Worth it for Holbrook's cameo alone

Rating: 7/10 (14 April 2020)

There are two types of people in the world. Those that would watch 'Into the Wild' and admire 'Chris' for living out his dream, and those that would watch 'Into the Wild' and see his actions as reckless, selfish and pointless. I fell more into the latter camp. I understand the burning desire some people have to do similar things to this, however as much as you may hate your family it is pretty cruel to intentionally put them in such a position. This is a good movie but I think it is based around flawed logic.
I'd been meaning to see this film for nearly 13 years now. I always wondered how they had managed to spread the story of a man going into the Alaskan wilderness by himself into a two and a half hour movie. What I hadn't realised is that very little of the film is actually spent in Alaska. It is more about his journey to get there. Along the way he meets countless people who influence him in one way or another. This was probably my favourite part of the film. Seeing each little interaction and how it affected him. The final one with 'Ron' (played excellently by the Oscar nominated Hal Holbrook) was by far my favourite aspect of the film.
The things that kept me from flat out loving this movie were probably the runtime being about 30 minutes too long, a feeling of the story drifting on occasion and also a lack of drama or tension for extended periods of the runtime. Whether you see this as an inspirational film, or simply an interesting adventure that a man once took, I think everyone will be able to get something out of this film.