Into the wild (Sean Penn, 2007) is a movie based on the travels of Christopher McCandless (aka Alexander Supertramp) from 1990 to 1992 around the US and his ‘Alaskan Odyssey’. It’s based on a true story when Christopher after finishing college decides to give his life-time savings to Oxfam and depart to the road with just the minimun and some books. He doesn’t inform anyone, takes life as it comes and working in any job in order to subsist.
Theatrical poster
The movie starts with Christopher getting to Alaska as part of his Alaskan odyssey, from that point we see flashbacks, narrated by his sister: how did he get to Alaska, his motivations, the people who inspired him, the people who met along the way, his early trips around the US, etc. The movie has a good rhythm, separates the story in chapters and its 140 minutes long are gone really fast. It’s also important to highlight that even the topic of the movie could fall in old cliches, but it always dodge these and present a nice story without judging.
Chris McCandless himself
The locations of the movie are one of the best parts and most of the landscapes are breathtaking, it goes all the spectrum: from the dessert to the mountains of Alaska. The music, mainly folk song, are a really good companion for the images.
I guess the movie has quite an inspiring subtext and in these modern days where everyone thinks it’s too hard to live without the actual commodities, it can be refreshing this point of view where we just need to open our eyes and try to go into the wild to see that other life is possible.
Karmi said
Wow this movie sounds really good! I’ve been wondering for a long time what it’s like to live without that much possession.
I have to check this out really soon, thanks for the review!