Into the Wild

Into the Wild, 2007, Sean Penn

I am going to keep it brief, so I can write something on every film I watch (esp. with my brilliant UGC card).
This is one of the best films I have seen recently. This owes a lot to the story. After graduating, Christopher McCandless went on a soul searching trip in United States and ended up spending the rest of his days in Alaska before he died at the age of 24, in 1992.

What strikes me most was his death in the film. I always thought he would have made it, after all his adventures and he was such a bright and great kid. Johan and I had a discussion. I was not sad but calm. After the initial surprise, I soon realized that even if he did not actively commit suicide, he chose to go on this trip of solitude and even arguably he could have better prepared himself, it just somehow ended consistent with what he had being trying to do. I do not know him or the whole story (who would? probably not even himself), but what would he have become if he made it out to the society which he despise so much? I do not know.

At the end of the film, the character wrote 'Happiness is only real when shared'. That must have upset a lot of people, seeing his death as tragic. But to some people, his death could just be a matter of naiveness, because all sane people would have brought a map before going to the wild in Alaska (I read about this on wikipedia, so this is completely not for sure). They may think that he simply commited suicide.

No matter what, this film makes me think, and it probably makes a lot of people think: what does society do to us? What are we, human?

Brilliant, inspiring and mind-blowing (5, if possible 6)