Into the Wild Review

This is a movie I saw before we got Black Swan. I don't know why but I love movies that have some kind of underlying social message, Blood Diamond, Inception, I can't seem to remember any now. I also tend to love an Indie film or a foreign film, Amores Perros is one of my favs. (my husband HATES this about me). One time, he and I watched Hotel Rwanda and got into a major argument just because we differ in opinions on foreign aid.

 Anyways, I don't know how I got off on that tangent, but back to the point of this post which is the movie Into the Wild

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The movie is based on the story of a young guy who graduated from Emory University and didn't know what to do with his life. He decided to live as a gypsy (that's the only word I can think of to describe it, maybe nomad would be better). He donates all of his money, around 25k, to a charity and begins to travel, by foot. His goal and last mahor venture was to travel to Alaska and live in the wilderness.

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This is a pic of the actual guy

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This is from the movie

When we first started the movie, I was a little worried that he was going to be alone because I was thinking, how boring is this movie going to be if it's just us watching him hike through the wilderness. But, I was wrong. He does interact with people and there are some very interesting, very touching personal relationships along the way. His perspective on the world is different but he is intelligent and has some insight that I related to. As I've discussed before, I have been thinking about relationships and how to be my true self in those relationships. Maybe since that is what I'm going through right now, that's what I picked up from this movie, but I felt like this was his journey through that as well. He had been hurt by so many before that he was ready to abandon them all for a lone life in the wilderness. It's interesting his perspective and how it changed towards the end.

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The movie was directed by Sean Penn and while there were some parts that I thought were just cinema trying to be indie cinema, overall, the movie was well made. The actors did a great job, especially the main character, Emile Hirsch, who played Alex McCandless.

 

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I can't really say more without giving away things in the movie but if you haven't seen it, I highly highly recommend it. The next step will be me reading the book, so as soon as I do that, I will write that review as well!

What are you favorite kinds of movies?

Have you seen Into the Wild? What did you think?

Should I read the book?