Editor Reviews:

Description:
This is the true story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch). Freshly graduated from college with a promising future ahead, McCandless instead walked out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of adventure. What happened to him on the way transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for countless people -- a fearless risk-taker who wrestled with the precarious balance between man and nature.

Amazon.com:
A superb cast and an even-handed treatment of a true story buoy Into the Wild, Sean Penn's screen adaptation of Jon Krakauer's bestselling book. Emile Hirsch stars as Christopher McCandless, scion of a prosperous but troubled family who, after graduating from Atlanta's Emory University in the early 1990s, decides to chuck it all and become a self-styled "aesthetic voyager" in search of "ultimate freedom." He certainly doesn't do it halfway: after donating his substantial savings account to charity and literally torching the rest of his cash, McCandless changes his name (to "Alexander Supertramp"), abandons his family (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden as his bickering, clueless parents and Jena Malone as his baffled but loving sister, who relates much of the backstory in voice-over), and hits the road, bound for the Alaskan bush and determined not to be found. For the next two years he lives the life of a vagabond, working a few odd jobs, kayaking through the Grand Canyon into Mexico, landing on L.A.'s Skid Row, and turning his back on everyone who tried to befriends him (including Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker as two kindly, middle-aged hippies and Hal Holbrook in a deeply affecting performance as an old widower who tries to take "Alex" under his wing). Penn, who directed and wrote the screenplay, alternates these interludes with scenes depicting McCandless' Alaskan idyll--which soon turns out be not so idyllic after all. Settling into an abandoned school bus, he manages to sustain himself for a while, shooting small game (and one very large moose), reading, and recording his existential musings on paper. But when the harsh realities of life in the wilderness set in, our boy finds himself well out of his depth, not just ill-prepared for the rigors of day to day survival but realizing the importance of the very thing he wanted to escape--namely, human relationships. It'd be easy to either idealize McCandless as a genuinely free spirit, unencumbered by the societal strictures that tie the rest of us down, or else dismiss him as a hopelessly callow naïf, a fool whose disdain for practical realities ultimately doomed him. Into the Wild does neither, for the most part telling the tale with an admirable lack of cheap sentiment and leaving us to decide for ourselves. --Sam Graham

Rating : - Paging Paul Harvey ... for the rest of the story!
First, I'll get my admitted bias out of the way: Whenever 'Hollywood' gets a hold of something that is hawked as "based on true events", this should be a huge red flag to viewers that they should make it their business to research the alleged "based on true events" in order to separate the Hollywood tendency to engage in both directorial "creative license" and "for the sake of the plot" alterations. Unfortunately, there are folks who see the proverbial 'Silver Screen' [or book [Jon Krakauer] for that matter] version of the alleged "facts" and that's the end of it.

So too, there is in this particular case both in the book and in the subsequent movie to 'romanticize' Chris McCandless and that his eventual death by starvation, yes, I said 'starvation' and not plant poisoning, and his venturing into the wilderness only to die there was somehow a "noble cause" [!] and, what then, worthy of emulation?

Take the time to read the autopsy report and the additional [which later morphed to 'moldy seeds' which purportedly prevents the digestion process and hence 'kills over time'] when the plant poisoning per se could not be scientifically supported [after analysis] and note the differences in the plant 'culprit' between the book and the movie] with regard to the alleged death via accidental plant poisoning. Some even suggest it was on purpose for the, and I quote now, "ultimate self-sacrifice statement" [sic]! Look at the list of those things found in Chris's possession when he was found dead in the bus by moose hunters 'including' a map and including, inter alia, money found in a compartment of his pack. And while some may actually 'relate' to previous wordage from McCandless where his parents were relegated by him as "idiots" [sic], it remains interesting that his otherwise close sibling relationship to his sister finds her written off for two years as well ... along with the rest of society in general save for those who could assist Chris in his singular quest for both Thoreau-like isolation and Jack London type wilderness living albeit in a most unforgiving environment. And no prior experience in such endeavors.

There is a DVD out by Ron Lamothe [Terra Incognita Films -- see their website and read the Krakauer book rebuttal piece] based on a Chris McCandless documentary and decidedly worth a look. It's called "The Call of the Wild." Hence my Paul Harvey analogy and "the rest of the story." So too, there are countless essays on the matter but various of which offer 'documented' input [versus conjecture] that was not incorporated into the Jon Krakauer book nor the subsequent 2007 Sean Penn film nor corrected therein [although Krakauer 'modified' his view on the plant poisoning to a matter of inherently poisonous 'moldy seeds'] when the 'rest of the story' was related. There have also been essays with regard to psychological/psychiatric issues and worth reading. Interesting here too when such 'mental' facility issues are discussed at various and sundry websites with regard to the actions of Chris McCandless, there is almost always various voices 'countering' such psychological/psychiatric speculation and protracted discussion as "pure hogwash" [sic] via the old chestnut defense of "medicalizing dissent" as if to suggest that McCandless actions were perfectly normal and "entirely sane" and "happen all the time" ...]. What may also amaze readers is the myriad of websites out there where everything from Alaska folks 'per se' are supposedly "all anti-McCandless haters by nature" [! -- sic] or "Society 'is' sick, overly materialistic and evil [...] Chris did what he had to do!" [! -- sic] but then as more than a few wags put it, "... when you abandon your family, your car, your friends and you give away all your money [$24,000 grad school savings] and burn the rest on hand and head for the wilderness for which you are totally ill prepared to deal with and survive in the process .. this is not so much an attempt to 'find yourself', as much as a matter of already being quite lost!"

Read 'the rest of the story' -- it's out there and if 'only' to get a balance between the book and the movie. Then, well, you make the call but a call in 'addition' to the book/movie version of the events.

So why the 3 stars in my review, you ask? Fair question: The movie was very well acted! I think Emile Hirsch gave a great performance as did the supporting cast. It's the 'facts' however of the "based on true events" that account for the missing stars. As I said a la Paul Harvey, 'the rest of the story.' Check it out!

Doc Tony