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Trailer here. (http://media.movies.ign.com/media/944/944934/vid_2028192.html)
Release Date: September 21st, 2007 (limited)
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden
Directed by: Sean Penn
Premise: Based on a true story of one young man's tragic 'return to nature'. After graduating from Emory University in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless bandons his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.
I've been excited about this for a while and the trailer did nothing to diminish that excitement.
Partly because I read the book a few years back on my mother's unending recommendation and enjoyed it quite a bit... if enjoyment can even be the right word for it.
But mostly because it's a new Sean Penn film and his filmography has been pretty much spotless. I was just thinking about The Indian Runner yesterday, actually, and how absurdly underrated that film is... though the same could apply to his other two, as well.
Doesn't hurt that the cast looks tops...
Zach Galifianakis and Patton Oswalt both ended up in good movies this year, which is nice.
Quote from: john on June 22, 2007, 02:02:04 AM
Zach Galifianakis and Patton Oswalt both ended up in good movies this year, which is nice.
And Paul F. Tompkins.... dont forget about Paul F. Tompkins...
and Posehn was in Fantastic 4...!
dont stone me.
Ha! I forgot about Tompkins... it's the trifecta.
And I might have to rent Fantastic 4 just for the strange geek synergy that occurs when watching a comic book nerd in a comic book film, as a former comic book nerd who enjoys the work of the comic also happens to be the comic book nerd. Or something to that effect.
I remembered this film just this morning, when I came across the book on my shelf. Just thinking about the whole sorry affair sent a shiver up my spine. A 'Grizzly Man' kind of shiver.
I'm not entirely sure that this film is going to capture that aspect (I'd imagined the bus to be treated with a bit more reverance and not like Runaway Train with Jon Voight).
...But the trailer doesnt entirely rule out the possibility of this being somethingelse.
Eddie Vedder to score Sean Penn film
Pearl Jam frontman pens several original songs
Eddie Vedder has reportedly written several original songs for a film directed by Sean Penn that is due out this fall.
The Pearl Jam frontman wrote almost an entire album's worth of songs for 'Into The Wild', which also features contributions from Academy Award-winning composer Gustavo Santaolla (Brokeback Mountain, Babel), reports the Playlist.
Vedder will also have a small role in the film, which stars actor Emile Hirsch and is based on the John Krakauer novel of the same name.
It is Vedder's first acting role since 1992's 'Singles'.
The film is due to be released in the US on September 21.
This just catapulted to Best Non-Dedicated-Xixax-Forum-Directed Film of the Year (So Far).
Suddenly, I'm interested.
the trailer looks great, thats for sure.
:yabbse-thumbup:
I was pretty excited when I first heard about this. I had to read the book in high school and enjoyed it a lot. The trailer made the story look a lot more positive and hopeful than it really is. Along with Grizzly Man, I really like the stories of these guys who just don't fit in in a normal society, and the argument of whether they're crazy or just different. I really hope that Sean Penn manages to capture that the way Krakauer did in the book and the way Herzog did in Grizzly Man.
Quote from: elpablo on July 18, 2007, 11:47:44 AM
Along with Grizzly Man, I really like the stories of these guys who just don't fit in in a normal society, and the argument of whether they're crazy or just different. I really hope that Sean Penn manages to capture that the way Krakauer did in the book and the way Herzog did in Grizzly Man.
but grizzly man was crazy.
That's true (arguably). But Christopher McCandless is more in the middle, if not more "just different" (arguably). That's why I hope Penn portrays this properly and opens up discussion the way the book does.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33589
An extremely positive review by Moriarty.
QuoteINTO THE WILD, based on the non-fiction book by Jon Krakauer, is an emotional powerhouse, a film of great wisdom and real experience. It's also the arrival of Emile Hirsch as a movie star, and I think it may well change the way the industry thinks of Penn as a filmmaker. It should, anyway, and I hope this one finds as broad an audience as possible. He's pulled off something very difficult here, taking a frustrating, potentially depressing story and turning into a film that feels celebratory, uplifting, exhilarating at every turn.
Quest of a lifetime
After a long wait, Sean Penn gets 'Into the Wild,' his vision of a tragic, triumphant nomad. And one adventurer takes on another.
Source: Los Angeles Times
*READ AT OWN RISK*
FACED with an intractable movie project, producers typically rely on a number of familiar strongarm tactics. Some throw money -- tons of money -- at the problem. Others play the celebrity card -- "Brad Pitt's gonna star!" -- confident a big name will somehow get things moving. A few will simply grind away for as long as it takes, beating all obstacles into submission. Sean Penn tried a different tactic when he set out to bring "Into the Wild," the extraordinary and heartbreaking biography of a young wayfarer, to the screen. "I was willing," Penn says, "to take no for an answer." Penn's diplomatic patience ultimately prevailed. When the parents of Christopher McCandless, a 24-year-old who died of starvation in the Alaskan wilderness in 1992, finally decided it was time to let Hollywood tell their son's story, Penn got the call. The resulting film (opening Sept. 21), which Penn wrote, produced and directed, not only brings to visual life Jon Krakauer's bestselling 1996 book about McCandless but also offers up a more sympathetic view of the young man at its center.
If Krakauer in some measure depicted McCandless as a stubborn romantic doomed by blunders of inexperience at best and arrogance at worst, Penn isn't interested in his mistakes. Instead, he gives us a modern-day John Muir, a determined young man enthralled by nature's powerful beauty.
"I think the movie is more representative of the spirit of who he was," says Emile Hirsch, the 22-year-old "Lords of Dogtown" star who plays McCandless in Penn's film. "It doesn't judge him."
As the adventure journalist Krakauer recounted in a 1993 Outside magazine story and his subsequent bestseller, McCandless grew up in a wealthy but troubled Virginia family; when his parents weren't fighting, they were working around the clock. After graduating with honors from Emory University in Atlanta, McCandless donated nearly $25,000 of his life savings to Oxfam, ditched his car and most of his possessions, cut off ties to his family and hit the road.
