Into The Wild Blu-ray Edition
Chris McCandless had a rough life as a young man growing up in a wealthy family with secrets that troubled him to the point of abandoning not only his family but civilization.
Film making 21/25
Cinematography 21/25
Audio 20/25
Bonus Features 15/25
Total 77/100
Into The Wild is the true story of Chris McCandless, the troubled young man who literally drops off the face of the earth to leave behind his family and everything people expect of him. While Chris was young his family had more than their share of troubles and a family secret that troubled him and his sister.
When he graduates college his father and mother expect more from him but he has his own plans, to leave not only his family but to leave behind any part of society that has expectations for him. While we don’t know what was really going through his mind as he perished in the wilderness of Alaska we have the people he met and lives he changed on his journey to seek something.
Chris McCandless graduated college and told his parents he was going to law school only to drop off the face of the earth. He traveled the country saving some money for a final trek out into the Alaska wilderness where he would write but it is never really known what his true aspirations or motivations were.
The true story boils down to him leaving for his journey after his college graduation when his family thought he was continuing on to law school. He abandoned his car after giving away his savings and burned what was left of his money and identification, leaving behind only a faint hint at his intentions.
He meets people in his travels and helps them in ways one would expect from friends when he confides in them not who he is but what he wants to do. His sole goal in life is to live alone in the wilderness and experience things he has never known and write about them.
He admires the great authors and brings several books with him that motivates his travels and journey as well as inspires him to lead a life that his parents can’t imagine. He finally makes it to the Alaska wilderness where the movie details his adventures of daily living and losing weight due to the dramatic change in diet.
When he is cut off from returning to civilization after the spring thaws he turns to eating plants of the area and misidentifies one that leads to his poisoning and starvation. He dies in the bus he was living in out in the Alaskan wilderness where hunters find him a month later and his writings that he left about his experiences.
While we cannot know what he really thought of his parents and other events or why he left society for this type of adventure we do know his problems and can identify with him. Chris was from a wealthy family and he saw them as domineering and troubled, regardless of the reality he did things he thought was right and helped others along the way toward his own goals.
His death is one that may have been an accident or a tragedy but he did what he wanted and did not listen to what was expected of him by his parents. The movie is well made even if you cannot understand why he is foolhardy enough to trek into the wilderness so unprepared for what occurs.
Sean Penn wrote the screenplay and directed Into The Wild and Emile Hirsch plays Chris McCandless with a somewhat star studded cast. William Hurt plays his father, Hal Holbrook is one of Chris’s friends he meets on the road and other actors include Marcia Gay Harden, Jena Malone and Brian H. Dierker.
The film is really about the paths people take and the decisions they make that take them to where they are going even if we don’t understand them or agree. While we see he is probably very troubled it is easy to see what he wants is not to die but to find a way to come to grips with himself in a way he can control.
At least the film does a great job of showing his life on the road even if you don’t agree with how I see the film and its great outdoor scenes were very well filmed. The Blu-ray edition contains the movie with a few additional features like the theatrical trailer and two bonus features: Into The Wild: The Story, The Characters and Into The Wild: The Experience.
Both bonus features are a look at the family, cast and crew and some hint as to how Chris went about his adventure to the wild. The additional features include how they shot the film in eight months that show the two years of Chris’s travels as well as the scenic Alaska filming.
The Blu-ray features are bit short and do not have much but it does add to the movie some and this is a great movie filled with inspiration and hope in our fellow human beings. Chris touched the lives of those he met not by giving them anything tangible but just by being there for them as a friend.
Into The Wild is a great movie and one definitely worth watching, the Blu-ray edition adds the bonus features of how they made the movie as well as some insight into Chris McCandless.