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Rating: Rejection of a corrupt society, consumerism, the vices of a decadent civilization, or escape from the "world of work," from one's existence, from responsibilities? Search for one's deepest self or escape from oneself, from one's own human pain?
This is the heavy enigma faced by this film, indecisively caught between biographical genre, "coming-of-age novel," and road movie with beat-generation manners; although the author Sean Penn seems to strongly (and perhaps naively) want to distance himself from each of the aforementioned labels, particularly, I would say, from the "toxic" interpretation (the journey, the trip, etc.).
The film tells the true story of Chris McCandless, an American from Virginia, who, after finishing college, decides to spend a period "into the wild" indeed, a solo journey towards "Alaska"; a Mecca more than an actual destination, whose true purpose is the solitary journey itself and not the goal.
In his twenties, Chris "Supertramp," as the hero has self-renamed, abandons a brilliant university career (and a turbulent family situation) to embark on this sort of initiatic journey in full immersion in nature and in ascetic, contemplative solitude, without money, without means of transportation.
On the fringes of an American society at the mercy of lies and Bush-isms of a dream perhaps now in its terminal phase, nevertheless prey to terrorist-apocalyptic fears or phobias.
The film is composed of characters not internally investigated, who speak openly as open as the spaces, deserts, and valleys (at times a bit like a Chevrolet commercial) through which this film unfolds.
To pursue his "great adventure in Alaska," Chris refuses the help of people he meets along the way, including a real job offer from a retired old craftsman (a splendid Hal Holbrook in Oscar-worthy mode), and Chris pushes forward as much as he can through a thousand mishaps (surprised and beaten by a train conductor, guest of an old wandering hippie couple, smitten with someone he ultimately can't settle with), to realize with fatal delay that "happiness is only real when shared." A lonely road that, unfortunately, leads him to starve to death ("starvation" being the official cause of death), 6 miles away from the nearest inhabited center.
Into The Wild - Nelle terre selvagge is a film that steps on the accelerator of freedom, peeking at the clichés of the cult movie, revealed by the presence of futuristically memorable scenes (Chris challenging old Ron to follow him up the hill), of maxims in abundance ("The fragility of crystal is not a weakness but a refinement", "I don't need money, it makes people cautious"... and so on happily), it is undoubtedly a film of suffering, costing a whopping (in cinematic terms perhaps not much) 10 years of waiting and dedication from the stubborn Californian Sean Penn before he could acquire the rights to the book.
Ultimately, this film connects to works like Herzog's "Grizzly Man," or - although in a different relationship - Mad-Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto"; films reflecting a niche - or a certain trend - within American society, searching for "a new beginning," a refuge precisely in what for millennia has been the enemy to combat, the force to contain for survival, the wild nature. Without necessarily delving into a philosophical dissertation, the crisis of conscience that America is undergoing at this moment is clear, even obvious, from which also - significantly - depends the future economic and therefore social situation east of the Atlantic.
Fuck Fuck.
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