It's impossible to pinpoint a specific incident that prompted his break. McCandless had been devastated by his father's philandering and was equally upset over his parents' -- and the world's -- capitalistic obsessions. His sister Carine says Chris craved truth and purity but couldn't locate either in his own suburban surroundings. "But he was confident he could find them in nature," Carine says.
Calling himself Alexander Supertramp, McCandless crisscrossed the southwestern United States by hitchhiking, jumping freights and kayaking, always searching for what he considered authentic living and relationships -- "ultimate freedom," in his words.
Influenced by the books of Leo Tolstoy, Jack London, Henry David Thoreau and Boris Pasternak, McCandless came to believe that risk and contentment were resolutely intertwined; nothing good came without sacrifice.
"So many people," he wrote in one letter, "live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity and conservatism, all of which appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future."
As the decisive test of his own convictions, McCandless in early 1992 hiked into the rough country not far from Alaska's Mt. McKinley. He intentionally traveled with few provisions and no good map, eventually making his home in an abandoned school bus. Had he not eaten poisonous wild plants, he might have made it.
When a group of hunters discovered his emaciated body four months later, McCandless had with him a report of his more than 110 days in the wilderness, an often joyful journal of discoveries and setbacks that also revealed a personal -- but sadly unrealized -- epiphany. Rather than continue to live separately from the world, McCandless concluded, he was now ready to be a part of it. Highlighting a passage from Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago," the last book he ever read, McCandless noted, "Happiness only real when shared."
The long wait
NOT surprisingly, Krakauer's mesmeric account of McCandless' wayfaring life and final days attracted a flood of filmmakers and producers, many of whom -- Penn included -- came calling on Walt and Billie McCandless to try to obtain rights to their son's story. The parents, Penn says, weren't interested, especially Billie.
As Penn and Carine McCandless say, Billie interpreted a dream she had about Chris as a message that he didn't want a movie made. "That shut it down," Penn says while steering his Shelby GT around Mill Valley, near where he lives and edited the film. "I took that for an answer, telling her that if I didn't respect dreams, I wouldn't make movies."
Penn thus had to shelve his initial casting plans -- Leonardo DiCaprio as Chris and Marlon Brando as Ron Franz, a father figure Chris met near the Salton Sea -- and bide his time. He and the McCandless family exchanged the occasional holiday card over the years, but an "Into the Wild" movie appeared unlikely. Then after nearly a decade had passed since the book's publication, a lawyer for the family called Penn, wondering if he were still interested. Of course he was.
"Ultimately, there is something very selfless about their decision to do it," Penn says of the family. "It's one thing to lose a son. It's another thing to hold yourself accountable to being a part of that."
Hirsch was in elementary school when he saw a "20/20" segment on McCandless and Krakauer. "I was probably 9 years old," Hirsch says from Berlin, where he's nearly done filming "Speed Racer." "It made a huge impression on me -- the idea of someone going out alone and dying alone. It's kind of hard to comprehend as a kid. It was a terrifying thing at the time. I never forgot it."
The ABC news magazine also included a not widely circulated photograph of McCandless (which is not in Krakauer's book). It is a picture he took of himself just days before his death, and in it he is holding up his farewell note and seemingly waving goodbye. "I have had a happy life and thank the lord. Goodbye and may God bless all," the note read.
The picture doesn't appear in the movie either, but it very much guided Penn's script and direction. "It's a beautiful picture," Penn says over lunch. "But it's also disturbing. His fingers are as thin as a concentration camp survivor's. He is so gaunt -- truly emaciated. But there is a light in his eyes that is truly startling. It influenced the whole movie." Rather than see McCandless as a victim of his own naivete, as did many readers of Krakauer's writings, Penn viewed him as a brave young man at peace with his own accomplishments.
In trying to capture the serene character of McCandless' wanderlust, Penn decided that he had to retrace as much of McCandless' two-year sojourn as possible, rather than try to shoot the movie in and around Utah, as was first considered.
Over the course of seven months (with some breaks, especially so Hirsch could shed more than 40 pounds from his already lean 156-pound frame for the final scenes), Penn and his relatively small crew hit Cantwell, Ala.; California's Anza-Borrego Desert State Park; Sonora, Mexico; and two dozen points in between. For a fleeting shot of a dolphin swimming underneath McCandless' kayak, Penn's cameras went to Catalina Island for a day.
Carine McCandless had shown Penn many of her brother's possessions, some of which he photographed, including a leather jacket that hangs in her closet. When Carine visited the "Into the Wild" set in South Dakota, Hirsch approached her, wearing an exact duplicate of the jacket. "He was Chris," Carine says.
"Sean in his heart was not going to do things for any other reason than to get at the truth as he saw it," says Art Linson, one of the film's producers. Indeed, Penn invented few scenes; one exception is McCandless almost calling home from the road. "I don't think there's anything in that scene other than something I feel very strongly about," Penn says. "And that is that this person had very strong attachments and was working very hard to shed those things."
But unlike Krakauer's book, which Penn feels errs on the side of being sensitive to the parents' concerns, Penn's movie is more unflinching toward them, particularly in what role they might have played in their son's decision to renounce them.
"I think they should be very pleased with how kind Sean was," Carine says of her parents, who could not be reached for comment. "It's impossible to be fair to Chris without being critical of my parents. But [Sean] had to walk a fine line. He had to be fair to Chris but also respect Mom and Dad, because they let him do this movie."
'Ups and downs'
PENN says the first screening for the family went well but that the second showing (in which the film had changed somewhat) was difficult.
"It was an open consultation from the beginning to the end," Penn says of his relationship with the McCandless family. "They had their chance to tell me what they thought of it. It wasn't very easy. There were upsetting things. We had our ups and downs. But I stand by what I did, because I think it's truthful. I think you would be hard-pressed to find a more authentic adaptation of a book in the last 10 years."
Hirsch says his access to the parents and Carine was critical in shaping how he depicted Chris McCandless. "It's easy to pigeonhole him. There are impressions of Chris that are not fully correct -- that maybe he was this hippie-like dreamer," Hirsch says. "He had a lot more anger than people kind of ever knew. I think he had a dark side -- but he was so positive because he was trying to overcome that. He had demons."
