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| Into the Wild | 
 enlarge | Director: Sean Penn
Actors: Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Keener, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.98
Buy Used: $6.38
You Save: $23.60 (79%)
New (45) Used (34) Collectible (1) from $6.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  234 reviews
Sales Rank: 692
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 148
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: PARD348124D
UPC: 097363481249
EAN: 0097363481249
ASIN: B000ZN802W
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: March 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Like new! Disc is guaranteed to be in perfect working condition.Machine buffed before shipping. Rental sticker on disc.
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| Customer Reviews:
Theories and conjecture September 26, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm not going to theorize about why CM did what he did. I have no idea. I'm not privy to his mind and thus I have no way of knowing why he chose to do what he did. However, I will say this, I cannot, under any circumstances, fathom having the guts to walk into the wild and make a go of it. I can imagine it all day long but I doubt I could actually do it.
The movie is intense and amazing. It tells a wonderfully tragic story.
I'm incredibly tired of reading reviews of people bashing this man for his "ignorance". Of course he was. We all are. But what makes him unique is that he tried. He took a gamble and it didn't pay off as most people would hope. He still tried. So to all of the wonderful experts on survivalism and backcountry living.... take note... The Man was searching for something. We'll never know if he found it. Ultimately, something found him. Call it a wasted life but it wasn't your's to waste. It was his.
That being said... it is a very good Movie. Regardless of the assumed reasons for any of it.
Try to watch it.
 I watched it in disbelief September 21, 2008
6 out of 15 found this review helpful
Coleridge taught us that to enjoy fiction, we need to have a "willing suspension of disbelief". But "Into the Wild" is supposed to be a "true" story: it should hang together (within the liberties required to compress years of plot into a couple of hours). What we get instead is Krakauer and Sean Penn's romanticization of a life and a death that make no sense. The viewer, like the family member of an alcoholic, starts in denial. When Chris McCandless buys rice, a book on native plants a 22 rifle and cartridges, we don't realize that that was ALL he took with him on his trek to the coast (no compass, no map, nothing to eat besides rice, no plan for what happens after he reaches the ocean). The author and director portray McCandless as a heroic youth (naive, perhaps, but heroic none the less).
However, about the time he settles down in an abandoned bus to starve to death because he realizes he cannot get back across the raging river I found myself asking questions like "How did the bus get there? Did it ford the raging river and climb the fifty foot bank, or did it perhaps come by the road? Why isn't this explorer following the bus tracks?" I left with the uncomfortable feeling that Chris McCandless was a pathetic figure, probably mentally ill, who ran off into the wilderness and died. My heart goes out to the McCandless family who have their loss portrayed for the masses but not before Penn has tarred their reputation and blamed them for Chris's problems (as nearly as I can tell from the internet accounts, the horrid parents are Penn's adaptation): as mental health professionals will tell you, mental illness is not the parent's fault.
Although the cinematography is great (the scenery is stunning) and much of the acting is first rate, my lasting impression of the movie is one of being in very poor taste. I feel like I owe the McCandless family an apology for having watched it.
Excellent September 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you watch the first 5 or so minutes, you might expect this movie to be lame, but it most certainly is not. Inspired by an amazing true story, it's a very powerful film about a guy you really want to learn about. Fine writing, fine acting, and amazing scenery. I'm impressed.
 Wow ...... ! September 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If this movie didn't bring out the cuckoo-birds out of their looney-bins to expound on their goofy conclusions about McCandless and this story!!! I rate it 5 stars for all those reasons others rated this film a five - with their nicely expressed and accurately thoughtout reviews. Just read some of those 1, 2, and 3 star ratings! I think if these goofies were asked to add 2 + 2 ... their answer would be 22!!!
 into the wild... 3.5 stars... September 15, 2008
christopher mc candless was a young man who tried to fit himself into the social system but always felt for something out there that called for him; something outside society and its bounds, deadlines, stress and the quest for buying more plastic made commodities and shiny gadgets.
immersed in his world of music and books where he would find solace, he was a highly sensitive boy with a high intelligence.
reading a lot of litterature without keeping your feet in the real world, creates a universe of idealism in which, the frustrated mind finds refuge. it's like a drug. the more you hide in that ideal world, the more frustrated and bitter you become when faced with the actual world we all live in: seeing his parents consent to live together despite their enormous differences, chris saw them as hypocrites, especially his mom, who, despite being betrayed by her husband, chooses to stay because of the comfort and security she got used to. after all, the husband is a NASA genius and we dont leave such a man because he slept with another woman.
unmaterialistic to the farthest extent, chris was still planning to enter college but his parents deciding to reward him with a brand new car, was the last straw for the kid: he finds out that after all that time, his parents still didnt understand his personality and that he was never attracted by aquiring 'things' and that rewarding him with 'things' showed him how much his bickering parents cling to appearences.
what happens next is chris, submerged in a tide of idealism leavs all behind, on a trek bound for alaska, as far as possible from social bonds, hypocrisy and materialism.
he works in odd jobs, uses money as much as needed for his sustenance, and on his way, leaves a positive mark on the people he meets; a spirit who wills not to be ensnared by the ephemereal and tricky temptations of the modern world.
while discovering the savage beauty of the nature around him, our hero will ultimately discover that happiness only has meaning when it's shared.. and since the whole world has become neck deep into dependance on modernity, his odds to meet a likeminded soul were equal to finding a winning lottery ticket on the ground. this meant he had to reintegrate society. his stubbornness to stay alone will lead him to his own demise: with little experience in the ways of survival, chris will be found dead by poisoning from inedible berries he ate by mistake.
some people will be glad this kid who caused his family much suffering, met his just end, but the story is not about that;
it's true that the character is too idealistic and ridden with flaws. he didnt seem to make efforts to help his parents have a better relationship, for example. he was too arrogant in the way that whenever he saw a glimpse of conformity and hypocrisy, he steered away without trying to do anything about it despite his obviously high intellignece and insight. he helped a foreign hippie couple overcome its differences while he could have done the same for his parents, but didnt.
for all the flaws in chris' character, i dont see him as an example to follow, hence the rating of 3 over 5.
the movie's strong point is reminding us that while we spend our life compromising, stressing out and tense about mortgages, due dates, deadlines and conformity, there's a beautiful world around us that we're failing to see. there's a peace we're missing, and a sense of eternity that's lost to us in our world ruled by intertwined timelines and purchase coupons.
finally, eddie vedder and friends do a wonderful job with the soundtrack. the movie sports some truly amazing music.
overall, this movie gently wakes us up to look around us and to notice the spirit , without alienating its audience with dumbed down philosophy and haughty lecturing. this is just a frustrated youth with some valid points that are worth exploring.
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