Review of Into the Wild (2007) by Allen G — 23 Feb 2014

This is a personal favourite of mine, and well-done from the shooting to the soundtrack. Call it hero-worship or something or other but let's view this as a film- you can criticise the character in the film all you like and that should be part of the experience but I feel that, since this is based on a real person, many critics have fixated on that and allowed it to skew how they view the film- this doesn't need to be seen as a tribute to anyone. It's a film where a man rightly or wrongly embarks on a tremendously dangerous and exciting journey. This film documents that journey and its impact with great emotional depth and the end result is charming, touching, thought-provoking, and everything else you could ask for in a film. I accept that this one is maybe more for the introverts if I can make such crass generalisations but it has to be said that Penn outdid himself here whether it's your cup of emotional drama or not. Maybe it's a love or hate thing, Marmite or something, I dunno but I'm certainly on the love side.

It's not without its faults though- I've already explained why I take issue with many of the criticisms of this film that are based around its treatment of the protagonist but that doesn't mean that I don't think such things could have been avoided. There does seem to be a lack of depth to the events outside of McCandless' life and his own head and, while his experience was a solitary one, the viewer might be left wishing for a little more than they're shown here. It's hard to cover a person's life without the film simply becoming that person though so it's hard to say how much of a fault that really is. Regardless, it does what it sees on the tin and it does it well.