Producer Bill Pohlad, the "Brokeback Mountain" backer who co-financed "Into the Wild" with Paramount Vantage, agrees with Hirsch's assessment. "I don't think the film goes overboard in trying to make Chris a hero," he says. "No one is ever going to know what actually was going on with Chris. The book takes a journalistic approach, whereas the film takes a very personal approach -- it singles out Chris' story."
As he drives back from lunch in his muscle car, Penn either doesn't have the words or doesn't want to say why McCandless moved him so deeply that he was willing to wait for "Into the Wild" for a decade. But it's clear he admires how much the young man accomplished in just two dozen years walking the earth.
"His triumph," Penn says, "is that he lived a full life."
Vedder, sans Pearl Jam
When Sean Penn asked for soundtrack help, the sparks ignited for the Pearl Jam frontman.
Source: Los Angeles Times
TORONTO -- The soundtrack to Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" is Eddie Vedder's first solo album, but he can't take all the credit. True, he played most of the instruments, sings nearly every note and wrote nine of the album's 11 songs. But when he tries to remember where the songs came from, he draws a blank.
"I don't remember a damn thing about it," he says over coffee and cigarettes at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the film recently had its world premiere. "It just kind of flew out. It felt like other things were at work. Things came through, musically and lyrically, that I really didn't have to do too much work on. It felt more like just grabbing sparks around my head and putting them on the fire."
What began with Penn's request for a handful of songs to fit into his nearly complete film grew almost by accident into a brief but cohesive album that recapitulates the movie's journey in miniature.
"Into the Wild" is based on the true story of Chris McCandless, the young Virginia man who starved to death in the Alaska wilderness two years after giving his life savings to charity and severing all ties with his family. Although the Pearl Jam frontman more often retreats to the surf than the wilderness, he connected deeply with McCandless' prickly idealism. On "Long Nights," he channels McCandless' Thoreau-inspired desire to exile himself from the evils of the world, singing, "Have no fear, for when I'm alone, I'll be better off than I was before."
Vedder was struck early, and forcefully, by similarities between McCandless' life story and his own. When he was 18, McCandless discovered that his father, Walt, was already married when he married his mother and had fathered another child with his first wife after Chris' birth.
At 17, Vedder's nuclear family imploded when he learned that the man he had been raised to believe was his father was in fact his stepfather and that his real father had died several years earlier. (The revelation is recounted in "Alive," one of Pearl Jam's early singles.) Although he declines to revisit the past in detail, Vedder makes it clear that he drew on his own experience to inform McCandless' inner monologue. "I had things that I hated having gone through as a young adult that just happened to serve me very well for this job," he says.
When he began to record the music for "Into the Wild," Vedder assumed that his one-man-band versions would eventually be fleshed out. But the songs fell into place with so little time and effort that soliciting outside contributions seemed unnecessary, even counterproductive.
"I thought we'd call in real musicians at some point," he says. "But there's something about not having to explain the part to somebody, not just the part but the direction, the meaning, the soul of whatever the song was. You'd just grab the bass and do it."
Rustic, intimate and compact, the "Into the Wild" soundtrack is a marked departure from Pearl Jam's stadium-size rock, embellished with banjo, mandolin and pump organ, a sound inspired by the movie's outdoor settings. But despite its sparseness, the album has room for intricate textures, like the chiming 12-string guitar of "Setting Forth" and the tribal thwack of the drums on "Hard Sun," which also features Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker on harmony vocals. Vedder drew inspiration from Pete Townshend's oft-bootlegged demos for "Who's Next," which he listened to obsessively as a teenager.
When lead singers start releasing solo albums, the rest of the band traditionally starts double-checking their retirement plans. But Vedder points out that he is the last of Pearl Jam's five members to release his own record. "I was the holdout," he says. "We've been a group for a long time, and we will continue to be so, I hope, for a really long time."
But with Pearl Jam lying dormant while two members care for newborn daughters, Vedder is mulling the possibility of playing a few shows on his own, preferably at venues more intimate than the band's usual arenas. "If you surf 50-foot waves all the time, you can't try too many new things, because 50-foot waves are kind of life and death," he says. "Playing big shows is like that. So you want to take on some smaller waves to rework or refine what you do, and then take it back to the big surf."
Quote from: MacGuffin on September 18, 2007, 03:25:51 AMRustic, intimate and compact, the "Into the Wild" soundtrack is a marked departure from Pearl Jam's stadium-size rock, embellished with banjo, mandolin and pump organ, a sound inspired by the movie's outdoor settings.
eddie vedder, our generation's neil young. :yabbse-wink: thanks for the article, mac.
Interview: Sean Penn and Eddie Vedder
Penn and Vedder discuss their collaboration on the new film, Into the Wild.
On Tuesday, September 18, 2007, Sean Penn appeared before a crowd of film and entertainment reporters to discuss the making of his latest directorial effort, an adaptation of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild. For the interview, Penn paired up with musician and fellow rabblerouser Eddie Vedder, who performed a number of songs in the film and contributed to the score.
IGN published Part One of Penn's interview on Wednesday, focusing exclusively on the filmmaker and his motivations for tackling the film, not to mention his feelings about folks who might object to his depiction of Krakauer's book. In Part Two, Penn exchanges comments with Vedder, and the two discuss their unique collaboration both on film and in real life.
IGN: Can you guys talk about the dynamics of your friendship and creative partnership?
Sean Penn: We go back quite a ways, back to Dead Man Walking, and maybe before in a hello-backstage kind of way. I'm 47 so there's not too much music that comes after '68 that doesn't feel like it's been done before. And then comes [Vedder's] voice that so many times before we met, the voice sat me down. I mean as a songwriter as well as a singer. So there was that, [and] I was predisposed to want him to like me when we met (laughs). It didn't work out too well the first time. But as it went along, I just felt a kind of creative connection, or at least aspired to it. Then it started with other things we talked about in the past. I asked him to play the lead in a movie that I'd written at one point, and there's a tale that maybe he'll tell you about that. So then on this thing, I'd written a script to be in part told by song, so I'd left out narrative in those transitional sequences knowing just the seed of what I needed from the songs to close those gaps. It was about halfway through shooting really through Emile's performance that I started feeling, this is it. This is Eddie's voice. This was the musical soul, the voice of what Emile was bringing. I asked, and then I'll let him take it from here.
