Into the Wild...

...a wonderful new film, based on the book below and directed by Sean Penn, about the life and death of a young man (Christopher McCandless) who turns his back on society to become a latter day Jack Kerouac follower. A must see movie for the soundtrack alone (preview it here) mainly written and sung by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, and a cameo appearance by the great William Hurt. Strings of accolades/awards and deserving of most of its praise. Most, I think, not all...because I suspect that the media glitterati are in total homage to Sean Penn, (he is so vociferous over his opposition to GWB).

The 5 star plus movies Into the Wild and Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog) and now Into the Blue (all issued in the last 2 years), are setting benchmark parameters for a new genre - that is - man alone/man goes mad/man dies. Each of the forenamed are spectacular and demand attention - because they're real. Penn's effort is perhaps the least authentic because we know that embellishments to the characters and circumstances must have been made. Nevertheless, the music, the cinematography and the final acknowledgements to the family involved, and the smiling self portrait, apparently taken days before death, are beautiful,wrenching and pitiful. A must see movie...

See also: Death of an Innocent
How Christopher McCandless lost his way in the wilds

By Jon Krakauer

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer

James Gallien had driven five miles out of Fairbanks when he spotted the hitchhiker standing in the snow beside the road, thumb raised high, shivering in the gray Alaskan dawn. A rifle protruded from the young man's pack, but he looked friendly enough; a hitchhiker with a Remington semiautomatic isn't the sort of thing that gives motorists pause in the 49th state. Gallien steered his four-by-four onto the shoulder and told him to climb in...click http://outside.away.com/outside/features/1993/1993_into_the_wild_1.html.