Into The Wild (2007)
2008-02-01
One Man dedicates his life to a journey of self discovery, discovers that he's an idiot, and then dies. His goals were admirable, but he was really dumb about it... The good thing about the movie is that it doesn't glorify his stupidity; it clearly shows his regret. I like to think of this movie as About Schmidt Meets Garden State Meets Grizzly Man. I had a couple issues with the logic of the story, but it was based on true events, so I couldn't really fault the writing for that. I mean, there was bus there... he couldn't have been all that far from a road. The movie is one long drawn out suicide, a suicide so drawn out that the suicider had time to regret and convey his thoughts on that regret before he died.
There's one scene where the main character is talking to an apple, and then kinda grabs the camera and looks into it. It bugged me, and I'd have edited that out if I were editor on the movie. But other than that, the cinematography was quite good. The locations are very picturesque. It is very a effective film. Beautifully filmed, great cast, amazingly acted, based on a true story. Soundtrack by Eddie Vedder. Directed by Sean Penn?! And it's really good.
Some people might feel that the movie doesn't directly tell you much about the main character, but I think the way we were supposed to learn about him was through his interactions with other people, and I think if we pay attention to that, we actually learn quite a lot. Theres somewhat of a subtle thread that the sister's narration touches on about how who we are is shaped by the people around us. So we learn about the dude by his interactions with other people, and similarly we watch how meeting him and knowing him shapes those other people. As far as his motivations go, I think anyone who's ever wanted to extricate themselves from society, or has at one point found themselves disgusted with city/suburban life, will identify with large parts of this movie. Certain aspects of society made him anxious, annoyed, hateful, etc. I really identified with that.
The movie romanticizes what he tries to do, but it made me wonder: what did he regret more in those final days? The loneliness, or having eaten all those poison berries? I'm guessing a bit of both. It's sad... yes, but a great lesson to the rest of us who have the ability to learn from other people's mistakes. That is the moral that I took away from the story, don't throw your life away like this guy. Strike out, find yourself, but don't be an idiot about it. "Happiness is only real when it's shared." comes in second. 9/10
Labels: review
posted by pureevilmatt @ 20:24,
