jon krakauer Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The conventional wisdom regarding Sean Penn's justly acclaimed rendering of Into the Wild is that the film is "faithful" to the Jon Krakauer book. This is utterly cracked, and the misconception is illustrative of my staunch "books are not movies" philosophy. Not only is Into the Wild not "faithful" to the book, but it couldn't possibly have been faithful and remain a narrative film. Sure, it dutifully replicates what Krakauer was able to discover about Chris McCandless' adventure – most of the supporting characters, destinations and events are here, and some lines of dialogue are lifted from Krakauer's account. If that's all it takes for a movie to be "faithful," then I guess it's faithful. But that ignores the fact that the book and the film were trying to accomplish fundamentally different things, and went about it in fundamentally different ways.

Krakauer's book – which, by the way, is a national treasure – is first journalistic, and then philosophical. The author did painstaking research to piece together the details of McCandless' journey and death from interviews, personal observations, and Chris's own writings. What emerged probably wasn't what Krakauer, who obviously sympathizes and identifies with his hero, would have preferred: the picture of McCandless his sources paint is that of a young man who is bright and curious, but also inconsiderate, arrogant, and often downright unpleasant. (The letter he wrote to "Ron Franz," Hal Holbrook's character in the film, haranguing the octogenarian to sell his possessions and go on the road, is painful to read.)

I'm sorry I never had the chance to see Into the Wild when it was originally released in theaters, because it probably would've been a nice experience to watch up on the big screen. Needless to say, it's still one of the best films from 2007, and one that was kind of overlooked once flicks like No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood and Juno hit the streets. Into the Wild isn't the kind of film you watch for set pieces, story points or character arcs -- it's an "experience" film; whether or not we like Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) as a person or believe in whatever it is he's trying to achieve, we're stuck with him -- forced to join him on this journey across the country.

And we feel for him; we feel for his friends, we feel for his family -- but we can't help but get sucked up in the beauty of life, of nature. I don't fully agree with James' review of this film when it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year, though I completely understand how McCandless, as a character and a person, might not be the most likable guy. He makes choices we don't understand, and while he may appear as if he's out to intentionally hurt the ones he loves -- all he's really hurting is himself. But McCandless never saw it that way. This is what he wanted. This is the road he chose to walk down. Based on the best-selling book by Jon Krakauer, and directed by Sean Penn, this is a story that's magnificent and heartbreaking all at once. Yet that's exactly the way McCandless lived his life, and I imagine it's the way he'll always be remembered.

I felt conflicted about reviewing Into the Wild, Sean Penn's new film chronicling the life and death of Christopher McCandless. Jon Krakauer's best-selling book of the same name -- published to wide acclaim in 1996 -- told of how McCandless took a journey across America seeking some deeply-held goal that ended with his death, alone, in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness. And the reason for my conflicted feeling was simple: For all of my carefully calculated professional cynicism, I don't like speaking ill of the dead. But then I realized that speaking ill of Into the Wild is very different from speaking ill of Christopher McCandless. A human death is a tragedy; a movie about death is a movie.

We meet McCandless, played by Emile Hirsch, as he's graduating from university. He's supposed to be coming home and figuring out what's next; instead, he sells the majority of his things, donates his life savings/college fund to Oxfam America, burns his social security card, and sets out across America -- re-naming himself Alexander Supertramp. We're supposed to see his decisions and actions as the birth of a free-spirited soul, but we're also seeing classic signs of suicidal ideation. From the outset, Chris doesn't come across as unfettered -- just unmedicated.

We follow McCandless -- meeting fellow free-spirits Rainey (Brian Dierker) and Jan (Catherine Keener) in his travels, working the fields in the heartland for the hearty and funny Wayne (Vince Vaughn), constantly working towards getting to his dream destination of Alaska, where he wants to live off the land. Even with voice-over drawn from real-life letters and documents, though, we don't get a real sense of McCandless -- he's supposed to be this pure, uncompromising seeker-of-truth; he more often comes across on-screen as a smug, unlikable narcissist, exactly the sort of anti-capitalist you can only become if you spring from an immensely privileged background.

Back in February, we reported that Sean Penn had been signed to write and direct a screen version of Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer's book about Christopher McCandless. In 1992, after graduating from college, McCandless left his life completely behind and hitchhiked to Alaska, where he planned to "live in the wilderness and return to nature." Four months later, he was dead of starvation, but he left a diary and letters behind, so Krakauer was able to get a sense of what McCandless' thought and experienced before his death.

According The Hollywood Reporter, Penn has finished writing the script, and his cast is expanding, as well. When the project was announced, Alpha Dog and Lords of Dogtown star Emile Hirsch was already on board to play the lead role; recent reports indicate that he'll be joined in the movie by Catherine Keener and Vince Vaughn. Keener will play a woman who picked McCandless up while he was hitchhiking, and "[took] him in as a surrogate son," while Vaughn will be a tow-truck driver acquaintance of his. (Could someone who has read the book recently elaborate on Vaughn's character? is it a major role, or just a guy who wanders by?)

There's still no word on when production will begin; the film is due on in 2007.

Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild is one of the books that you just had a feeling would show up on the big screen someday. Really, it's such a fascinating, tragic story with an incredibly broad audience, that one wonders why the movie wasn't made years ago. The book is a nonfiction examination of the life, death, and motivation of Christopher McCandless who, upon graduating from college, left his life behind and headed to Alaska to "live in the wilderness and return to nature." Four months later, he died of starvation, leaving behind a diary, along with letters and notes. Though Krakauer's book is about much more than McCandless himself, his story is just the sort of thing that Hollywood seems to love.

And now, finally, the movie is coming - and it's not being made by a hack. A guy named Sean Penn (who hasn't directed a feature since The Pledge, five years ago) has signed on to write and direct the film for Paramount Classics. The last time Penn worked from his own screenplay was in 1995, when he wrote and directed The Crossing Guard, which starred Jack Nicholson as a grief-stricken, murderous alcoholic. Alpha Dog and Lords of Dogtown star Emile Hirsch is set to play McCandless; there is no word yet on when production will begin.