Into the wild is what a movie!!Its been quite some time since any motion picture has captured me to this extent.Time and again the wild has called upon man to return to his roots and never have i seen that silent yet strong pull being depicted with such acuity.Sean Penn does a brilliant job again but this time around he is behind the camera and what he captures from that position cannot be described in words.The scenes of never-ending white capes, of savage greenery, of deep crevices and winding rivers were not shot to provide excellent wallpapers which would then go on to define nature on a random monitor.I don't know if i can express myself here but the scenes were shot as if intending to bring out nature in its actual wild and earthly form.
The story follows Christopher McCandless who after passing out of high school decides to give away all his money to charity and embark upon a journey which searches for the true nature of man.During his travels he once says "I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong... but to feel strong." and then another time he mentions "The core of man's existence is from new experiences".It has been a really long time since words have moved me so much and that too so few of them.Maybe it is their sparseness that brings forth in strength the essence of the story- Truth. Man's ultimate search.The one which might not end when we find life on Mars or discover wormholes in the fabric of the universe.This calls for a much deeper and insightful search into the heart.The word heart has long been under shadowed by its over use and misuse .When Alex(the name Christopher gave himself) cuts out the heart of a wild moose he had killed, the organ is deep bloody red and something more synonymous wihh life might be hard to portray.
All men are not the same.While some may enjoy organized and civilized life and its pleasures and pain others might feel tied down by it.And these are the men who have the heart of a wild beast.No fear, no care, no delusions, only a wild desire to live, explore and watch and learn and be awed by existence itself.I had read Jack London's Call of the Wild very many years ago but the last chapter of the book comes back to me vividly in all its gore and cold-bloodedness.Yet there is no sadness or pity or apathy, quite similar to my reactions when Alex dies at the end of the movie after having consumed the seeds of a poisonous plant. There is a certain poetic justice here which no one shall ever find in a court of law because the laws here are the laws of existence. There is the primitive rawness and manliness to life which makes every moment worth living. The only duties are ones required for survival. And the rest is an adventure of endless possibilities.
"If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed."
Alexander Supertramp.
