Into the Wild Two Viewpoints

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Into The Wild

Two Viewpoints

Into The Wild is the story of a young man Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) who is trying to break away from the norm’s of society and the overbearing influence that his parents try to have in his life. Christopher graduates from Emory University and has the grades to go to adventure of a lifetime, tramping his was across the western United States with the final goal of his adventure, living alone in the wild of Alaska. Critics Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times and Mike LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle both agree that this is one of the “cant miss” movies of 2007, they also have different views on what makes this movie as Mike LaSalle says he imagines deciding that this is “a masterpiece in a month’s time.”

Ebert and LaSalle are in agreement on several aspects of Into the Wild, these are just a few of the details where they share the same opinion. Director Sean Penn did an amazing job as the director of this movie and also in relaying John Krakauer’s book into the movie that we see portrayed on screen. Krakauer in writing and doing the research for his book went through the painstaking process of tracking down the various people that came into contact with McCandless during his adventure. The most touching of the characters McCandless comes into contact with is Ron (Hal Holbrook) who is and elderly man that meets Chris at a gas station and takes him into his life and treats him as if he was a part of his family. This role played by Holbrook earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Academy Awards for 2007.

The Critics heap praises in their reviews of Into the Wild, they don’t disagree on the overall aspect of the movie as they agree that this is truly one of the best films of the year. While Ebert has nothing negative to say about the movie in his review, LaSalle says that the original

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music of Eddie Vedder distracts from the visual aspect of the movie. He also thinks that the movie is a little to upbeat to be true, thinking that McCandless could not of been the person portrayed on the screen. LaSalle believes that he was more of a troublemaker and that people wouldn’t have reacted with McCandless they way that they did welcoming them into their homes and lives so easily.

Throughout their reviews the critics focus on the different aspects that they believe make the movie and which they want to highlight. LaSalle’s focus is on the screenplay that Penn was able to work with a story that could have been long and boring and was able to focus on the highlights of the journey taking place on the screen. While doing such a good job of keeping the story interesting Penn was still able to get us to admire McCandless for the journey that he is taking and the reasons behind why he left behind everything that he had in life. LaSalle also describes the visual the visual aspects throughout the movie with the stunning scenery that surrounds McCandless from the wilds of Alaska to his time spent in the southwest United States, the setting of many of the scenes of this movie are truly the highlights in the film.

Ebert’s focus on his review gives more of a back story into the life of McCandless telling more of the details that go on in Chris’s life in the movie. This allows some of the readers that haven’t read Krakauer’s book