In today’s materialistic world moving at a jet speed towards an unknown destination, I wonder if there is any person in existence, who has not thought of running away from everything around one fine morning, with no information about his whereabouts given to anyone. We all must have had this escapist kind of thought in our minds at least once in our past, but it indeed needs a great amount of courage to put it into practice leaving everything behind just for nothing.
In an unbelievable manner, Christopher McCandless actually did this in real life after graduating from Emory University being a top student and an athlete. As he stepped into the commercial world post his degree, he abandoned all his possessions one fine day, gave his entire savings of more than 20 thousand dollars to charity and took a ride to Alaska to live in the wilds. The film is made on this real life incident which sadly had a tragic ending, but has got many valuable lessons of life for the viewers.
It’s a beautifully directed film by the veteran actor Sean Penn, giving us a glimpse of what Christopher might have felt living alone in those wilds with only the nature playing around with him both as a friend as well as an enemy at its own will. His self chosen exile makes us meet many interesting and enlightening characters on the path who add a different dimension to his tale which needs to be seen at the earliest if you love to see movies which take you beyond the usual.
INTO THE WILD also deserves to be watched for his elegant cinematography transforming the viewer into a different world altogether close to the nature. Especially it’s a treat to watch the way the director and his DOP compare the city’s high rise buildings with the tall natural mountains superbly. The film has many such sequences which make you feel tensed, make you move and can even make you cry seeing the hardships Christopher faces in his soul’s journey unknowingly stepping into a dark end.
Having said that it may also tend to be an unusual kind of movie for many friends, moving away from their routine kind of weekend expectations. It might come out to be pretty slow, uninteresting and lengthy, heading towards nothing. And that’s because its exactly like a poetic expression which is bound to have different meanings for different people watching it from their own individual perspectives. However if the above description really seems to be interesting then do watch it as a must since you are sure going to come back enriched with a new insight about life after seeing INTO THE WILD.
In fact the truth is that the present world we are living in is not hugely different from a life lived in the wild by Christopher alone……!
Directed By Sean Penn
Starring : Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn and Catherine Keener.
