helgé
Menu   ≡ ╳
  • About Me
  • Brian
    • Brian
    • Brian’s Poems
  • History
    • Clubbing
    • Zines
    • re:PLAY
  • Designer
    • CCC Show
    • Fashion
    • Wallets
    • Shows
  • Fine Arts
    • My Ceramics
    • My Graphics
    • My Paintings
    • Paintings Gallery
  • Theatre
    • BODA
    • Plays
    • Performances
    • Photo Shoots
  • Words
    • About Me
    • Novel
    • Essays
    • Poetry
  • Multimedia
    • Audio
    • Video
    • Performance Videos
  • Reviews
  • Blog
    • MY SIX YEAR DEVESTATION
    • My Raves
    • My Rants
    • Blog Photos
    • Shooting from the Lip
  • Friends
    • Leo Janssen
    • Lee Scott-Hempson
  • Guestbook
  • Contact

into the wild

Posted on 8th February 2008 by helgé

This 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!

The Devil's Labyrinth
Across the Universe
Posted in Reviews |
« Daily Narratives
Urban Zulu »

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

CAPTCHA
Refresh

*

Menu

  • ►Brian (15)
    • ►Brian’s Poems (2)
  • ►Designer (68)
    • ►CCC Show (5)
    • ►Fashion (36)
    • ►Shows (7)
    • ►Wallets (12)
  • ►Events (8)
    • ►Clubbing Events (8)
  • ►Fine Arts (79)
    • ►My Ceramics (4)
    • ►My Graphics (35)
    • ►My Paintings (39)
    • ►Paintings Gallery (1)
  • ►Helge Blog (135)
    • ►Blog Photos (5)
    • ►My Rants (40)
    • ►My Raves (57)
    • ►MY SIX YEAR DEVESTATION (23)
    • ►Shooting from the Lip (5)
    • ►Urban Zulu (4)
  • ►History (19)
    • ►Clubbing (8)
    • ►re:PLAY (8)
    • ►Zines (3)
  • ►Lee Scott-Hempson (3)
  • ►Leo Janssen (11)
  • ►Multimedia (44)
    • ►Audio (5)
    • ►Performance Videos (6)
    • ►Video (33)
  • ▼Reviews (50)
    • 12shooters
    • 300
    • A Dream of Life
    • A Migraine for the Ivory Tower - Decolonising Wits
    • A threnody to the Marikana victims
    • A threnody to the Marikana victims
    • Across the Universe
    • Avatar
    • Bicky, Pristina, Babylonia
    • Blue Moon Burlesque - Roseway Waldorf Night Market 31 July 2015
    • Breakthrough cinema! - Elelwani at DIFF
    • Burn after reading
    • Derek
    • DRUMSOUND WILLOWVALE HOTEL
    • Earth shattering: Cedric Nunn photographs
    • Hannibal Rising
    • He WAS out of control
    • Horton Who's a What?
    • I'm not there
    • into the wild
    • Isiqalo: Dr. Zakes album
    • Jesus and the giant
    • journey to the self: an intimate portrait of jaspar lepak
    • KILL YOUR DARLINGS
    • La Vie en Rose
    • Legendary Syd Kitchen - film by Aryan Kaganof
    • Lesbian scene in SMS Sugar Man
    • Music Today fund raising concert
    • Nate Maingard CD: The Wild Land
    • No Country For Old Men
    • Physics for Poets: Nick Darcy-Fox debut novel
    • POP - Splat
    • Sarah Jane Mary Hills - EP Child of Ancestors
    • SMS Sugar Man
    • SMS Sugar Man 2 (an analysis)
    • the bow project
    • The Dark Knight...
    • The Devil's Labyrinth
    • the diabolical bulk
    • The High Art of Simplicity at the KZNSA Gallery
    • The Kiss that Kisses the Kiss
    • the sedateness of durban verses the magic of improvisation
    • The Vuvuzela Murders by Aryan Kaganof
    • The Walker
    • The Wallets
    • Velvet
    • Wasted
    • Watchmen
    • WELCOME NELSON REVIEW
    • What the world needs now is... Jaspar Lepak
  • ►Theatre (21)
    • ►BODA (5)
    • ►Performances (11)
    • ►Photo Shoots (2)
    • ►Plays (2)
    • ►Theatre (1)
  • ►Uncategorized (7)
  • ►Words (60)
    • ►About Me (1)
    • ►Essays (15)
    • ►Novel (10)
    • ►Poetry (34)

Tag Cloud

About Me Audio Blog Photos BODA Brian Brian's Poems CCC Show Clubbing Clubbing Events Designer Essays Fashion Helge Blog Lee Scott-Hempson Leo Janssen My Ceramics My Graphics My Paintings My Rants My Raves MY SIX YEAR DEVESTATION Novel Paintings Gallery Performance Videos Performances Photo Shoots Plays Poetry re:PLAY Reviews Shooting from the Lip Shows Theatre Uncategorized Urban Zulu Video Wallets Zines

Heard at PLAY@330

Click to PLAY

Recent Comments

  • Ian Alderton on Drawing of Eldon Swallow 1986 size A4
  • helgé on Beyond Good and Evil
  • helgé on soon to be available in the UK!
  • Anonymous on Drawing of Eldon Swallow 1986 size A4
  • Anonymous on Drawing of Eldon Swallow 1986 size A4
115258
Visit Today : 48
This Month : 1082
This Year : 2494
Total Visit : 115258
Who's Online : 1

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

Copyright © helgé 2018 | All Rights Reserved