Will give you an epiphany

Rating: 9/10 (25 August 2014)

Sean Penn's adaption of the non-fiction bestseller "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer begins with an unhappy and unstable family. Affected by a gloomy environment at his home, Christopher McCandless, a young and bright 20-year old college graduate with a promising future ahead sets out in the search of a spiritual pilgrimage leaving behind all his possessions and the materialistic rat race. He also donates a huge amount of 24000$ Law School fund to Oxfam.
He travels like there is no end to his journey, he first drives west, and then north into the Alaskan wilderness. He sees himself not as homeless but as a person liberated from homes. He denies himself of all pleasure except subsistence. Emile Hirsch has given a remarkable performance as the young and candid McCandless. Being an uncompromising idealist, he once quotes in the movie - "rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth." It is a serious and a personal movie which at times enthralls the audience with the spectacular captures of the nature and at other times drives you to introspect about what is more important , nature or humanity. McCandless' journey of youthful wandering, taking transient jobs, hitch-hiking becomes an exciting voyage of self discovery. He somewhere quotes in the movie - "My life was more exciting when I was penniless." He renamed himself as Supertramp because he feels so. His passion for the natural world and the fierce need of solitude drove him a long way and gave him the strength to stumble across all the dangers on the road to joy.
After two years, McCandless was found dead in the Alaskan backwoods in an abandoned bus he was using as an encampment. The last weeks of his life were spent reading books by Tolstoy. The solitary act of spending hours after hours reading the book is a point of interest in the film. Sean Penn has very beautifully not let out a suicidal character of McCandless, rather he has shown him as a victorious and an independent person. The movies comes along with a food for thought for the audience to think what has to be on a higher priority, humanity or nature.