Into The Wild(John)

When watching movies, I tend to enjoy movies that make me feel emotion. If I can connect with the characters and the adventures they have, I generally think I just watched a good movie. Into The Wild was an exception to this rule. I liked the movie, but I felt so aggravated throughout the whole movie, that I was not able to connect with the characters(well one character in particular).

The acting was very good. I can see why Hal Holbrook was nominated for Best Supporting Actor the year this came out. He was very convincing and I felt disappointed that he was in so little of the film. Emile Hirsch played his part well. Seeing his transformation from being brought up in a privileged home to living out in the Alaskan wilds was truly amazing. I am always in awe when I see actors put so much into their roles. This was actually an all star movie. Hal Holbrook, Kristen Stewart, Emile Hirsch, Kathryn Keener, Zach Galafanakis and Vince Vaughn all starred in the movie and they were all pretty good.

I know this is a true story, so I will give my thoughts on the story and then say some things about how I felt during the movie. Normally I wouldn't delve outside the standard review, but I feel like this will help people understand my review better.

The story was told very well. I was drawn to the screen the whole time. This boy's journey was truly epic. To travel from Atlanta, GA all the way up to Alaska over a span of two years is quite a feat to say the least. This may be weird to say, but I kinda got a Neverending Story vibe from the movie. This boy is on a journey and along the way, he meets people who eventually become his friends and they help him complete his journey. I guess really, this movie was like any other adventure movie but I was thinking Neverending Story a lot.

Now, here's why I was aggravated. This boy thought that he had to travel all the way to Alaska with no money and no car. On top of that, he couldn't tell his parents(or his sister, whom he seemed genuinely fond of at the beginning) where he was going. In order to experience freedom, he had to do these things. My question is, why? How would picking up the phone and calling his sister take away from his experience of freedom? It's not like he didn't want help because he sure got a lot of it along the way. This was like a whole level above being your typical hippie. Even the hippies in the movie didn't really agree with what he was doing. Why could he not just face his problems head on and experience life? Everybody has problems, but true freedom-I think-is being able to tackle those problems and come out on the other side. Obviously, Chris didn't feel this way and, I guess, to each their own.

The music was amazing. Eddie Vedder provides most of the music in the film. He has never sounded better. Vedder has such a unique voice and it really complimented the movie. Most of it was just his voice with some guitar accompaniment, but that was enough.

I hope this didn't come across as negative. I thought the movie was good and the fact that I felt so much when the movie ended reflects that. This is a really solid movie and it should not be missed. Maybe you will agree with what the main character does, maybe you won't. But, either way, you will probably feel something.

I'll give it a 8.0 out of 10.

- John Murphy