Into the Wild

"Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth."

I had a different topic planned to write about tonight, but I had the oppurtunity to go see Sean Penn's Into the Wild tonight and I wanted to really strongly recommend it to everyone. It is an incredibly gorgeous movie, great music, beautifully filmed and Emile Hersch really ought to get an Oscar for his portrayal of Christopher McCandless. Go see it- you will be happy you did.

Into the Wild is of course based on the book by John Krakeur, about the true story of this kid, recent college grad, who set off to explore the country with nothing much more then the clothes on his back. I read the book a few years ago and found it especially interesting when I learned that not only was McCandless from Northern Virginia (Reston I think), he actually graduated from Emory, with a degree in English!

Of course the similarities more or less end there, I don't have much desire to give away all my posessions and head off into the Alaskan wilderness, but certain aspects of this film really hit home for me tonight. When I saw the scenes filmed at Emory it really drove home that McCandless was just a regular kid. He ended up doing some extraordinary things- but he could of been any guy I'd known at school. And, like me, he seemed to think his crazy post-graduate adventures were temporary. He was doing everything he could to postpone what feels like the inevitable landslide into conformity and monotony. When he set out into the wild, he thought that was just a stop on his journey- that he would be coming back out again. Obviously I can't really compare swinging around London with hauling fresh water and shooting at moose, but for me it was just a reminder that even now, in this gap year, actions still have repercussions and you never know when the course of your life might change in unexpected ways.