Eddie Vedder: First of all, don't feel like you need to ask me questions. I'm just happy to be sitting this close to who I consider not just a great human being but a master of what he does, in all the things he does. These [front row] seats are pretty good but this one's even better. I couldn't turn down that opportunity. [But] I think if you go back to the poet, Sean had some resources. People call him back immediately because of the amount of respect he's gained and earned over the years. I was just another one of those calls and immediately I responded, and said goodbye to what I thought was going to be a vacation after doing a long stretch with the band. Our friendship is incredibly important to me. We've had some really memorable times, whether it's running rapids or having coffee. It's amazing how those things with Sean can be really similar. To work with him is to work with somebody. With Sean, that's where you get into the good stuff beyond hey, how are you doing, how's the family? That's all great but to work with somebody and really get into it, I really enjoy that. That's great, and that seems to further the friendship. It just gets deeper. The work is really where it gets exciting. And as this has formed and it now seems to be done, it was a real gift. I'm really glad that he heard my voice in all that because it's been a real gift.
IGN: What was your songwriting process on this film?
Vedder: It was kind of all different ways, and one nice thing it just kind of, I don't know how, but it just kind of grew organically and it wasn't I think - I may have been intimidated if Sean were to have said, 'We need this, and we need a theme, and it would be nice if it were structured this way or that way, and then it revisits this at the end.' None of that happened, or not consciously, and he started finding places to put the songs. I've been learning from listening to the actors and Sean talk, Sean gave the actors - gave Emile, as closely as Sean was paying attention to detail to tell an exacting story being so responsible to Chris, he also gave Emile the freedom to be that person and how would that person be? What I'm saying is, with the music basically he allowed me to write my own lines. [I also performed] a couple of cover songs, so that was nice to - he gave me a few lines that I could interpret. He gave me a lot of freedom, and I think the biggest thing was trust, which was just kind of unspoken. The story is so inspiring, just so inspiring, and the images were inspiring, and it was so easy to focus that it really became kind of an out of body experience. It went real quick and instruments were being handed to me and we were just doing all the takes real quick, and then we'd send it to Sean and he'd find places for it, and ask for a couple of more, and it just kind of grew that way. I don't know if I'd want to do this again, because I know it wouldn't be as good as this experience was, so I could just leave it at this. This was great.
IGN: Do you have any plans to perform this music live, and/or are you planning a solo tour?
Vedder: I'd like to play I think - there might be a few requests for these songs that might come in. No plans, like I said making are with Sean was I feel like a gift, but I might just take some time off; it's like if you afford yourself to buy a nice chair, what's the point if you never get to sit in it? So I might just take some time with my kid.
IGN: Eddie, what do you think about iTunes being a way for music being distributed today, and Ticketmaster's continued hold over live performances?
Vedder: As of two weeks ago, Ticketmaster is now gone. So there's something about longevity. It's nice to outlast something that's as big and giant and powerful as that. The answer to this is a three or four hour discussion at the end of which there are as many questions as there are answers. It's a bit strange for me that people are weighing in on this record and they've heard it and yet it's not for sale. They got it from being downloaded and that whole deal. As an artist, the problem with not selling records, if that's what we're talking about, and considering that people aren't buying your records because they don't like 'em. I agree with that too, if that would be the case. But I think there are a lot of people getting their music without having to pay you. And it's only $12. I ordered eggs at a little Seattle restaurant and it was $9.50. I'm thinking you can't spend two extra bucks for a record that you put your heart and soul into. I think the problem is that you're going to have to charge more for tickets, which is something we've always been abhorrent to do. Either that, or you're going to have to start accepting sponsorships. That's going to be the normal thing or start selling your music to Viagra commercials, supporting, supporting (laughs), artificial erections. As an artist, that puts you in an interesting position and I'm not sure what or how we'll do it. I'm glad we gave money away when we did when it came from making records. We kind of spread it around and helped people in our community and abroad in different ways. I'm glad we did it when we could. It's different now.
IGN: Have either of you felt a call to take off into the wild like Christopher did in the film?
Penn: I can say yes, and I think he'd tell you the same to varying degrees, in different ways. But I also feel that one of the things that made me so interested in this story - and I've been wrong about these perceptions before - but I feel the way I made this movie is that it's true of everybody in this room and everybody outside this room, that this is a very universal thing, this wanderlust.
Vedder: And for me, if I'm not on tour or in the studio, I'm in nature somewhere, usually some kind of ocean. Playing music has afforded me that. It's not lost on me that it's a tremendous opportunity to be able to spend your life being surrounded by nature. I have a three-year-old daughter now. I'm glad I did things in my 20s that were more reckless because at some point you realize you have a responsibility behind yourself and your need for adrenaline. I'm still looking for bigger waves and I could jump up a few more feet before I go back to the longboard, but I'm glad I did that stuff at the time. For people who see this movie, if they haven't done that in their life, I think it's going to hit them pretty hard.
IGN: Eddie, how has fatherhood changed you?
Vedder: I'm still thinking about the other question about what would I do if she wanted to go on our own. I don't know what I'm going to be able to say when she's going to see pictures of me hanging 30 feet off a raft or over a crowd. There's nothing I'm going to be able to say, and I think she'll survive all that just like I did. I think when I had a child everyone was going tell me I was going see the world through her eyes and everything was going to get this nice gloss to it, hazy images and butterflies were going to look more Technicolor and I kept waiting for that to happen and then thought there was a real problem with me that it wasn't. Then I realized that I was getting more angry, that it was the exact opposite, and maybe it's because of the times and what was happening three years ago and what's still happening. As a band we've maintained a level of activism as citizens of our country and tried to point out things that we thought were - point out injustice and see if we could get other people to act, but it was based on how we felt as band members and what we thought was wrong. All of a sudden I saw the world as it was her world that they were f*cking with, it was her world and that really pissed me off. So it was a different reaction, it wasn't the glowy, lovey-dovey, it fueled my anger. Strange.
