Into the Wild

Into the Wild_360P

I have to say Sean you did buddy. This movie is ultimately awesome!! We need more films like this. I had the opportunity to see this film last night and I loved it from the very beginning. The cinematography was absolutely awesome and breath-taking. If more people would worry about other human beings rather materialistic things we would be in much better environment. I truly believe Happiness is SHARING as well. When you see a "HOMELESS" looking person, or someone who doesn't have what you have, you should NEVER judge how they got there. I have to tell you this movie really touched me and makes me want to live more to the fullest to make a difference and to be a better person.

What is the message of this movie? Is that about "let's abandon your family and get into the wild"? Is that about "relationship is not necessary to be happy"? What could be left in your mind after watching this movie? Isn't that so funny and unreasonable for a top student to act like that ? Is there anything that REALLY MEANINGFUL in this movie? Is there any small thing that just touches in your heart? What is the lesson that you can see after watching this movie? ... I'm really afraid that these question will never have answers! Looking beyond the illusion of the movie I couldn't find any answer there. I feel sorry but I have to say that this movie brings a beautiful fog, but behind the fog it's nothing there, nothing and nothing at all!

What a load of crap! An irritable middle class American throws away his life by destroying all contacts with civilisation as his midget mind tells him, takes a gun into the wilderness (oh yes primitive man had guns apparently)and shows how dumb pig ignorance can masquerade as art if your cinematographer is good enough (and the cinematographer IS really good). This film is self indulgent garbage of a high order and makes one long for another viewing of the amazing "Mosquito Coast" of decades before. If this is the best movie that an ageing William Hurt can get, then maybe he needs to return to the safety of the bottle. Even the music score is tiresome and old, rendering the total boredom of the picture complete.

It's a well made movie but the guy that it's about is an idiot and must be seen as one. This movie puts him as a hero finding freedom where in reality he was a young lad, Ill prepared and died from starvation. He turned his back on everything and it killed him. The cleverly thought out monologues are just naive trite. There's no Wisdom here, it's a sad story about a death that shouldn't have happened. The guy was an idiot.

Read Walden instead. This sad exploration of one boy's stupidity in his quest for isolation left me wondering why everyone likes this movie so much. The pacing is slow. The reasons behind our hero's actions are not explained enough to make them believable. The "interesting" characters that he meets on his journey are mostly hollow shells of some "meaningful" stereotype. The cinematography was solid. The images of Alaska were stunning. The feeling of isolation was very real. I like deep, thoughtful films about life, meaning, and self discovery. This just was not one of them. Though it tried.

"Happiness is only real when shared" is surely the lesson the main character learned--but that was given only short play at the very end. Yes, that's when he learned it. And perhaps the thought was that viewers would learn along with him and reach the same understanding/climax. What seems to happen instead is the glorifying of a boy who uses his very privilege to question (well) ?privilege? Who can afford to eschew materialism because he never had to earn. If viewers reach the same lesson he did--that he was wrong to cut himself off and that "happiness is only real when shared"--then good on them. But the movie doesn't give me much confidence. Beautifully shot. Heroically framed. I'm afraid most will see this asthete as winning through death.

Most people thought that the film itself sees Alex as a hero or something. NO, there are more than enough hints in the dialogues and the way things happen that Chris was not an ideal hero. He overreacted about his family problems, he wasn't well prepared enough to survive in Alaska etc. He died alone and at the end he regretted not forgiving his family, he didn't want to die alone yet he did. He was mentally unstable and he made terrible choices, he was also caring about people and created good relations with people. If you think every story must be about a perfect hero then this film is not for you.

weenblow's comment is pretty representative of those who found this movie to be concerned with a solipsistic, naive, self indulgent adolescent "I feel like I have been cheated. There was really nothing of much redeeming value to be found in this film. The character development did not help me to sympathize with the main character, he came off as a brash, uninformed idealist with no real intelligence." My summary judgement is that a] the book is about spoiled rich brat in a long line of writers who have the luxury to criticise 'society' from the vantage of privilege b] the movie in representing this is bound to fail Please don't waste your time: it's an example of a 'cult' movie that feeds on its own self importance. Come back Thoreau, Rosseau, Beat Poets et al - all is forgiven. grrrrrrr 1 is too generous; please can IMDb provide a negative number scale as well? If so I'd give this minus 10

The great Writers, Photographers, Painters, Poets have toiled and struggled for centuries to understand life. Their joy and pain and happiness and suffering is all there for us to study. Instead what do some people do, they hero worship a fool like McCandless. It irritates me that Sean Penn needs to idealize Christopher McCandless and his little adventure. I don't doubt Penn's skills as a filmmaker but I think his ideas are somewhat pretentious. Penn does not make an attempt to truly understand the psychology of what appears to be a very disturbed young man, instead he tries to suggest that 'Supertramp' is some sort of messianic character. Nature, like life, does not suffer fools well and making heroes of people like Christopher McCandless just distracts us from the journey that centuries of civilization has been partaking in-- Life. - PCL