Heading West
Emile Hirsch plays the role of McCandless, a top student athlete at Emory University in Atlanta. One day he abruptly leaves his parents and sister behind and just heads west across America in a journey that will eventually lead him to Alaska. Christopher learns a great deal about himself, others, and nature along the way in this largely captivating tale of self discovery. His twenty-month journey on foot gives McCandless much time to sort out his past and gain a very clear understanding of who he is. Much of the film is told via narration that Emile provides, giving insight to McCandless’ thoughts on his former home life (including the poor relationship between his mother and father), and his sister, whom he misses.
After finally reaching Alaska and surviving a harsh winter, McCandless faces an extremely difficult fight for life in the Spring. He’s alone and unable to procure nourishing food, and he ultimately dies from inadvertently eating a poisonous plant. Eventually his body is found in the abandoned bus that he made home for many months.
While not completely based on the facts, Into the Wild is a very interesting and sad film. It was nominated for two Oscars, and I can see why. I thought some parts of the film went on too long, and I don’t know how much replay a film like this really has (very little for me), but overall it’s a very powerful drama.
Into the Wild on Blu-ray
The Blu-ray release of Into the Wild does a fine job of presenting the film, but falls short on the extras. The 1080p picture with 5.1 Dolby TrueHD sound is great and doesn’t disappoint. The extras leave something to be desired however, but on this release you get:
-Into the Wild: The Story, The Characters – A twenty-two minute feature in SD with interviews of Sean Penn and members of the cast, as well as the author of the book Into the Wild, talking about the film, the real story, and how the film came to be. Plenty of production and behind the scenes footage is included.
-Into the Wild: The Experience – Emile Hirsch and Sean Penn and others give their thoughts on filming the movie in this seventeen minute feature in SD. More behind the scenes footage is shown.
-Trailer – The theatrical trailer in HD is also included.
Even though the extra features are lacking, it’s still a great film that looks and sounds great on Blu-ray. It’s definitely worth checking out.