Into the Wild (2007)

Into the Wild: Directed by Sean Penn. With Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone. After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.

“For a movie to be even better than a good book is no small feat. Yet, thatu0026#39;s how I felt after watching this film. It really impressed me. One of the reasons is the fantastic cinematography. Man, this is a beautifully filmed and, at 142 minutes, there are a lot of great scenes to admire.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSean Penn directed and Eddie Gautier was the Director Of Photography. I canu0026#39;t stand Penn as a person but fair-is-fair and I think heu0026#39;s great as a director, having seen his work in u0026quot;The Pledgeu0026quot; and u0026quot;The Crossing Guard.u0026quot; The main actor, Emile Hirsch, who plays u0026quot;Chris McCandlessu0026quot; (a.k.a. u0026quot;Alexander Supertrampu0026quot; reminded me of Leonardo DiCaprio with his looks, build and voice inflection. He is very credible as the young guy who wants nothing to do with materialistic society and dreams of living in the wilds of Alaska. The problem was that he was unprepared and underestimated what he was up against.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTwo people who fascinated me the most in here were two extremes, age-wise – Hal Holbrook and Kristen Stewart. It was really great to see the veteran Holbrook (u0026quot;Ron Franceu0026quot;) again. He was about 82 when he made this film and hadnu0026#39;t acted in a film in a few years. He was terrific, too. He had some of the most memorable scenes in the story. Meanwhile, teenager Stewart was captivating as u0026quot;Tracy Tatro,u0026quot; who had a crush on u0026quot;Alex.u0026quot; This young woman is on her way to stardom.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBrian Dierker and Catherine Keener also were really, really interesting as the aging hippie couple, u0026quot;Raineyu0026quot; and u0026quot;Jan.u0026quot; I kept thinking, I know this guy when listening to Dierkeru0026#39;s voice, finally guessing it was Jeff Bridges underneath all the beard….but it Dierker, a guy who rarely acts in films.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eKnowing the book, the only part of the film that caught be off-guard was the young Swedish couple. I donu0026#39;t remember them in the book but Iu0026#39;ll never forget this in this film!! One could debate the pros and cons of Chris McCandless for hours, so no sense going into that here. I thought the film was pretty kind to him. You read more in the book about how he hurt a lot of people with his silence. Either way, itu0026#39;s a a fascinating story and a beautiful film.”