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Reviews Counted:179
Fresh:147
Rotten:32
Average Rating:7.5/10
Consensus: With his sturdy cast and confident direction, Sean Penn has turned a complex work of non-fiction like Into the Wild into an accessible and poignant character study.
Theatrical Release:09-11-2007
Synopsis: Jon Krakauer's bestselling nonfiction book about the life of Chris McCandless is finally brought to the big screen in INTO THE WILD. Directed by Sean Penn, the film opens in 1992, when Chris (Emile... [More]
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone
Director: Sean Penn
As actor and director, Penn long has been drawn to the existential and elemental. Life and death. Remorse and revenge. All these themes converge -- symphonically -- in Into the Wild, his most fully realized work as a director.
though it's easy to dismiss McCandless' hippified musings and near-suicidal choices as the misguided actions of a kid who read Walden a little too closely in college, Penn's film aims for something more, a deeper telling of a tale of yearning and escape.
... As the credits roll at the close of Into the Wild, you don't feel like you've celebrated a life spent on the road less traveled; you feel like you've just witnessed a slow-motion suicide.
Penn's direction is amazingly sharp and intuitive, full of masterful touches that give an epic dimension and scope to the parable.
A murky screenplay leaves most of the humans ciphers, save for Hal Holbrook in an exquisitely calibrated performance as the avuncular desert retiree whose advice McCandless should have heeded.
The film, I am convinced, is unforgettable.
If Into the Wild falls short of giving McCandless an indelible cinematic life, the film gets under your skin anyway. It doesn't feel improvised, exactly, but it does feel inhabited.
Penn, in his zeal for the character, very simply misses the obvious: this is a spoiled brat who has become disillusioned with his parents.
Sean Penn sings a powerful and poetic hymn to America with "Into the Wild," his sweeping, sensitive and deeply affecting adaptation of Jon Krakauer's best-selling book.
I happen to think Sean Penn is one of our more admirable knotheads -- a fearless actor, a bold controversialist and, as he proved with The Pledge, a very strong director, capable of far subtler moral complexity than Into the Wild affords.
Top CriticIf Penn weren't such an intimidating figure, studio execs probably would have turned the script back and asked for a do-over.
Sean Penn steps behind the camera to craft one of the most powerful films of the year.
It throbs with color, possibility and hope, fueled by an un-ironic adolescent yearning as plaintive (and only occasionally embarrassing) as the mega-earnest Eddie Vedder tunes that fill the soundtrack.
Sean Penn does a great job.
Thematically and artistically ambitious and faithful to the source material, Penn's film is not only intriguing but also feels like a more personal work than his former outings.
A near miss by director/screenwriter Penn when he mistakes a self-absorbed college student for a hero of the counter culture
Penn performs one bit of sleight-of-hand on the book that's borderline unforgivable.
Hal Holbrook will have been robbed if doesn't get nominated for every award available.
This saga was the subject of Into the Wild, a short but fascinating book by Jon Krakauer that, 11 years later, has resulted in a gorgeously photographed and less intermittently fascinating 2 1/2-hour film by Sean Penn.
His initiative is really admirable. I wouldn't apply it towards breaking away from society, but he certainly was a go getter.
March 27, 2008:
Jay Cassidy on Into the Wild: The RT Interview
Jay Cassidy, editor of critically acclaimed film, Into the Wild, talks to RT about his long term collaboration with Sean Penn and making films in the wilds of Alaska. More...
March 03, 2008:
RT on DVD: Into the Wild, Things We Lost In The Fire, My Kid Could Paint That Arrive
Into the Wild, Sean Penn's lyrical adventure about a young idealist on a cross-country trek, leads new releases this week. More...
February 22, 2008:
Into the Wild's Jay Cassidy Talks Oscar Nomination with RT
Sean Penn's critically acclaimed film, Into the Wild, tells the story of Chris McCandless who hitchhiked into the Alaskan wilderness with tragic consequences. Long time Penn... More...
January 28, 2008:
There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men Top ASC, DGA Awards
Perhaps the ASC and DGA Awards aren't the flashiest ceremonies of the season, but being honored by one's peers is always a cause for celebration, so let's take a moment to... More...
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