Into the Wild
Starring Emile Hirsch, Hal Holbrook, and Vince Vaughn
Directed by Sean Penn
Rated R for language and some nudity
Available March 4, 2008 on Standard DVD and HD-DVD
Based on the real life and death of Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild follows a young man that leaves behind the comforts of home and travels around the country on foot in the search to find true happiness and satisfaction. When he ends up stranded in an abandoned bus in Alaska, he faces the most difficult of challenges: staying alive. For some strange reason, this film found itself missing from Beaumont theaters this last fall, in spite of achieving some relatively decent box office numbers (22 million), so hopefully it will find a good audience on DVD. Sean Penn and crew put a lot of love into this mesmerizing story and the performances by Hirsch, Holbrook, and others are very strong. In theaters the film seemed a little long (148 minutes), but on the small screen it feels just right. I wish there was a commentary or two, but all we get on the two-disc set are the film and a couple of production documentaries.
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