into the wild - sean penn
"into the wild" directed by sean penn, and photographed by eric gautier, is a transcendent telling of the true story of christopher mccandless, a suburban kid with a broken soul and an addiction to truth. a film with such lofty ambitions could easily stumble over it's own self importance, but penn, paints a subtle portrait, with easy brush strokes that highlight the borders between heaven and hell - between isolationism and community, and between the forgiven and the forgotten.
mccandless, given life by the finely crafted performance of emile hirsch, heads out into the fringes of america after graduating college, in pursuit of a deeper truth to life. what could be conceived as a walden-esque head trip, is given traction by mccandless' intense obedience to transformation. "alexander supertramp" (the name he gives to himself) grows with each step of the journey. it would appear that supertramp's goal is not to simply change the world by changing everyone in it, but rather, he wishes to change the world by changing himself. a novel approach.
the film is wonderfully scored by eddie vedder, and gautier's cinematography is remarkable, choosing to shoot so much of the personal details in painful close-ups, in stark contrast to the wide panoramic views of location shooting in remote locals like the salton sea, the grand canyon, and most notably, alaska. it could be argued that the message of the film was a little heavy handed, but christopher mccandless' life was a little heavy handed. if one walks away from the film with as much appreciation for penn's voice as mccandless', justice will be served.
posted by wlr at 2:17 PM
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