WILD MAN
by Chris Dashiell

Into the Wild is an adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s 1996 book about the real-life adventures of Chris McCandless, a young man just out of college who decided to disappear for a while, become a tramp and live off the land. It’s the fourth feature directed by Sean Penn, who also wrote the screenplay, and in style and technique it’s a great advance for him.

The film captures an unusual yet quintessentially American world view: that of the rebel against the domestication of society who seeks the raw experience of simplicity and survival in nature. We shift back and forth in time through McCandless’s story, from the trek into the Alaskan wilderness that was the culmination of his quest to the people and places he encountered on the way there.

After graduation in 1990, while telling his family that he’s interested in entering Harvard Law School, McCandless gives all of his money to charity and sets out west, leaving no clues for his parents or his younger sister to find him. He renames himself Alexander Supertramp, hitchhikes and hops trains, gets odd jobs here and there, including a grain threshing gig in South Dakota, and has encounters with various free spirits, while he kayaks illegally down the Colorado, sets up camp near the Salton Sea, and eventually heads off to Alaska for the ultimate test.

McCandless is played by Emile Hirsch, a heretofore undistinguished young actor who has to carry the vast majority of the film’s scenes. It turns out to be an inspired bit of casting. If a more conventional leading man had been chosen, there would be less ambiguity, or for that matter believability, in the character. But Hirsch projects an almost perfect mix of heedless vigor and enthusiasm, portraying McCandless as headstrong yet more than a bit callow, and so the difficulties and contradictions of the character become very real on screen.

Rather than assume any particular attitude, Penn deals with this real-life adventurer on his own terms, and this lends the film an enormous sense of richness and profundity. It’s very rare to see a film, especially a Hollywood movie, that so vividly articulates the mindset of disaffection with consumerist society. You might not agree with how far McCandless goes with this, but you understand it, and that’s a real virtue in a picture. One sequence, for instance, in which he wanders homeless in an urban environment packs a real wallop after we’ve experienced the scenes of spiritual freedom on the road.

The supporting cast is fine, with Jena Malone providing thoughtful and bittersweet narration as McCandless’s sister, William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden as the parents, Vince Vaughan as Chris's boss in North Dakota, Catherine Keener as a hippie earth mother, and Hal Halbrook as an old man who helps McCandless to get to Alaska. But it’s really Emile Hirsch’s show all the way, and Penn has gotten a stunningly vulnerable performance from him. In addition, there are songs written and performed for the film by Eddie Vedder that actually advance the story.

With a wandering style that matches its subject's elusive quest, the film might seem quite long, but some real thought went into the apparent digressions. The story's irony creeps up on you slowly, and Penn waits until the right moment to let Chris (and the audience) gain the insight which comes as such great cost.