contemporary world cinema for salmon arm and kelowna |
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Into the Wild
Country: USA
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Into the Wild, director Sean Penn’s most ambitious film to date, chronicles the life of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch, Imaginary Heroes), the anti-hero of Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction book of the same name. McCandless was born into wealth and privilege but tossed it all away the day he graduated college in 1990, donating all his money to OXFAM and burning his ID. He then hit the road, encountering others who’d chosen unconventional paths, from a farmer arrested for producing drugs, to the “rubber tramps”, hippie remnants committed to cruising the open road and building a free-form desert commune. This journey eventually drives McCandless to lose himself in Alaska, an ultimate test inspired by the great authors—especially Tolstoy, Thoreau and London—who battled nature and the pressures of the human soul. His end is tragic, but it arrives after he discovers some basic truths about the human condition. The various Americas, here portrayed by Penn, are spectacular and haunting. The landscape photography by Eric Gautier, brings new meaning and gravity to iconic mountains, deserts and snowdrifts. Hirsch as McCandless is a revelation, gradually drawing us into a complex, frequently stubborn and naïve character, who represents the self-doubt in us all. An ensemble cast includes Catherine Keener (Capote) as the hippie, and veteran tv actor Hal Holbrook as the simple father figure McCandless craves. Into the Wild is ultimately about the quest itself--- the hunger for personal and spiritual fulfillment. “The beauty of Into the Wild is that what Chris is running from is never as important as what he’s running to.” O. Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly |
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