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July 8, 2008
Over the weekend I watched Sean Penn's film adaption (2007) of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild; (1996) a non fictional account of the adventures or journey of Christopher McCandless. ' Adventures' refers to turning one's back on modern industrial civilization and living in wild nature as a modern primitive. That's freedom.
Christopher McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp, Self Portrait, 1992
This is classic Henry David Thoreau, who celebrated living alone in natural simplicity, apart from modern society in Walden. Natural simplicity here is Alaskan wilderness in winter, and Thoreau is interpreted as challenging oneself against an unforgiving wilderness landscape without map or compass, where convenience of access and possibility of rescue are practically nonexistent. It is also Hollywood's vision of the Last Frontier.
The film is scored by Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam, who contributes several original songs to the film. Vedder’s weathered voice and sparse instrumentation recall the70's country rock to enhance cinematographer Eric Gautier’s imagery of wilderness. The camera only lingers on these views for 4 or 5 seconds recall and does nothing to impart a visual vision.
There is no critical judgement made of McCandless as a flawed character by Penn, only a celebration. The 24 year old McCandless starved to death on the Magic Bus (a shelter) after accidentally poisoning himself with inedible berries. If he had a map he could have easily walked out using a bridge over the flooded waters. Penn's account of McCandless's nomadic wanderings -- from soup kitchens and train yards to the landscapes of the Grand Canyon and the Alaska Range presents only the enlightened eternal seeker, not the hapless tenderfoot.
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