Penn: Meanwhile I'm sitting here thinking of what that Viagra commercial could be and I come up with, 'What do you call it Johnny?' 'I call it Jeremy.' (sings) 'Jeremy's spoken.'
Vedder: There's another one too - "oh I'm still alive!" (laughs)
IGN: What would you say if in 20 years your daughter wanted to go on a trip like this?
Vedder: Well, the initial reaction is to send a security guard along, keeping him 50 yards away keeping an eye on her all the time. I can only encourage that at this point. I know that no matter what I do, and already she's been provided a life of travel, I didn't get to New York until I was 25 or to Europe until I was 26, she's been to all these places six, seven times, and she's already beyond me as far as her comfortability around other people to this day for me. So with all that, even though I think she's going to have a really great upbringing and I'm trying to break any kind of chain of negative parenting that I might have survived, I know that she's going to go through a time when she's going to have to assert her independence and I'm going to have to encourage that.
IGN: If Alaska hadn't been the climax of Chris' life, what do you think he would be doing now?
Penn: But for what it's worth what I think, my romantic vision of it is he's doing what Jon Krakauer is doing, he'd be writing, he'd be adventuring more and writing about it more, but your guess is as good as mine beyond that.
Vedder: One of the directions that Sean gave me on - he's leaving the bus before he gets to the river and the river is overflowing, [was] just a short little note he sent up, and he said, 'On this scene, don't be afraid to be too literal with the lyrics. He knows he's leaving, he knows he's leaving the bus, and he's not going back to his parents, and he's not going back to f*ck the 16 year old girl - and then in parentheses, "I don't know why)."
IGN: What do you have coming up?
Penn: Well, I'm going to go sit in that chair he bought (laughs).
As well, I saw this over the weekend, and I really liked it, a lot more than I anticipated that I would. Not sure what the overall view will be, but for me the, it worked, a good cast, solid performances, and I was taken with the way it was shot, I felt it ranged from simple set ups, to imagery and coverage that kept the story/experience fresh. I enjoyed the Hal Holbrook character a lot, and he was solid in his performance. Seeing both this and JJ in the same weekend made for quite a "wondering/lying around thinking" about movies and life type of weekend, so on and so forth, whatever. Completely worthy of a theater experience, but something tells me not everyone will dig it.
This was beautiful and sad, and by the end, very good. The adaptation was a little shoddy. The beginning was like watching Bambi learn to walk, but when it finally got going, it was going. I think Sean Penn did the titles himself. They were bad. And there were a lot of awkward zooms. But it was wonderful to watch a such mediocre filmmaker struggle so hard to tell a story that he loves and desperately wants to share with the world. The performances were wonderful. I wish they had had enough money to shoot in 70mm. As beautiful as the landscapes were in 35mm, they still deserved better. The one thing missing from Jon Krakauer's novel is that the reader can only imagine so much of what he's describing, so getting to see that aspect of the story and see why McCandless loved it so much was a good thing. I'm very jealous of Emile Hirsch right now. And the whole crew for that matter. All they did was fly around to all of these amazing locations and film amazing actors give amazing performances. I'm probably hyping this up way more than it really deserves to be because I got home 15 minutes ago. But you should go see it anyways. It's a good movie.
The reason I blew off the Oscar contenders to see this one is the same reason that I liked this movie. Everything that I thought was going to be there was there, but it was also more than I was hoping for because amid the central story of the boy-following-heart there were some real fragile souls that connected together and strengthened the emotion of the film. All the secondary characters were really vibrant, and the glimpses into these auxiliary stories were just enough to move and entice without straying. Cinematically the nature photography and easy material is probably what's keeping everyone away from this one but I'll agree that if you're in the mood to escape, this is the kind of film that you can get lost in (like the wild).
i can't believe this movie will be released in sweden in fucking march next year.
wasn't there a review here which mentioned that the movie avoids the fact "mccandless was kind of an idiot"? cos that's why i couldn't finish reading the book and why i wont' be watching the movie.
what the fuck is so appealing about a dude who goes out to the wild and dies? unless i stopped reading before the point was made that it's a good thing ppl like this are removing themselves from the gene pool, i don't get it. what a stupid fucking thing to do.
Into the Idiocy.
i can agree with various points on pubrick's post. even though i haven't read the book or have seen the movie i think i know how this guy thinked. judging by the trailer he seems like a isolated person and wants to cut loose all connections around. family, girlfriend and friends that are worth a lot. anyway, he wanted to see wild life with his own eyes and definitely did so. but i suppose he suffered a backlash when he noticed that the wild life wasn't what he thought it was. he became depressed by it and probably realized that he made some mistakes. like he made his own grave and couldn't do anything about it. so some kind of lunacy evolved out that, i guess. pardon my ramblings, this is not how i perceive how the movie will be.
I felt the same way as you, Pubrick. That's why I was surprised to see Penn's take on it was so much more upbeat than the vibe I got from the book. Krakauer interviews some sort of Alaskan woodsman who was aware of McCandless and saw his quest into the wild as idiotic. However, if I remember correctly, by the end of the book (based upon his writings found at the bus) even McCandless starts to see some flaws in his ideas. Albeit, after he got sick but I'm pretty sure that prior to the tragic turn of events, he mentions to one of the last people he meets that after his trip to Alaska, he was to go home.
Now the book isn't really a definitive interpretation of Chris's character. At the same time as seeing him as completely foolish you can also see him as unlucky; his fate being the result of eating some poisonous berries or something. Either way I think he paid for his journey of self-discovery, or what he hoped it would be. That's why I don't think that Penn's celebratory interpretation should be ruled out. And would expect that he would leave room for you to cast your own judgment.
