Into the Wild

Into the Wild is writer/director Sean Penn's adaptation of the popular book by Jon Krakauer, a nonfiction account of the post-collegiate wanderings of a young Virginia man, who divorces himself from his friends, family, and possessions in search of a greater spiritual knowledge and communion with ...more

The Sean Penn-directed Into The Wild takes a bit of a jaundiced look at that not-so-tragic death of real-life traveling tramp Christopher McCandless. "> Emile Hirschtakes on the role of McCandless, playing the character with wide-eyed scruffiness. The film, based on author Jon Krakauer's popular book about McCandless's fatal Alaskan adventure, where he planned to live off the land, works desperately to paint McCandless in a sympathetic light. That directorial choice to portray the character in ...more

In Christopher McCandless, director Sean Penn has found a character that speaks to his own quest to find meaning in life. Instead of focusing on characters that are spiritually dead, as he did in his first three films, Penn gets to tell the story of a young man who is absolutely spiritually alive, and this spurs Penn the director onto a level of empathy equal to that of Penn the actor. One need not share McCandless' goals in order to appreciate Penn's movie -- this film is far from an ...more