HOLLYWOOD POV: "Into the Wild"

An unforgettable and fascinating story told with profound sensitivity, Into the Wild is the story of 22-year-old Christopher McCandless (in an Oscar-worthy turn by Emile Hirsch who did all his own stunts) who turned his back on his privileged life and walked into the wild in search of the true meaning of life and freedom. Sean Penn's loving direction of Jon Krakauer's sensitive book about this young seeker is sure to remain with you long after you see it.

Chris loved to read and was fond of quoting his favorite writers; the film begins with a quote from Lord Byron that rings so true for Chris and his yearning for happiness in the natural world:
 

"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 the music in its roar;

I love not man the less, but Nature more."

Disillusioned with his parents, Billie and Walt McCandless' (Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt) possession-rich lifestyle and violent relationship, and after graduating in 1990 from Emory University, Chris carelessly threw away his chance at Harvard and completely ceased communicating with his family. He gave away his savings of $24,000 to OXFAM and set out traveling in his old Datsun. After he and his car were hit by a flash flood Chris abandoned the vehicle, burned all the money in his wallet, and set out on foot to explore the country. He had officially dropped out of the world as he knew it and was now a leather tramp.

His ties to his sister were strong and the filmic narrative is helped along by her sad but understanding voice-over. Why he never called his sister even just once after he left his family remains a mystery... and might point to the self-centeredness his naïve and narcissistic behavior must warrant.

One of the first things Chris did as he began his travels was to change his name to "Alexander Supertramp," and that is how he introduced himself to everyone he met on his travels. People were amused when he introduced himself, but he was a charismatic lad and everyone who met him soon felt close and protective of him. These series of characters that Chris meets along the way help shape the man who walked into the wild.

Chris train-hiked and hitch-hiked around the country ending up in Carthage, South Dakota for a spell where he worked in a grain silo for a man named Wayne Westerberg (played by an illuminating Vince Vaughn in his best, albeit brief, outing in his career so far). Chris was still aching to travel so after he earned some money he set out again and bought a kayak and took a renegade trip down the Colorado River. He came across a rubber tramp (tramps on wheels) couple, Jan and Rainey (played by perfectly cast Catherine Keener  and river rat guide and the Marine Coordinator for this film, Brian Dierker, who was cast in this, his first film, while the crew was filming on the river). The couple introduce him to Slab City - and the rubber tramps who call it home - in the Californian desert after he illegally floated his kayak into Mexico and returned to the states. Many people in the Slab City segments in this film were cast with the real people who live there.

Compelled to challenge himself in the wilderness and seemingly uncomfortable with people once they become close to him, Chris again sets out on his own and comes across Ron Franz (Hal Holbrook in a nomination-worthy supporting role) in the desert. Franz is immediately drawn to the young man and takes him under his wing. He teaches Chris how to work with leather and Chris makes a belt depicting his journey. They grow so close that Franz proposes to adopt Chris because he has no heirs, no one to remember him when he's gone. Hal Holbrook brings such a natural feel - mixed with love and despair - to the film that your insides will ache when he asks to adopt Chris. Sadly Chris requests that they discuss this when he returns from Alaska and he takes off again after Franz gives him some survival gear for his trip. The call of the wild was too much for him to resist and Franz never hears from him again.

All of the supporting cast, with the exception of Catherine Keener and Hal Holbrook, should really be considered as cameo appearances as they all have very few lines and are on screen for a matter of minutes. This film features the lead actor Emile Hirsch in every single scene working under the harshest conditions imaginable with no stunt doubles. For this alone he deserves a nomination. Add on to that Hirsch's channeling of Chris McCandless and you have one of the most inspired performances of this year. 

In April 1992, an Alaskan named Jim Gallien gave McCandless his last ride to the Stampede Trail in Alaska. Chris left his watch and personal belongings with him on the dashboard of his truck and in the film the real Jim Gallien plays himself. He kept Chris' belongings and the watch Chris wears in the film is the real watch that he left with Gallien when he set out on his last journey. Just as he was about to set out Gallien gave Chris some badly needed rubber boots, and had Chris truly been prepared for living in the Alaskan wilderness those boots should have been on the top of his list. But being that Chris was so naïve of the struggles that awaited him trying to survive on his own in forbidding conditions in the Alaskan wilderness, he was completely unprepared for what was ahead. 

To survive in the wild Chris had learned a few things about survival from a man he worked with in the grain silo and he brought with him very few items to help him survive. Thanks to Gallien he had the boots, thanks to Franz he had a net, a fishing rod and a machete, and he also brought along a .22 rifle with a scope and rounds, a camera, ten pounds of rice, some camping gear, a notebook he used as a sketchy bullet-point journal, a small collection of his favorite books (by Leo Tolstoy, Henry David Thoreau, and Jack London), and a field guide of the area's native plants.

Just before fording a river into the depths of the Alaskan wilderness Chris leaves a bright orange hat Jan had given him as a Christmas gift on a tree to help him find his way back to civilization. Gallien's boots helped him make the crossing, but Chris gave no thought to his return trip other than leaving the hat. After hiking for a while Chris comes upon an old bus plopped down in the middle of the wilderness. Chris didn't know it then, but an old mining company had helicoptered a few old Fairbanks city buses into the area while they were prospecting for oil and minerals. The buses were used as temporary shelters for the miners and had very few amenities. Luckily for Chris it had a wood stove made out of an old oil drum, a sleeping platform with an old mattress on it, and some odds and ends for survival. Chris called it his "Magic Bus" and made it his home. Without the bus Chris would not have been able to survive as long and just might have been forced out of the wilderness before it was too late. 

