Into the Wild

Movies based on true stories are usually good movies, though I do tend to ruin the story when I look it up on the Internet beforehand or while I'm watching the movie.

Into the Wild, not to be confused with The Wild cartoon of a couple years ago, is about a young man named Christopher McCandless played by Emile Hirsch (who will be staring as Speed Racer in the new Speed Racer movie) who graduates from college, but has a disdain for societal life. His parents are all about the money and the appearances. This is typical of most Americans. We're about as deep as a puddle.

McCandless is offered membership to the elite Phi Beta Kappa honors society, but refuses it because honors and titles are irrelevant. When he graduates from college, he gets rid of his possessions, donates the remainder of his college fund to charity, and heads west in his trusty Datsun without telling anyone. His ultimate plan is to make it to Alaska and live off of the land.

On the way he meets some strange, but interesting characters. He gets caught up with some hippies, one of whom he starts to develop strong feelings, though she is old enough to be his mother. He skips across country and ends up in South Dakota for a while where he meets Vince Vaughan. Rather than playing dodge ball, McCandless works in a grain mill until Vaughan gets arrested.

Before getting to Alaska, McCandless spends some time in the dessert near a nudist colony and he meets Ron Franz (Hal Holbrook), who, fortunately, is not a nudist. Chris and Mr. Franz become good friends with good reason. You'll have to watch the movie to find out why.

Unfortunately for their relationship, McCandless moves on and heads to Alaska. When he gets there, he finds an old abandoned school bus that was probably used by hunters. He's elated at first by the beauty of the land and being one with nature. However, reality begins to settle in and things aren't as easy as he thought they would be. I'm not sure why. Perhaps college graduates with no food or money or any outdoors training aren't qualified to live in Alaska, one of the harshest places in North America? That's just my guess.

The movie also stars William Hurt as Chris' dad, Marcia Gay Harden as his mother, a very nice looking Jena Malone as his sister and the narrator, Catherine Keener as the hippy woman (40 Year Old Virgin), and Signe Egholm Olsen, who is topless for the entire movie.

Anyway, this is a good movie. It's directed by Sean Penn, if you can believe that. The movie is long - it's 2 1/2 hours in length. However, the movie keeps you interested and the interactions that he has with people are stimulating. I give this movie 4 stars.