Amazing movie, surprisingly just as good as the book.

Rating: 10/10 (28 August 2010)

Into the Wild is one of the greatest films I have seen. The beautiful scenery, accurate details, excellent acting, combined with Eddie Vedder's contributions to the soundtrack only added to the powerful message of the movie.
The best part of the movie was how closely it paralleled the book. Krakauer's novel was so powerful and beautifully written, one would expect a movie based on the same story to fall short of it's written counterpart. Sean Penn failed to disappoint, and Emile Hirsch only contributed to the portrayal of Chris due to the fact that the two could be related they look so similar. One of my favorite parts of the movie was the scene in which Chris is having a conversation with Ron Franz and declares a valuable message: that "You are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God's place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things." This message was just as powerful in the book, and in this scene the brilliance of Sean Penn shone through. The relationships Chris built in the movie were wonderful in the fact that he seemed to distance himself from everyone, yet at the same time had an intense personal bond with people that were fundamentally strangers. My favorite encounter Chris had was meeting Ron Franz, and the lessons the two taught each other were beautiful and inspiring.
There are very, very few things I disliked about the film. One of the fundamentals of the book was the fact that seclusion such as the isolation Chris found in Alaska ultimately led to an examination of one's own soul, rather than a simple minded hatred of society. The book compares Chris to a modern Thoreau, whose journey into the wild led to not only a closeness to nature at its fullest, but a closeness to oneself and an examination of the soul. This did not come across clearly in the film, the focus was more on the adventure Chris found along the way. Although this was not a huge mistake to make, it would have been nice to see more of Chris' journals and personal ideals displayed at some point during the movie.
Though it is difficult to compare Into the Wild to another film, the strong personal ideals and adoration of the wilderness vaguely reminded me of The River Wild. Though the plots of these movies are completely different, the grandeur of the wilderness is reflected in both. Into the Wild shows a man discovering himself, while The River Wild portrays the bonds of family and the discovery of another not being who they seem, which is ultimately what Chris found to be the major flaw of today's society.
Into the Wild is a movie full of joy, adventure, sadness, beauty, nature, devastation, intense happiness, and unforgettable wisdom. A beautiful movie unlike any other.