Opinion of Christopher McCandless seems to be split amongst two different camps: those that consider him a tragic hero who rebelled against modern imposed expectations and those who thought he was a promising young man that threw his life away to become a grizzly man in the Alaska wilds. The answer to which of those McCandless really is may be harder to determint than you think when you see Into the Wild. Simply put, it is one of the finest movies of the year in my humble opinion, witnessing McCandless (as portrayed by Emile Hirsch) go from ecstasy to agony while living off the road is one of the best cinematic journeys you can take.



McCandless was a real man, who after graduating Emory University gave his life savings to charity and took off for a life off the grid. He travelled the countryside from the east to the southwest and on into Mexico, back up through the western US and on into Alaska. Along the way, he makes friends with a variety of characters as he goes, changing lives and learning the way salt of the Earth people live. He makes his way to the Middle of nowhere Alaska where he lives off the land in an abandoned bus. The question that dogs the film though is whether McCandless is running to or from something.



The onus was on Hirsch to deliver a tour de force performance and he does not disappoint, probably because of the input from director Sean Penn. So many of Hirsch scenes require him to carry himself; solitude can be a difficult thing for an actor to pull off occasionally. Hirsch does a really good job of portraying the initial elation that McCandless feels out on his own, separated from the trappings of modern life.



The final act is a symphony of emotion. It’s no secret McCandless’ fate; he died after mistakenly eating a poisonous plant, but the way that Penn and Hirsch construct the scene is a thing of beauty. It’s like watching the character go through the five stages of grief for his own life; denial that he ate the wrong plant, anger over his mistake, right down to acceptance of his fate as he lies down in the bus to await death.



I did find some things in the film problematic though. For one thing the portrayal of McCandless’ parents by William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden was very two dimensional, any reasonable person would do the exact same thing as Chris and run far, far away. If the parents were treated a little more fair handed, McCandless’ choices would be a little for compelling and nuanced. Also, I think that the movie tends to skewer a little to the romantic about the idea of the open road. Everybody you meet is great and compassionate, nobody’s even a little off or potentially dangerous. Maybe I’m just cynical, but I don’t think that that’s the way the world works.



Still though, these are kind of slight complaints didn’t overrule my enjoyment of the movie. It’s got great scenery thanks to the beautiful camerawork of Eric Gautier, it’s got great songs by Eddie Vedder that really captures the spirit of the road and it’s got a really great actor at the centre of everything. It’s a wonderful movie about the triumph of the human spirit, about the value in confronting the world head-on without guilt and without remorse. We should all be so lucky to live like McCandless and take lessons from his example. Only, I don’t think anybody will be moving into the middle of the woods in order to do it – indoor plumbing’s just too good.