T}his is a film based on the fatal journey of an American College Graduate, Christopher Mccandless who hitches across America into Alaska in 1992. The biography was researched by Jon Krakauer and it became a best selling non-fiction novel.It is the story of a quest to find oneself, driven by an intuitive urge to heal oneself. This inner journey has no known pathway, and as such becomes an adventure of the truly brave.
In a TAROT sense, it is the pathway of THE FOOL.
Foolishness, where lessons correctly leant, leads to enlightenment. Yet for some, this foolishness could quite easily be translated as idiocy, or even an indulgence. At one level Christopher is the spoilt rich kid who has been badly brought up, so common in Western society.
Through flashbacks the story is related by the protagonists sister, who feels hurt that her brother's determination to be untraceable also meant that he had to sever all contact with her. It is to some measure of Christopher Mccandless (Emile Hirsch) authenticity, that he succeeds in remaining footloose and fancy free in modern America. Quite clearly, it is a society he knows all too well, and having grown up in it, his contempt is eschewed by his ability to pre-empt its manouverings, particularly those of his parents who enlist police assistance to trace him.
Having felt emotionally betrayed by his parents who appear to him to be in a loveless marriage based on financial security, his particular sensitivity sought redress by rejecting American society, cutting ties with civilization and living in the wildnerness.
It is here that I feel the film is a little flawed, for a quest of this nature would surely require more substance than parental bickering, however harsh. Yet his spiritual quest is fueled by readings of some of the great novelists (noteably Tolstoy and Thoreau's "rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth") and his drive to get as far away from his parents as he possibly can. It is the journey of the idealist. And idlealism combined with a damaged psyche mixed in with the inexperience of youth, becomes a precariously dangerous cocktail.
But it is a risk one has to take...even if it appears foolish to some. And where foolishness survives danger, it survives without true cognisance of the risk taken. It is a journey that is going to need transformation. An ego that is humbled by surrender. And surrender is the doorway to enlightenment. Thankfully in this case, the lessons are learnt, but Nature's impartiality to matters of the spirit, takes its toll in a cruel twist of fate.It is of interest that the protagonist also rejects sex.
Either homosexual or heterosexual.
The drive towards sex is the drive towards connecting with another human being beyond the niceties of societal 'encounters'. Our ascetist was having none of it. Authentically so.
The narrative is well filmed, seamlessly edited, with a great supporting cast. Hal Holbrook as Ron Franz, the old man who befriends Chris on what proves to be the last leg of his journey, certainly stands out. The lead actor Emile Hirsch is well cast and this should prove a break-through role for him. It is to the film director's credit (Sean Penn) that he avoids sentimentality, and reveals compassionately the flaws of our young hero without judgement.I cannot say I was too impressed with the soundtrack which at least was not intrusive.
There are those who have survived journeys of this nature and in most instances have become spiritual leaders and/or artists.But it is not the only path to enlightenment.
Others have chosen the exact opposite: sex, drugs and rock-and-roll!
