Into The Wild

Into The Wild Trailer

Last night I watched Into The Wild, a flick that I had been anticipating watching and had placed on my Netflix queue as soon as it was available. It affected me deeply, being one of those movies like Good Will Hunting (one of my all time favorites) that deals with a young man’s reaction to parental dysfunction. It is a sweet, melancholy tale based on the true life story of Christopher McCanless, artfully and engagingly portrayed on the big screen by director Sean Penn with a beautiful sound track by Eddie Vedder.

Chris was a very intelligent, athletic young man, and a lover of literature and adventure. He harbored considerable contempt for his wealthy parents who fought throughout their marriage, threatening divorce many times, but never going ahead with it and always dragging the Chris and his sister into the mess. His dad was physically abusive to his mom. Subsequently, he disdained the cruelties of humanity, along with success and money. When he found out that he and his sister were born while his dad was still married to his previous wife, his distain reached new levels of intensity. He felt he needed a new identity.

Guaranteed by Eddie Vedder

Upon graduating from college, he began his new identity by giving his grad school fund to charity, destroying all forms of personal identity, and literally burning his remaining cash. Then he began an adventure of undetermined destination and length as he trekked across the western United States and Mexico, eventually, heading to Alaska for his ultimate adventure.

Along the way he met some incredible characters as he settled down briefly on occasion, including, a farm foreman who was something a wild man himself with a past, a hippie couple touring around in motor home, a sixteen year old singer who had a crush on him, and a lonely old man who had tragically lost his family in an accident (Hal Holbrook). What I liked about his character is that he seemed to be completely free of self interest to be totally attentive to whoever he met. He had a healing affect on people and was totally free to enjoy them and to speak his mind. He did have his fatal flaw though; he was literally running away from home and gave no one a clue to his whereabouts.

There are three themes in the story: a dysfunctional family of origin, a lust for freedom and adventure, and the overwhelming value of relationships. These themes resonate with so many of us, especially men. There are varying degrees of dysfunction in all of our families of origin and we suffer deep wounds from it that haunt us for a long, long time. Men love adventure and need to feel powerful, like men, but most us wind up becoming very tame, fulfilling whatever expectations that are placed on by others. When we do strike out in some hobby or adventure, we find out, as Chris did, that happiness needs to be shared. In various ways and in various degrees, I believe men need: healing and resolution in the father/son relationship, a sense of adventure and manliness, and the joy of sharing the adventure with family and friends. It sounds very John Eldrege-ish, but it is so true.

This movie made my short list of favorites. I want to see it again soon. Something it about makes you want to heal old wounds, love, and really live!

Hard Sun by Eddie Vedder