Looks like as if I am going to write my second post today! Truly shocking! Anyway, there is a good reason for this outburst of creativity: To discipline my feeding frenzy in the evenings, I am going to go to the movies every evening this week! That way, I stay away from my fridge and get to catch some flix that seem very much worth watching!

So, tonight I kicked off with “Into The Wild”. Sean Penn directs an adaption of Jon Krakauer’s book with the same title about the life of Christopher McCandless: After graduating from college, Chris severes his ties with his hitherto life, abandoning his family, most of his possessions, and his prospects of an ordinary life, to embrace his own version of Thoreau’s Walden project. After being two years on the road, criss crossing the US, he ends up in Alaska, spending there the last four months of his life before he dies of starvation.

Chris’ journey from his childhood home to a bus wreck made shelter in the Alaskan wilderness is twofold: There is his own quest; and there is him touching the lifes of the people he meets on the road. These two apsects are interlinked by the very philosphy that drives Chris:

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”
— Henry David Thoreau

However, I think that this is also the source of the tragedy in his story. As much as his search for truth and profoundness changes the people he meets, he does not seem to find his answers till the very end. Always on the edge of being driven away from or compelled towards something, his journey outward is an adventure to uncover his inner self. And it is in the solitude and the bitter fight for his own life that he seems to find the truth about himself.

What I liked most about the movie is that it withhelds (almost) any kind of judgement on the characters. Certainly, we get to know Chris’ family through his and his sister’s eyes, a view that passes a strong judgement on their parents. And there is the scene in Los Angeles, where Chris watches the rich and beautiful hanging out in a bar, underlining the contempt he has for their life style. Besides that the camera remains neutral: we don’t have to choose between Chris the hero or Chris the fool nor do we have to understand his choices. It is up to each viewer himself if Chris’ outlook on life does reflect on his. And that, in my opinion, makes this a great movie…