Into the Wild - Sean Penn
“Some people feel like they don't deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.”
At an early age children learn to feel either valued and important, or inferior and insignificant. For those whose early years were filled with physical or emotional abuse, neglect or abandonment, love will not feel natural or deserved. For these children, as normal as they may seem on the outside, part of them lives in the dark, afraid to emerge. But is it possible to close the gaps of the past?
The movie 'Into the Wild' by Sean Penn is a passionate and faithful suggestion of Jon Krakauer's book about Chris McCandeless. It's the disturbing and complex story of a young idealist and seeker who was a rebellious child who renamed himself Alexander Supertramp. He gave away his $24,000 savings to Oxfam after college, went off in his old car and left his family behind, and disappeared for two years wandering the country. He where found by hunters, dead of poisoning and starvation in an abandoned bus in the wilds of Alaska.
In addition to the fascinating cinematography in the movie, which is really catchy, I find the story extremely inspiring; people in the late modern society must be so tired of seeing the same things every single day. Wake up in the same bed - in the same house. Everything is the same and everybody is unhappy. We are all searching for the exact same thing. But what is it? It is the ultimate freedom, which leads to happiness. That´s what “Into the wild” is about; Ultimate freedom, happiness, the meaning of life and risking it all.
But what happens when you want to see a different sun every day, alone? Trough the whole story Christopher meets a lot of interesting people, but never really commits to any relationships.
“You are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God's place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things”
With this transcendentalistic opinion of Christopher, his isolation from the people around him is shown, and in the end he gets caught up in the wilderness and finds himself a victim of loneliness, and finally realizes that “happiness is only real when shared."
But how are we getting satisfied if everything we are searching for is the ultimate freedom? Isn’t going into the wild with the only rule; don’t eat yellow snow, the best way of getting away from our trivial and unhappy every day? The best way of trying to close the gaps of the past?
Or are people in late modern society way to addicted to wake up in the same bed - in the same house and feel safe?