Into the Wild

by Ari

Sean Penn has been an underrated director for some time now. Obviously it’s very difficult for a successful actor to make the transition to a brilliant filmmaker, but we’ve seen some notable exceptions in recent years. I’m not overly fond of Clint Eastwood’s recent efforts (Mystic River, Letters from Iwo Jima), but there’s still no denying his talent. And just last year, Robert De Niro directed one of the most comprehensive, sophisticated and engrossing spy films I’ve ever seen with The Good Shepherd. Penn will always be remembered as the actor before the director, but with his new film Into the Wild, he proves that his abilities as a filmmaker are serious and profound. This isn’t simply an actor experimenting behind the camera for a change of pace. Penn is a gifted filmmaker - as gifted as some of the best, most recognized and lauded directors working today.

Into the Wild is a deeply felt and inspiring journey into the soul of a troubled, but adventurous young man, and Penn examines the events of his life without necessarily telling you how to feel or respond. A lesser filmmaker would ignore the flaws and complexities of a character like Christopher McCandless (played with charm and force by Emile Hirsch) and simply present him as only heroic and brilliant for sentimental reasons. Penn, however, is no lesser filmmaker. While it’s clear that Penn does respond to the spiritual, individual quest McCandless pursued, he doesn’t force the issue of it being right or wrong. You can interpret the events however you’d like. Was McCandless a selfish young man who avoided the problems that many people have to battle and endure by running away and hiding in the wilderness? Or was he an inspired and ambitious adventurer who sought and eventually found an inner-peace and profound existential purpose that most people never do? For me, it’s a little bit of both, however the objectivist in me leans more towards the latter. Either way, Penn honestly portrays the character in order to bring an understanding to the viewer.

McCandless died at 24, but he still lived. He lived his life his way, shunning the society he had been brought up to accept for personal reasons that are at least well explained. He and sister grew up in a destructive home, or as he states at one point when asked about his parents, “they’re out living their lies somewhere”. He found nothing but emptiness in the materialistic world he inhabited - distanced and alone in an environment that provided him with no happiness or comfort. So, naturally, he vanished from that lifestyle after finishing college; giving away his fortune, burning his money, and drifting from one location to another for his "great Alaska adventure". In nature, McCandless found everything previously lacking in his life, and actor Emile Hirsch beautifully captures his sense of freedom and excitement and peacefulness. From the moment we see him watching a group of deer with tears in his eyes, you know you’re invested in whatever happens to him.

There’s a quality about the character that instantly affects you, and, like the many people we meet along his journey, we’re taken by him - won over by his charm and individualism, by his selfishness and by his selflessness. McCandless is a fascinating person as written on-screen by Penn (adapted from the book by Jon Krakauer) and performed by Hirsch. As a drama, the various experiences we see are exceptionally powerful. His relationship with a hippie couple played by Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker is hilarious and moving; his encounter with Vince Vaughn is absolutely classic (I wouldn’t dare ruin it); and his eventual relationship with an old man played by Hal Holbrook is tender and emotional. By the end of the film you feel like you’ve experienced an epic. Penn takes you on an adventure filled with everything that defines a good adventure: peril, romance, laughter, friendship, pain, enlightenment, tragedy. It’s all there. And while the film is maybe a bit too long, there’s nothing that can take away its overall beauty.

It's also clear that Penn learned a few things from Terrence Malick, as the pacing and imagery are very reminiscent of Malick’s style. Simply put, the cinematography is gorgeous. Penn uses super slow-motion, split-screen techniques and freeze frames to add some extra cinematic flavor to the story as well, along with specific moments that have the actors look directly into the camera. Again, in lesser hands it wouldn’t work, but Penn makes it count. If Hirsch’s performance is the film’s heart, then the brilliant music is its soul. The original songs and score perfectly compliment the beautiful images and emotional performances. Great work. This is easily my favorite film of the year thus far.