. I’ve thought, I’ve thunk, and now I’m not so sure.

You see, the film is breathtakingly beautiful to watch. This, though, is because it’s difficult to make Alaskan mountains and Mexican landscapes look bad. Really. There’s also a young man walking around in shorts and growing facial hair and exuding youthful resourcefulness. These things are visually a plus. And so, while you watch, you enjoy it. Add in a beautiful soundtrack and a compelling amount of feel-good dialogue and there you have it.

But… 

Oh and there is one! There’s a but. That doesn’t quite cut it for me.

The story itself, I understand why it was made. To portray a life so far from one most of us will ever experience, a path so far from one most of us will ever take. It’s amazing, he gets up, burns his money, removes his identity, and becomes a part of the landscape. He roams, meets new people, roams again. Quite the different life to the one of comfort he would have had if he’d stayed on course.

However, there’s something biting at the heels of the story. Something trying to be heard. This isn’t courageous, this isn’t noble. It doesn’t feel like Chris has had the achingly difficult life he is portrayed to have. The pretentious nature of the film perhaps intentionally portrays this quality of its protagonist, but honestly, at times it felt very final-minute-of-a-One-Tree-Hill-episode where Lucas reads out a airy-fairy quote from a book and relates it to some self-important philosophy. Just bland, and disconnected, and ugly.

Not to mention the narration. It was unnecessary. Juvenile. It made uprooting his life less of an adventure, more of a sob story from someone who never really had it that bad. I can’t quite shake it sitting here recalling the film. 

The beautiful parts of the film are the bonds Chris forms along the way. Jan, Rainey, Wayne, Ron. The interactions, the dialogue, the connections Chris makes along his path are the saving grace of the film. The way he slips into their lives and holds a shape they’re missing, represents something that’s hurting them. It’s beautiful. I was left with an aching sense of longing for one of these interactions. The people you know so deeply, yet so fleetingly. Breath-taking. 

Another great element the film incorporated was the switching between times. This was done well. We see Chris in the magic bus, we see Chris at college, as a boy, in his time immediately after entering the wild. It was great, and done well, despite the overarching narration from a character I felt no compulsion to sympathise with. 

Arguably the best moment of the whole film was Vince Vaughn and Emile Hirsch chanting “society!” over and over to a room of people who want them to stop. Now that was a tonic.

The performance from Hirsch was moving, the scenery he existed in was incredible, and the delights of a life I haven’t lived were compelling. I just can’t seem to get behind it in the way I really thought I would. 

The ending left me shook, because I didn’t know the story of Chris McCandless. It was captured brilliantly. I think this only increased my frustration with this film. So many elements are done right, and so many elements feel lazy and wrong. The story of a young adult trying to find themselves is a trope I adore and will watch eagerly again, and again. Though, it’s also been done a lot better than this was. I was never bored, but I was never enthralled. 

What I will give to this film, is that it did make me feel a deep pang of guilt for my enjoyment of the comforts in life. I watched the film from my beautifully cosy living room, filled with trinkets and possessions of mine and my best friend. Lying on a soft sofa under multiple blankets with a purring cat on my tummy. I looked around and considered the fact that if I had to, I simply would not survive in the wild.