I’ve just watched Into the Wild on DVD and am kicking myself that I never got around to seeing it on the big screen. Emile Hirsch does an amazing job potraying Christopher McCandless in this true story of Chris’ adventure that sadly leads to his death.
The cinematography is absolutely stunning and Sean Penn has crafted a beautiful movie as director. McCandless obviously had some issues, people don’t just take off into the wild, literally burning money and avoiding the real world if they are totally on an even keel. A very telling moment in the movie is when he tries to start making his way home after over 100 days in the Alaskan wilderness but finds himself trapped by the wild that he initially wanted to experience. He writes in a book, with tears in his eyes, “happiness isn’t real unless shared”.
That is a great movie whch I watched on the Quantas flight to Melbourne. Makes you feel small compared to nature, which is the right way to feel. We feel we’re so powerful and we’re not, nature continues to remind us of that fact. Sadly, he learned that lesson with a tragic ending, hopefully we won’t.
I probably would have seen this movie long ago if if didn’t end tragically. But that is the way of nature isn’t it? Everything must die sometime. His fate just brought him to it sooner. But I can wait to see the movie.
Thanks for giving the ending away!
The book was better.
McCandless’s story is tragic, but then so many people have benefited from hearing it… a couple of years of hitchhiking and camping made a story that now challenges thousands (millions?) of people to reexamine their lives