Into The Wild (2007)

USA
written and directed by: Sean Penn
based on the book by: Jon Krakauer
starring: Emile Hirsch, Jena Malone, Hal Holbrook
seen on 6th March, 2009, commented on 19th March, 2019

It's amazing how Sean Penn makes a film about forests, nature and solitude, or all the things I love, and apparently manages to not understand any single one of these things. Also it seems as if he goes the extra mile to make the protagonist look like the most naive/arrogant nitwit imaginable. Casting Emile Hirsch does not exactly help either, because he comes off as a villain at least a little bit every time I see him in a film. And "Into the Wild" is no exception. He's got that sort of maniacal look in his eyes that's maybe suitable for this particular character, but is also preventing me from feeling any sympathy towards him or identifying with him on his journey. And I don't care how many shots of nature does mr. director try to shove into his creation if they all look like cheesy motivational postcards and not as the almighty wilderness it should be. (And we know that nature can be a distinct character of its own in a film, as a whole lot of different creators shows us: Debra Granik in "Leave No Trace", Iñárritu in "The Revenant", the Coens in "No Country For Old Men", Sheridan in "Wind River" and so on and so on.) In conclusion, me complaing about this film is basically me stating my suspicion that Sean Penn has no imagination and that Eric Gautier's camera work has no substance.

But I also tried to come up with something commendable about this film, and I've arrived to the conclusion that it was a good choice to make the narrator (if he absolutely needs the narration) be the protagonist's sister and not himself, because if it were him, the downpour of "wisdom and truths of life" would become absolutely unbearable. At least this way there is some distance and moderation in play, even if the character is still strongly emotionally invested in the story. But I don't know if this choice was made by Penn himself or if he adopted this device from Krakauer who colaborated with the actual sister extensively when writing his book.

(And damn, I cannot resist to make some remarks about the music after all. Because a well chosen soundtrack can lift a film I find subpar in other ways considerably in my eyes. And, hm, the music of "Into the Wild" does not do that. It sounds extremely monotonous to me and it does not seem to be organically connected to the story. If you scrambled the songs at random, nothing significant would change, because the music does not really translate the specific emotional nature of those specific scenes it accompanies. The climax of the film is very disturbing, divisive nad overall emotionally charged as hell, and the final song simply fails to convey that.)

P.S.: Hal Holbrook rules.