Filmed on location following Chris' actual footsteps to the places he really went the audience shares his journey and learns about the real man behind the myths already spreading 15 years after his death. Since Chris' death his tramping has become legend and many people have tried to duplicate his journey... so many in fact, that the bus where he lived while alone in Alaska has been since moved so the pilgrimages will not continue.

In person Sean Penn is an intense and intelligent man on a mission. He brings that intensity to every job he does and in his own directorial efforts it serves him very well indeed. He led the young crew on a grueling 8-month shoot all over the US following in Chris' footsteps. As Hirsch tells it: When the script calls for Chris to kayak down raging river rapids and Emile is thrown by the huge challenge it is Sean Penn who says to him: I've never kayaked down rapids either. If I go first, then you'll do it, right?" Penn then hops into a kayak and navigates the rushing waters. Emile says after that he had no choice but to run the rapids as Penn did.

Penn climbed every mountain carrying equipment just like his mostly young and somewhat inexperienced crew did. Penn camped out and lived with the crew and they all took chances most would refuse because the story spoke to them all. It seems that Chris McCandless' love of the natural world cast a spell on the cast and crew. And that is often what happens on a film made with the director's love and respect of the story.

Upon reading the Jon Krakauer best-selling non-fiction book (which was an expansion of his article, "Death of an Innocent", which appeared in the January 1993 issue of Outside) Sean Penn said he immediately sat down and read the book again. He was completely captivated by Chris' story and knew he had to make this film. He called Krakauer to get the rights to the story, but Krakauer refused unless the McCandless family approved. Krakauer gets big props for refusing big Hollywood bucks and putting the McCandless family's needs ahead of his own.

The McCandless family's emotions were too raw after Chris' death to approve any deal and they refused to give Penn the rights to Chris' story but stayed in touch with Penn for the intervening years. Being that Chris grew up in a violent household his parents must have blamed themselves for his disappearance, and they would have been correct.  After 12 years had gone by they finally signaled their interest to Penn and he immediately took up the ball and ran with a speed not often seen in Hollywood. Within just a few months Penn had the personal power to structure and write the script in just four months and the Hollywood power to get the money to make the film. Penn says he wrote the script quickly because he had been writing and rewriting it in his head while he was waiting for the family to be ready to see Chris' story on the big screen. 

The cinematography by Frenchman Eric Gautier is breathtaking and the original music by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder - and the soundtrack by by Michael Brook and Kaki King - are stunning and memorable and all are worthy of nominations. Eddie Vedder's voice appropriately serves as the voice of the protagonist, most especially in his song "Society."  

When Chris was finally ready to return to the world it was early springtime and he was unable to ford the river he had crossed; it had become a wide and raging freezing body of water too deep and swift for anyone to walk across.  He could see his orange hat across the wide expanse of the freezing rapidly running river, but he could not find a way to get there.

Had Chris truly been prepared for living in the wild this is an unforgivable life-ending mistake, no one should ford a freezing river in early springtime due to the rushing snow melt that floods every river running downhill. Instead of following the river downstream to look for a narrower place to make his crossing (as the Discovery Channel's survivalist expert Bear Grylls, host of Man vs. Wild might have done), Chris instead returns to his magic bus and tries his best to survive. This was his last of many tragic errors in judgement.

After his shooting of a moose went bad and the meat soured, Chris survived in the wild for about 112 days foraging for edible roots and berries, but he was losing weight fast and unable to feed himself. In the end he thought he had eaten a poisonous root that caused starvation by blocking nutrient metabolism in the body. 

There are many unforgettable images in Into the Wild, Chris runs with wild horses and a herd of antelope, and in one memorable moment towards the end of the film as Chris is dying of starvation a bear passes right next to him. Chris stands there literally shaking in his boots (though by this point there isn't much of him to shake). The bear sniffs at him but passes him by, suggesting to this reviewer that at this point the bear didn't even consider Chris to be food, he was that emaciated. The bear might have also scented the poison in his body and smelled that Chris was no longer a food source for him.

In the end Alexander Supertramp reverted back to his real name of Christopher Johnson McCandless and realized that his search for happiness would only be complete if he were not alone. By then it was too late for him, he was lonely and emaciated and too weak to save himself. One last photograph found in his camera after his death that Chris took of himself in front of his Magic Bus shows him smiling and happy. Chris weighed only 67 pounds when he was found by hunters only a few weeks after he died. 

No matter where you might stand on the many issues Chris' story brings up you will doubtless be enthralled by the beauty of our natural world and saddened by its loss. This is a poetically beautiful and unforgettable film that will haunt you long after you see it and it deserves to be seen on the big screen... Into the Wild is well worth your time and money - go see this one on the big screen.

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Digital Dogs rating:  A+

MPAA rating: R for language and some nudity.

Running Time:  140 minutes

Producers Sean Penn, Art Linson, William Pohlad, Director Sean Penn, Screenplay Sean Penn from the book by Jon Krakauer, Music Michael Brook, Kaki King, Eddie Vedder, Editor Jay Cassidy, DP Eric Gautier, Actors Emile Hirsch, Marica Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Crain Dierker, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart, Hal Holbrook, Zach Galifanakis

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© 2007 by Digital Dogs

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--- Digital Dogs is gather's Los Angeles Movie Correspondent ---

Digital Dogs' column, HOLLYWOOD POV, published every Thursday to Gather Essentials: Movies is an insider's look at the art, people, and product of Hollywood.

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