I don't see how he's an idiot. Or even how he's more extreme or more irrational than the randomly selected literary character. But that's a point I heard someone else say about something else, how if literary characters were real we'd think they were way too one thing or another. The movie is strong in the opinion that he didn't know what to make of his life and that he was wreckless, but it also frames the movie in this damned-either-way perspective that I can sometimes agree with.
And there's no way that it's an optimistic movie.
Quote from: w/o horse on October 08, 2007, 10:24:04 AM
but it also frames the movie in this damned-either-way perspective that I can sometimes agree with.
that's the stupid part. surely living is better than not. and he would have been STUPID to think he could go "into the wild" without any survival skills and survive for long. and he's not a "randomly selected literary character", he's a real life idiot, nor am i commenting on the irrational behaviour of Mr Darcy or Heathcliff or whatever the hell you're talking about.
it's just a stupid white male fantasy that to find yourself you have to make yourself poor, homeless, and a wild animal like the "tribal" ppl who are so in touch with nature. come off it, it's better to be part of civlization, there's real useful knowledge out there that you will never find in fucking trees. dude sounds like the kind of "deep thinker" who would go to the woods to take pictures and think they are inherently meaningful.
Quote from: Pubrick on October 08, 2007, 04:40:59 AM
mccandless was kind of an idiot
Quote from: mogwai on October 08, 2007, 08:34:09 AM
i know how this guy thinked.
clearly... :yabbse-wink:
and, yeah, for the people that say this movie is showing this guy as the smartest, coolest, most down to earth guy in the world; sean penn's been trying to make this movie for years, but mccandless's parents own the rights to the story and wouldn't let him make the film unless they had script approval. so, of course it's gonna be a little one sided.
I don't see anything celebratory about this movie. It's fairly objective. It celebrates the youthfulness of McCandless, and his passion, but not necessarily his point of view. I thought this was genius
I guess you'll have to see the movie P. Because I don't see the point in this otherwise. You're talking abstractly, about someone going into the woods and dying, and how that's stupid. Because I'm not going into the woods and dying you should assume I agree with you. But you're dismissing the validity of this story based on this single point, which is the hubris of the lead character, and ignoring all other aspects brought into the narrative, including the elements of desperation and despair and anguish of modern living, the broken family thing, the incompatablity between most people, fractured lives, meaningless labor. . .you know all of that stuff that does happen that is sort of incredibly uninteresting but does affect a great majority.
The majority it affects, by the way, is not white. Don't say "stupid white male fantasy." That's just not accurate. It's definitely a money thing. You hear rich people (which he was) say "I want to give up everything and live the simple life" you never hear people already living those lives say that, like you never hear the bus driver go "Take my retirement money I want to live free and easy."
this was great... although, too many time did he look like jabels...
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi17.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fb59%2F72teeth%2Fintothewild.jpg&hash=e9a021bd23498f8844028efd8f5846cbbccd6d04)
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi17.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fb59%2F72teeth%2Fsq_black_jack_COL_040618.jpg&hash=da17cb5a41e815d48f07be05d54d682bc6bba653)
After seeing this my concerns about this film being an overly upbeat telling of the story were unnecessary. It didn't go so far as to ever present Chris a fool but it was never overly celebratory of him, either. The parent's portrayal was in fact it far, far less forgiving than Chris's which makes me doubt how influential they actually were in this respect.
It left me with the same horrible feeling that the book did. Of course, this isn't a beloved literary character of mine so it's not like if it weren't to live up to my interpretation of Chris from the book that I would be dismissive at all. The opposite is true. The film enabled me to see past the cautionary aspect of Chris's mindset and journey to see the loss and tragedy of it. Regardless of what our judgment of Chris is, he was still just a young man. The simple choice of showing the real Chris's self-portrait at the Magic Bus, at the end of the film really brought this home to me.
Penn, Vedder get into 'Wild'
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Sean Penn spent a decade preparing the film adaptation of Jon Krakauer's 1996 book "Into the Wild." But it only took him a few hours to secure the services of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder to write the soundtrack for the project.
The pair's creative partnership was the subject of a keynote address Thursday. Vedder and Penn were joined in conversation by Michael Brook, who wrote the "Wild" score.
"The script had been structured to have songs carry some of the narrative," Penn said. "We'd use a lot of Michael's stuff to temp to during the shoot. I just asked (Vedder) initially for a song, (and) rather quickly he started sending things down. The most important moment in the collaboration was just sitting at his place watching the movie together. He'd send these songs down, and they'd just work perfectly."
Brook likened the process of blending his music with Vedder's songs to "a kind of conversation" and said he was delighted "how much experimenting there was, which is what I always like best. Some of the music I wrote just reading the book. A lot of that we threw away, but some of it actually wound up in the film. At the beginning, you're not looking at the picture so much. You're just thinking, 'What is the atmosphere?' "
For Vedder, who previously turned down persistent requests from Penn to act in one of his films, writing for "Wild" was akin to finding "the perfect wave. Sean had found the perfect wave by the time he talked to me about it. It was just a pleasure to surf this perfect wave. All I had to do was get back on the boat and sing for my supper."
He added that working with Penn and the family of the story's main character, Christopher McCandless, at top of mind was a welcome creative challenge.
"In our group, or the way we're used to doing it, we have five guys and we're all kind of the boss," Vedder said. "This felt more like, these people I felt responsible to were the boss. I felt really comfortable in that position."
Vedder and Penn have given only a handful of interviews about the project but joked about their true reason for appearing at the conference. "Our motivation in being here today is primarily those briefcases full of cash from Billboard," Penn said with a laugh.
sean penn and eddie vedder on charlie rose:
http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2007/09/21/1/a-discussion-about-the-film-into-the-wild
Just a few thoughts:
- The film is incredible...Penn will never make a better one.
- Penn is undeniably talented and I love a lot of his work...but his pretension undermines almost all of his good intentions. Charlie Rose's brownosing doesn't help either.
