The saying, "The book is always better than the movie," has become an axiom that is as widely accepted as the theory of evolution. But Sean Penn's latest endeavor as a writer-director, "Into the Wild," attempts to dodge this comparison by making a film that is quite different in spirit and in feel from the book.
"Into the Wild" is based on Jon Krakauer's nonfictional memoir of Christopher McCandless, a college graduate who tries to find the meaning of life in his exploration of the natural world, but eventually finds death alone in the Alaskan wilderness.
While the story of McCandless is inherently a tragic one, Penn's portrayal of the young man's life is more glorifying than it is lamenting. Penn ambitiously transforms the solemn documentary of McCandless's life found in Krakauer's book into an epic story of adventure in the wild and on the road.
If Krakauer's book were to be literally adapted to the big screen, it would have turned out to be something similar to Werner Herzog's documentary, "The Grizzly Man." But Penn has created something closer to Jack Kerouac's novel, "On the Road," in his retelling of the story of Christopher McCandless. The result is an enjoyable film that is quite different from the book, but is it better?
The movie begins with McCandless (Emile Hirsch, "The Lords of Dogtown") setting out into the Alaskan wilderness with the bare essentials for survival: a .22-caliber rifle, a sleeping bag and a bag of rice. Just as McCandless finds the abandoned bus where he would spend the last few months of his life, Penn brings the story back to the beginning of McCandless's adventures: his college graduation and initial departure from the conventions of American society.
McCandless sets out on an ascetic voyage across the Great American West in the spirit of his transcendental idols, Thoreau and Emerson. He donates all his savings, burns his cash and ID, and abandons his car. He assumes the moniker Alexander Supertramp, severs all communication with his parents (William Hurt, "A History of Violence" and Marcia Gay Harden, "Mystic River") and his sister (Jena Malone, "Cold Mountain"), and begins hitchhiking, kayaking and exploring the American wilderness.
The road and the wild become his refuge from his troubled relationship with his parents and from the depravity he sees in contemporary American society.
The film's director of photography, Eric Gautier, effectively captures and conveys the beauty McCandless finds in the natural world. Gautier alluringly illuminates the majestic wilderness McCandless travels through: the deserts and canyons of the Southwest, the great forests of the Northwest, the wheat fields of the Great Plains.
The movie is indeed quite stunning in its cinematography, but perhaps less so in its narration. Penn shifts the telling of McCandless's story back and forth from his last months in the Alaskan wilderness to his prior travels in and around the United States. He employs voiceover narration, clichéd slow motion montages, excerpts from McCandless's journal, and chapter headings to transition through the time lapses. In doing so, Penn's retelling of McCandless's life seems at times clumsy and unfocused, using these gimmicks in place of structural coherence or natural transition.
Hirsch is well-versed in playing the alienated adolescent. But his acting and Penn's writing, at times, make the character of McCandless seem obnoxiously pompous and preachy.
Penn attempts to transfigure McCandless in "Into the Wild," portraying the romanticized version of a young man striving for freedom and self-discovery in nature. Through this, Penn loses touch with elements of McCandless's personality that are quite relevant to his story. The movie makes the true story of Christopher McCandless seem fictionalized and formatted for Hollywood.
The movie has a great spirit of adventure and emancipation that is quite contagious, but it fails to fully develop the poignancy of the book. "Into the Wild" is, all and all, an enjoyable film, but once again, the book is better than the movie.
3 out of 5 stars
