Into the Wild – Blu-ray Review

Sean Penn adapted Jon Krakauer's best-seller based on the real-life adventures of Christopher McCandless, a upper middle-class college grad who had enough of life as he was expected to live it and set off completely on his own for 'ultimate freedom'. An utterly beguiling, ambitious piece of filmmaking, this great film now gets a gorgeous Blu-ray release.

‘Into the Wild’ is Easily Sean Penn's best film after good, if sometimes overwrought dramas 'The Indian Runner', 'The Crossing Guard' and 'The Pledge' - the latter two made with bud Jack Nicholson. All of those films showed promise for what was to come and Penn finally delivered a knockout on all levels. Penn was enchanted by the novel and made moves to tell the story when the book came out years ago, but Christopher's parents refused and Penn stewed on the story for 10 years. The parents finally thought enough time had passed and gave him a call to say they were ready to see his life told and Penn immediately went to work.

While there's definitely room for personal interpretation, it's clear that Penn allied himself with the protagonist and found plenty to respect in Christopher's motives and actions whereas the book presented a slightly more questionable viewpoint - i.e. well-off whitey self-righteousness who harbored unnecessary (mostly) resentment towards his parents. Like 'Grizzly Man' (a Werner Herzog doc that tells another tale of ideals and passion powering past borderline stupidity), regardless of what thoughts you form on the protag, there's little doubt that they inspired a fascinating tale. Emile Hirsch plays 22-year old McCandless who graduated from Emory University in 1990. During a congratulatory dinner with parents (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden) and his sister Carine (Jena Malone), talk turns to his parents wanting to buy him a new car (gasp!) and he realizes just how far he wants to get from everyday existence. Without telling anybody, he gives the rest of his college fund, $24,000, to charity and takes off in his old Datsun across the country. It’s unclear what his original motivations were but when a flash flood deprives him of his vehicle in Arizona, he shrugs his shoulders and takes off on a two-year adventure. His parents contact authorities and hire a private detective, but Christopher, taking the name of 'Alexander Supertramp', had no desire to be found. He kept on the move, hitchhiking, taking odd jobs and enjoying his lyrical way of life with just a backpack containing a tent and key literary works from Thoreau, Jack London and Tolstoy. His ultimate goal was to get to Alaska to live a 'great adventure', something he eventually fulfilled with tragic consequences. The film cuts back and forth between his many months with the 'magic bus' in Alaska and his various vignettes on the way with people he met varying from a poetic middle-aged hippie couple (Catherine Keener and Brian Dieker), a blue collar farmer from South Dakota (Vince Vaughn), a young singer (Kristen Stewart) and most effectively of all, a retired widower (Hal Holbrook) whose short time together led to him genuinely wanting to adopt Christopher (Holbrook scored an Supporting Actor Oscar nom for his few minutes). Hirsch, who had strong early work in 'Alpha Dog' and 'Lords of Dogtown' and who went on to play the titular 'Speed Racer', does a great job with such a formidable role that has to have the swagger and gumption of an idealistic man-child but still be relatable and sympathetic. All other roles are also cast and drawn well with minor supporting characters such as Kierker and Holbrook being particularly memorable.

The film only falters in flashback and parallel stories that deal with the parents where flashbacks ineffectively try to give cause to Christopher's motivations. Despite solid thesping talent in the form of Hurt and Harden, these scenes should have either been bulked up or dropped all together. Shot in as many locations as Christopher visited, Eric Gautier's scope cinematography is outstanding and serves as that rare reminder that there's still an America out there that could be blissfully explored without breathing a lungful of smog or hearing the honk of a horn. New songs by Eddie Vedder perfectly complement an acoustic rock score. An outstanding 2.35:1 VC1 1080p encode, grand locations across western America and Alaska are put to great use with sharp detail and perfect colors with just some light grain to provide the right amount of texture. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track is crystal clear and does a nice job with the songs and rare surround opportunities. Special Features consist of two featurettes: 'Into the Wild: The Story, The Characters' is over twenty minutes long and looks at the background behind the film and provides nice behind-the-scenes and interviews with footage of Christopher's real-life parents hanging on set. 'Into the Wild: The Experience' delves more into the making of the film itself with more behind-the-scenes and interviews - we learn that Emile Hirsh dropped down to dangerously thin 115 pounds for the Alaskan starving climax. One of my favorite films of last year with great performances, music and cinematography, a few pundits whine that the protag is obnoxious and threw his life away for undeveloped and childish ideals - didn't want to face reality - but that's all beside the point as it's still a story worthy to be told. The Blu-ray specs are great if special features are slightly underwhelming; definitely worth a look for newbies and previous DVD owners alike (mail-in $10 rebate for previous DVD owners).