- Yet Eddie Vedder's authentic humility, which has been shown time and again, is certainly the counterbalance in that friendship. Many people are averse to Vedder, and his music, but I just can't see that.
- Into the Wild will be the most polarizing film of the year. I know where I fall.
this reminds me a bit of grizzly man. the guy's foray into the wild might not be a valid point, but the film isn't that interested in the point, it's about his anger and his demons. sean penn didn't present his demons as compellingly as herzog did with the documentary footages, but it made a sad and moving film all the same. this film is a little bit more upbeat with its breathtaking cinematography and gorgeous acting. sean penn is doing his best david gordon green in a few spots, he never quite crosses over to keeping it real, but it's real enough.
spoiler
my favorite part, which I'm not sure if it's THE point of the film (it is for me) is when the old man tells him he needs to forgive. that feels like the whole point of the movie and the answer to the kid's question. I'm not sure if it is for the rest or if it's just a throwaway, but I was satisfied after that moment.
It's a sad day. I'm treating Xixax as second tier by ripping a review from facebook and planting it here. I just don't have the interest to rewrite a new review.
Into the Wild is sincere and passionate. Sean Penn believes in the words and mission of Christopher McCandless that his portrait of him looks past any of the ideas of his naivety or stupidity. The film delves so deeply into his personality that the film knows no other narrator besides his sister who gives a history of the father-mother battles and his distance from that situation. The narration buys into what everything McCandless says is not only truthful, but insightful. His death isn't just a stupid mistake, but a self sacrifice offering of his soul to the wilderness, even if evidence says otherwise. Penn can say his film is an adaptation of Krakauer's book, but he inflicts his own beliefs as well. Penn goes all out to make this film a sermon from the church of a renegade college graduate. Camera tricks are everywhere to emphasize the dramatics and much of the dialogue is personal confession from McCandless himself. Penn's over exuberance comes off as him giving into the weight of telling this story by making no moment too small. Technically, I would have cut a lot of the camera effects but this film is driven by its impressions instead of its perfection. The best decision the film does for itself is having an extended length. The get-to-knowing of McCandless in the story makes his eventual death truly tragic. Even if the back story paints a different picture of McCandless, Penn is mostly successful is painting his own image of the crusader. A different film may be able to get a more rounded picture of McCandless, but I'm not sure if it could get a closer one.
My friends are refusing to see this because of an ad that said, "See what happens when a filmmaker stays true to his vision." And it's a plug for some TV or something. They think Penn wrote that line, that it's pretty arrogant. I don't know that he wrote it, but it's awfully pompous. I'll probably still see the movie, even though I don't care about some rich white kid from Emory going off into the woods.
It is a commercial for Samsung and their new "Indie" supported ad campaign. The campaign is happening at many Landmark Theatres and I assure you Sean Penn didn't write the line. Samsung will be doing the same thing for a couple more upcoming films and it will more than likely say the same thing about staying true to your vision. Don't let that stop you from checking this flick out.
(spoilers)
a visually amazing made movie, with great music score and some impressive directing by mr penn. featuring a great performance by emile hirsch but an even more and moving performance by hal holbrook. i actually loathed some of the real christopher mccandless choices; leaving the girlfriend and ron franz (holbrook's character) behind him. the only thing i didn't like was the slaying of the moose.
i hope this gets some academy nominations, including one for eddie vedder.
i liked it. i didn't like it. alls i know is that Hal Holbrook definitely deserves several awards
...maybe more later...
Saw this 2 months ago and forgot to review it. Into the Wild is definitely a hard hitting drama, something you'd expect from Sean. But there are many moments in this movie that aren't expected and extemely beautiful. Emile Hirsh is amazing. I hope he gets some awards. Vince Vaughn works complely in this film and Hal Holbrook is always wonderful to see. The music is married to this film so much that it's almost it's equal. So, check it out
I'll say this, my fiancee and I went to the car and cried about it. It's so deeply sad, to me, because there's just incredible pain that everyone suffers in the film. And it really feels raw, in the content, not the cinematography or acting (as has been said). I didn't buy him at first, but Emile Hirsch gives a good performance by the end. He's too much of a dude for all the profundity, but then he settles into it. Also it was probably weird seeing someone who actually is the age they're portraying in film, so he seemed almost too young, which was a good choice by Penn.
Speaking of, Penn is weird. I imagined Sean Penn sitting over my shoulder during the film, and when some strange decision (highlighting the word "people" in one of the books, the crappy text morph on the title, the hand-written letters, even down to Eddie Vedder doing the score, among many other things) would come up, he would whisper, "It's ok, I'm an artist, and this is my intention and it means what it means." There were definitely two moments where I said aloud, "Penn is weird." Can't remember which though. But then I think his directing style is very much like one building a collage, not of other styles but of these bits and pieces of Chris' life. And I think the movie is better for it.
My favorite performance was definitely Keener, she's just so wonderful and warm in this. Definitely got my Xixax nom.
Quote from: Gamblour. on January 01, 2008, 01:39:13 PMI'll say this, my fiancee and I went to the car and cried about it.
haha... yeah same here.
I loved this... I read the book a while ago and really wanted to see Penn's interpretation of it and I was curious about Emile Hirsch and his performance. It was a lot better than what i expected and in my opinion it stayed true to the book. You can look at the story in many ways, and truth is that nobody knows a lot of the stuff that happened or how it happened. I dont necessarily see Chris as a hero or an idiot, he was just someone who wanted to do his own adventure and escape a life that did not suit him. It does not matter if he was prepared for it, or if it was the right thing to do, but he seemed to enjoy most of the ride.
The film was excellent. I'm happy cause I didnt have so much faith in Sean Penn, but he shot a beautiful film. Music was great too. I'm surprised it got a nomination for Hal Holbrook and not others, especially soundtrack.
Anyone have the Eddie Vedder track 'Guaranteed'? I don't want to buy the whole ablum on iTunes.
Quote from: Sleepless on April 19, 2008, 10:56:55 PM
Anyone have the Eddie Vedder track 'Guaranteed'? I don't want to buy the whole ablum on iTunes.
