Saw Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild” yesterday. Downloaded the movie twice, but ended up with a fake file, both the times. Got a good copy from a friend of a friend last sunday and was very eager to watch it. To begin with, it is quite a long (over two and half hours) movie, dint expect that at all. Not that I dont’ like long movies, I love them on the other hand, but dint quite expect this one to be that long. Was a little disappointed with the titles, the yellow font, and the voice over in the begining, but decided to push them aside and instead tried to indulge myself into it. But frankly, the movie barely moved me. People say, the soundtrack is amazing, but never stuck a chord with me. To be honest, was annoyed by Eddie Vedder’s voice after about half an hour.
When your’re making a movie about nature, wilderness or something like that it is important to minimize the dialog and let nature talk to the audience. I’m in no way advocating a National Geographic Channel type of documentary approach to this movie, but it could have been a lot better if it were not for the countless quotes and references. I still don’t understand whether the movie was trying to point out how far modern civilization has diverged from its roots and or whether it was about one person’s courage to let go and thrust himself into nature or whether it was about McCandless. Finally, the movie barely gave me any goosebumps. I always measure the greatness of the movie by the number of goosebumps it gives, this movie though barely gave a couple, mostly attributed to the Alaskan wilderness. When it was over, I had shed no tears or lay dead silent in awe, but felt unmoved. Instead I remember cursing Sean Penn and pounding my fist on the ground for no reason. By the way, both Jena Malone and Kristen Stewart look stunning in this movie. All in all I should say this movie was a let down for me.
