Movie Review: Into the Wild

I had lost my patience with watching movies on my computer during the last couple of months. When I got back the LAN connection in my room at the start of the semester, I promptly downloaded four satyajit ray films, three stanley kubricks, the star wars hexology and Andaz Apna Apna. I only remember dozing out to AAA twice and never touched the rest. Anticipating my mood and enthusiasm, I played Sean Penn's latest movie (as director) on my laptop yesterday night and surprisingly, I was hooked on. The blurb that I read on IMDB made me associate the protagonist of the movie immediately with Jack Kerouac for the story sounded pretty much like his life. I learned a little later that the movie was made from a book of the same name written by John Krakauer about the true story of Christopher McCandless. The protagonist Chris, a top-of-his-class history and anthropology graduate from Emory University, decides to leave his family, surrender all his possessions and become a vagabond. He gives all his savings ($24000) as charity to OXFAM and begins traveling across the country after rechristening himself as 'Alex' Alexander Supertramp. Inspired by the writings of Tolstoy and Thoreau he sets foot on the road hoping to escape the rush of the civilization and get intimate with nature.

I shall not narrate the entire plot here for the fear of letting out more spoilers than what I already intend to. But let me, on the outset, recommend this movie strongly! In a nutshell the movie is about the journey of a man from civilization into wilderness, his coming of age and the final redemption. The lead actor fits snugly into the character of Chris and gives a mesmerizing performance. The supporting actors are extremely competent, especially the hippie couple whom Chris befriends on the road the old man who he lives with for a few days before commencing the last part of his journey - to Alaska. The background music and OST are one of the best I have heard in recent times and the songs of Eddie Vedder permeate through the scenes weaving magic. The movie has two overarching heroes - the director/screenplay writer Sean Penn who conceives the movie out of Chris's/Alex's mindscape. There is ample but skilful and inventive usage of symbolism from nature. A bee is shown pollinating on a flower when Chris's reads Tolstoy - "I have lived through much and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor - such is my idea of happiness." The dialogues are minimal and never superfluous and the scenes are as though they have been woven with great imagination. The second hero is the cinematographer, thanks to whom the movie flows like poetry. Indeed, the two main characters of the movie are Chris and Nature. The scenes in Alaska are especially breathtaking.

I watched parts of the movie once again today afternoon. Two statements of Christopher struck out to me and I cannot forget them. They're simple yet profound in a certain way. One goes - "The core of man's spirt comes from new experiences". The other is when he replies to the old man who says that he'll miss him when he leaves for Alaska, "I'll miss you too, but you're wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from human relationships". Chirstopher McCandless was found dead in an abandoned bus in the slopes Alaska by two moose hunters in 1992. Not encountering game for many days had forced him to eat the root of a wild potato which turned out to be poisonous. A certain fungi in the root was known to inhibit digestion and in the absence of treatment, Chris died of starvation.

A verse by Lord Byron shown at the start of the credits was particularly poignant and I end by quoting it:

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar;
I love not man the less, but Nature more...