Into the Wild

Jessica Leonard

9/23/14

ENGH101 – Cox

ITW Film Review/Analysis

Chasing His Downhill Journey

When a movie like Into the Wild comes along, it makes the hairs on your neck stand up in suspense, but at the same time is filled of sorrow and brings tears to your eyes. The young protagonist, Christopher Johnson McCandless, was displayed as a rebellious and daring kid with just one goal, going to Alaska. In the film, Sean Penn did a great job of presenting all of the physical landscapes and features of Alaska, but what Sean Penn excelled best at was his judgment calls that made the movie differ slightly from the literary piece. He chose to show the movie in chronological order, rather than how the book was written. When it comes down to it, Sean Penn displayed McCandless’ life with a positive message and made his character someone viewers would admire. Sean Penn directed the film as whole, by showing good and positive angles of McCandless, while Krakauer made the readers feel that McCandless had many flaws and was a bad person in general. The cinematography of the movie as a whole gave it more flavor by shooting scenes at different angles and points of view. The distance between the camera and the characters allowed the viewers to get a broader view and capture a sense of the beautiful landscapes.

The scene that especially grabs the attention and emotion of its viewers is when, Christopher McCandless, realizes that “happiness is only real when shared.” At that moment he understands the mistakes he has made along his journey and that he can’t do anything about it now, because it’s too late. Although McCandless took this journey to view a new perspective of the world, he also had intentions of striving to find his passion.

When comparing the book to the film, there is one particular scene that serves a good example of McCandless’ lack of material desires that is demonstrated in both. The scene where McCandless’ parents try to convince him to get a new car,...