Into the Wild, by Sean Penn

One Man is an Island
Reviewed by Ben Gardiner
September 23, 2008

Into the Wild, as the title suggests, not only portrays a physical interpretation of that, but also the experience of a young man who has difficulty understanding modern society and embarks on a quest to better understand himself as a person. Of the plethora of books and films featuring young men or teenagers escaping society, this one is among the best, in my opinion. It combines elements of dialogue with a detailed experience of a young man, named Chris McCandless, who travels to the wild. The film conventions throughout the story help to convey the message about Chris’ ideas and the ideas of the people he meets.

The story, which is based on a true one, has Chris McCandless and his experience alone in Alaska, and the preparation time before this. The antagonist Chris is against is a combination of nature, society, and, particularly later in the story, himself. Throughout all of this, we are constantly reminded of Chris’ feelings about society and his reasons for leaving it.

The director of photography, Eric Gautier, is able to help clearly present a way to express Chris’ feelings through camera angles and effects. The film jumps between Chris in Alaska and his preparation for that adventure and the events that take place before that. The camera effects are also able to convey the feeling of Chris McCandless, who has run away from his home and is escaping civilization. For example, a blurred and darkly-lit scene when Chris is traveling through large cities expresses his opinion of those parts of society. The scenery shots are also fantastic with high-key shots and landscape portraits.

One character in particular that shares a great deal is from the well-known novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. The main character in that novel, Holden Caulfield, is a 16 year old boy who is always dropping out of school and has ambitions similar to Chris McCandless. Chris and Holden both want to be isolated from society, but they both seem to respect people who they see as honest, good people. As well, they both seek independence from their families, but do not value money and possessions as attributes that they need in their lives. Chris and Holden both have close relationships with their siblings, but both boys seem to have troubles with their parents, particularly Chris. This is expressed during the movie and book.

Their interactions with people are extremely similar but have interesting differences. Chris likes to get to know someone very well and understand their past and ideas. While Holden is the same, he is also much more open to socializing with strangers and having fun with anyone he may know distantly.

The message transmitted to viewers is debatable and controversial. The honesty and truth of Chris McCandless is also a broad topic. The effectiveness of Chris’ ideas communicated to viewers is strong, and you will get sucked into McCandless’ ideas about society and his dream to leave it forever. This, in my opinion, makes the film even more interesting because you can debate and decide if you support Chris’ opinions, or are completely against them. Whether you will like Chris or hate him is very hard to say, however, his character is better established in the body of the film rather than at the beginning or end. Some people consider him to be a hero, having gone away from society and tried to conquer the vast wilderness of Alaska. Although Chris is made to look very honest and truthful, there are times when this is debatable. He left his whole family clueless and disappeared from everything he had ever worked for. However, when Chris met the different people he came across, he wanted to really be a part of their lives and enjoy learning about them. Because of this, Chris can be seen as someone who is honest and against modern society simply because of the lies and fakery it presents to him.

Is Chris representing a piece of what we all feel every day? In our busy, sometimes corrupt modern societies, not just in the United States where Chris grew up, but every modern society, there are flaws. We all lead busy lives, often where we are surrounded by bullies, cheating, crime, and more. We can try to lessen these problems for ourselves by maintaining healthy relationships, and so on. I think Chris is trying to do just this, but also, wants to form a better relationship with himself. His idea may be that we are all giving up ourselves as people and feeding our busy, corrupt society. Once again, see this film if you’d like to see a possibly new view on society with an interesting adventure mixed in.