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Into The Wild (2007)
Rating:
Cast: Emile Hirsh
Director: Sean Penn
Genre: Self-Discovery, Adventure, Exploration
Synopsis
Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsh) graduates from college, drops out of sight and takes on a wild adventure as Alexander Supertramp - a free spirit who sheds away the trappings of privileged society and pushes the boundaries of existence by living life on the edge.
Touched Lives
On his journey, he met many people whose lives he influenced through his abandon and outlook. In the process, these people also shaped his life. He crossed paths with a middle-aged hippie couple who led him to a counter-culture commune in Slab City, California. He relates to the woman struggling about her long lost son. Alex also worked for a shady character who was impressed by his honesty, hard work and his intensity against the social order. Later on, he hooked up with a retired army man who lost his family in a tragic accident. The old man offers to adopt Alex as his grandchild. He gleans the struggle between parents and offsprings - something eerily too familiar to him.
Modern Day Tolstoy
Alex would often quote Tolstoy or Thoreau to explain himself. He was fascinated at Tolstoy's adventurism of leaving behind a life of wealth and comfort for one of ragged depravity. In pursuit of Tolstoy's ascetic lifestyle, he forged north to test the balance of man against wild...his ultimate litmus test which proved tragic.
Ending Thoughts
This movie hits the nail on the head for me...on a personal basis. It validates a lot of the life tenets I hold gospel - money and power being delusions, freedom at the core of living, institutions as an artificial value system (government, church, tradition), etc. I really felt for the guy. I'm haunted that I see parallelism between him and me.
Where I walked away from the trappings of the corporate world to live life in the mountains of Sagada, he spent 2 years hitch hiking his way all over until he took north to the unforgiving cold of the Alaskan bush with no compass and just 10 pounds of rice. Where I walked away from web projects because I didn't want to make more money than what I needed, he donated his entire savings of $24,000 to charity and burned whatever bills he had in his wallet. Where I would leave my belongings behind and live life on my backpack, he threw away all his identification, trashed his car plate and took to the open road with no shelter, no money and rejecting all forms of guarantees. Comparing myself to him, I look so scared...so frightened about life without the safety net. He was just more extreme, more hard core, more intense in ways I could not be.
A part of me is angry that he died needlessly (a 30-lb load is too light to survive an early spring in the Alaskan interior brush, which at that time of year is still buried in winter snow). I wish he were still alive to continue his journey. I would love to see him live life to my age and see where it has taken him. I'd like to learn from his experience...hear the rest of his story...see life from his paradigm. Would he still have the same answers?
Without his maverick verve for life, this world seems a little duller. It doesn't matter if he was just a naive and stubborn idealist or a romantic adventurer in search of answers...he lived life while it lasted.
--- TheLoneRider
Comments? Email webmaster@thelonerider.com
 Jay-Ar
(Aug 29, 2008) alam nyo kung bakit tragic?? siguro hindi sya ng preclimb or worse, si tope ang gumawa ng itinerary nya...cheers! kindly post ur gabo xperience per episode... lols... tnx
 Vyxz
(Aug 19, 2008) i love into the wild too! go read the book!! maiiyak ka pramis.
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