First time seeing Sean Penn direct...

Rating: 7/10 (19 July 2009)

And man it was pretty good. Though, seeing the temper that Sean Penn went through as an actor, it would have probably been hell as him being the director. I'm kidding. Penn is a great and talented actor that is unarguably going to be remembered in honor of his acting.
This movie was based on a book of the same name by Jon Krakauer. Into the Wild is about a post-graduate kid named Christopher McCandless who after seeing his life being spoiled by his parents, decides to live a dream that he sees in Jack London's books: he wants to go into the wild and live there. And over the course of the whole movie, we are introduced to characters that shape McCandless's life and give him some life lessons.
I really liked all of the scenes of the Alaskan wilderness that was portrayed excellently through stunning cinematography. It was just beautiful to see the scenes and to see it through a large television. And I thought there were some great acting performances. Emile Hirsch acted brilliantly and was very persuasive with all of the scenes he was in. Also, I give a small shout out to Hal Habrook, who came at the end as Ron Franz, a grandfather figure to McCandless. I mean, a lot of actors over the years of film-making that had to act like a wise old man, but Habrook made his performance very likable and very well done.
However, the movie was not entertaining. Before trying to avoid the movie because I said that, keep reading and you will see what I mean. Into the Wild was very contemplative and it was not trying to make the wild look like a fast moving adventure with thrilling in every spot. If it were like that, then that would be entertainment. However, this movie really contemplated the surrounding areas that McCandless went through and showed his interests in those areas. In other terms, the film was slow-moving and was in no rush to get to other scenes. The movie is not meant for adventure entertainment, but more of self-reflection of the meaning of adventure, and for that, the movie deserves even more credit. I think that is what a true adventure movie should do.
My dad told me that the movie was in some parts glamorized. Thinking about it for awhile made me realize that there were glamorized scenes in this movie. Sean Penn made McCandless's adventures seem very easy and there was very few scenes of McCandless suffering the hardships of being away from home. And in order to reprimand the lack of drama, they had to put all the drama in the ending of the film. Alright, this is a spoiler, but I do not think it is one because it is pretty obvious what the ending of the movie is and it should not be a surprise to you. McCandless dies of starvation at the end of the movie and when you see his death, he did not die, he DIED. They really made his death really emotional, using flashbacks, deep music, and just scary images of death. The whole intense tragedy was either for Penn to get the producers to sign to his movie or to just show that McCandless's adventures was truly after all, not worth all the grief and it was a stupid mistake.
However, if you like adventure, then this is a movie for you. Just do not expect a re-make of Indiana Jones from this. I will give this movie a mid 7.