You should. It's worth it.
I have the song but not sure how I can send it to you?
I've PM you my email if you're able to do that :)
Into The Wild: The False Being Within (http://www.farnorthscience.com/2007/10/13/media-watch/into-the-wild-the-false-being-within/)
Interesting article that supposes that Chris McCandless was schizophrenic.
I re-watched this last-night and finally was able to find something uplifitng. Regardles of the article, the re-watch has raised my opinion of this film significantly.
link don't work.
Interesting idea, but the reason doctors don't go on record about mental illness like this is not because it's a taboo (they work in the fucking profession, for fuck's sake) but because it's unprofessional to speculate based on a second-hand account. Posthumous theoretical diagnoses are out there, like the great Lincoln's Melancholy, but they're rooted in things like research and not conjecture or some sort of annoyance with liberal Hollywood.
Quote from: Gamblour. on January 13, 2009, 08:21:50 AM
Interesting idea, but the reason doctors don't go on record about mental illness like this is not because it's a taboo (they work in the fucking profession, for fuck's sake) but because it's unprofessional to speculate based on a second-hand account.
Good point. I'd like to know more about the statistics concerning other people losing their life in Alaska because of Jack London-esque adventures that were mentioned in the articles it's really interesting
This is such a great film. For some reason I found myself in the IMDb page and reading people comments. I would hunt down every person on the IMDb message boards and blow their fucking heads off.
I didn't think this movie had particularly a lot to do with going to die in Alaska because you're a dumbass kid who doesn't know that homo sapiens are inescapably social creatures... Its obviously a romantic quest for freedom from logic and the establishment in general-- the repercussions it carries. It has to do with uncompromising identity and impulsive desires-- all that beatnik quasi-buddhist shit... Only instead of finding thyself, the dude ended up dying from a berry due to poor knowledge of botany. Granted many of us, finding ourselves in a similar predicament, would perish. The point is that this character gives the "will to live" the unconditional priority over rationalism. Think how say, Bob Marley died because he chose not to believe in cancer or gave his own theories more emphasis. Think of a popular line, "Dad let me find that shit out myself ok? even if it's gonna be fatal." That is what many of us are missing and that's what makes America the country with the greatest number of old fucks.:) Meet anyone from the "third world" and you will undoubtedly notice the vast contrast in impulsiveness. We are bound by law, while this kid went out of his way to disregard what already made sense to him. Some people don't know how to make sense of shit and some people don't like when shit makes sense cuz it makes life too predictable and cramped. Hence, superstition and religion and wars and death... etc..etc..etc... i.e., it feels better because it actually feels like something.
i still stand by what i said about the real life dude and the book, but i've since seen the film and it was damn good. i think The Pledge is my fave penn but it's hard to rewatch, this i hope to revisit again (maybe a good hangover movie?)
it's nothing like my experience reading the book or what the real life dude must hav been like,.. it's heaps likeable, probably due to the necessary endorsement by his family as someone else has mentioned. successful also thanks to great performances and score, not that it means anything to cut a film into its components.. what really stands out as the key to its success is the TONE it establishes, something like a feeling. it gives us something to immerse ourselves into emotionally before we hav time to think about what's happening in a rational way.
i guess that's sort of what you're saying, polski, but i would focus on the way the film itself is motivated by the consistent feeling that seems to feed the main character. it's something that we feel rush by but never really capture. it's encapsulated perfectly in his last moments - fucking BRILLIANTsequence that makes something special out of what appears to any logical thinker to be the result of idiocy.
This is exactly what i wouldn't watch hungover. Getting all sappy because some kid decided to be stupid instead of smart would make me feel like shit the next day bringing about yet another (psychological) hangover. It would be like waking up next to some ugly bitch you had sex with out of drunk sympathy. I can see his point though, and its admirable, i suppose it's more unique but, if in retrospect, i can't look back and justify my "tears" so to speak. Fuck that. It isn't fucking Elephant Man. This is like the indie version of Passion of the Christ.
at the video store where I work (ed) this was for ages the most rented movie out of something like 4000, which was insane for us because we really never expected that. I think one of the reasons the film does so well is because it portrays this stupid situation in a way that is appealing. the main character's idealism is highlighted and his basic idiocy all but ignored, which in my view is the easy way out. you're left with a bunch of superficial visions about society, conformity and personal freedom. it could be argued that making the film in such a subjective point of view is an achievement in itself, but it's so damn easy on the audience. only when hal holbrook appears the movie offers an intelligent counterpoint to this self deluded guy and that's when the film gains some true value for me.
in contrast, grizzly man has the same kind of character at the center and it manages beautifully to both portrait him in all his mad stupidity and with a sincere reverence for his free spirit and willingness to follow his dreams, however illogical. herzog never shies away from the fact that any person who does what any of these two guys do are embarking in an quest of the absurd, and in the end got horrible, primitive deaths because of it. penn on the other hand, puts a lot of sugar and heroism and although i think this is why so many people love the film, to me it's bothersome. what herzog did I find more rewarding and difficult to pull off.
Yeah the approach is different, while the latter is inquisitive the first is just self-righteous for no apparent reason. Herzog knows it's crazy, it's been quite a recurring theme in his films. Like when the penguin in the Encounters at the End of the World commits what allegedly looks like suicide. Who knows? Live fast die young. In case of Into the Wild, it obviously boosts the spirits and makes you feel present and engaged in life...then, after showing you reaped benefits, it tells you kindly to fuck off back to your cubicle. :) I can't be more annoyed...
it made sense within the kid's context; he was running away so he did something that was good for him. I wouldn't judge him or glorify him because of what I saw in the movie; plenty of people do it in real life, and some of them turn out alright. I enjoy seeing the world through his eyes and fell for kristen stewart and broke my heart when the old man kept on asking him why he was running. aside from that the movie's literally forgettable because I don't remember anything else that happened. I think he was a likable enough character, not someone that I could personally identify with, but definitely someone watachable, and I found no need to bring my own real world values to counter the arguments he was making in the film.