In Sean Penn's first three helmed efforts - The Indian Runner (1991), The Crossing Guard (1995), and The Pledge (2001) - each project seemed to advance upon each other - improving in the areas of pace, visual treatment and encapsulation and expression of subtext. My anticipation to view Into the Wild was skyrocketing upon first hearing of the production. This was especially true as, later, a good friend, (who sees over 150 films a year in theatres), stated that it was the best he had seen in 2007. Now that I have had the opportunity to view it (three times!) I enthusiastically agree (and yes, I have seen There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men). Into the Wild is up for Academy Award accolades in Best Achievement in Editing and Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Hal Holbrook). The fact that it was not nominated for Best Picture or Penn for Best Director is only further proof at how ridiculously unremarkable achieving that statuette has become. It has evolved itself to be as worthless and meaningless as a Grammy. Just another 'celebrity' glad-handing ceremony of pomposity and flashy hollowness.

Into the Wild is based on the best-selling, true story, book by Jon Krakauer. Its highest achieving ideal in the film is how faithfully it expresses the meaning of the protagonist's adventure - reaffirming a spirit of dropping out, lack of caution, and escaping from the dissatisfaction of society's goals and selfish aims. Hippie-esq indeed. Christopher McCandless (aka Alexander Supertramp) is played with quiet zeal by Emile Hirsch - who was recently touted as being 'one of the futures of American acting'. This is a visually appealing road-picture with frequent flashbacks and unique montages explaining McCandless' motivations. It is delivered on screen with detailed precision by Penn.

McCandless' Thoreau-inducing optimism will grate on some - too bad. Critics who see his 'distancing' as unprepared and foolish don't seem to realize that his trek, ending at an abandoned bus outside Alaska’s Denali National Park, was not as much escapism to a 'self-imposed' exile, but as a rebirth... which could only be fully achieved by death. I see his whole dice-rolling adventure as a full-circle  suicide attempt that should have been obvious from episodes like kayaking down the rapids and giving all his money to charity. This is regardless of his diary indicating desperate, although feudal, attempts to survive in the end.  As an highly intelligent product of society and the US College education system (McCandless achieved the grades for Harvard Law), stemming from a wealthy - albeit deeply troubled family existence - McCandless should be as big a warning sign as the latest school shooting massacre. Perhaps a precursor to the mindless instilling of surface values - that we, as a societal whole, just can't seem to take ANYMORE.

Penn's defining vision through all this is a most profound statement on modernity, lack of communication and our inability to express honest love. His manner in showcasing the underlying themes of Into the Wild  truly evokes another masterful filmmaker and his similar dissertations on alienation in the modern world - the recently deceased Michelangelo Antonioni. This film is that good folks... and I give it my highest recommendation. out of

Gary Tooze