I finished the movie Into the Wild for the second time. It's becoming one of my favorites. It is a difficult movie to watch. The story is beautiful and tragic. It hangs heavy with me. After the movie is over I can feel the film for a couple days...
I think the film is such an experience for several reasons:
1. In some ways the character, Alexander Supertramp, reminds me of my bubby. The movie is sad...and makes me even sadder when I imagine this happening to my brother.
2. In general, the character is likeable. The people he meets love him. You, the viewer, love him. It's sad to imagine their feelings and reactions when they found out what happened.
3. The end is just so tragic. He journeys to Alaska alone. While there he comes to realize that "Happiness only real when shared." However, at this point he's trapped. The river is flooded and can't be crossed. He also mistakenly eats a poisonous plant. So you long for him to leave, journey back to his friends, and really start embracing life...but he can't. You watch him die.
4. And the story is just good. It's inspiring. You love what he's doing and how he's doing it.
I also like how the film is set up. It is set up like chapters of his life. The chapters have a flow to them. You see his childhood, becoming a man, learning wisdom, etc. And while the flow of the chapters makes a lot of sense, the timing is all over the place. The things he learns have a study flow, a logical progression. However, the time in which they're learned jumps all over the place. He might learn something while on the Bus in Alaska. Then his next lesson comes before he even leaves for Alaska. Perhaps that helps us as the viewer to see life more completely...not as a series of random events, lessons learned along the way, but as our collective experiences, relationships, past and present, shaping us and molding us into who we are. I like that.
The movie awakens in me a desire for adventure. I love his spirit. I love his refusal to settle. He's not charmed by things of this world: power, fame, wealth. I do not want to be charmed by these things either. However, there is also a twinge of sadness throughout the movie. You see him in relationship with people he meets along the way...and it's sad that he's choosing such a lonely road. Especially, in the end, at his end, when he realizes what he's missing, the people he's missing...and as happy as he's been in the mountains of Alaska, it would have been made sweeter by sharing it with loved ones.
It's hard to reconcile these two things in my mind. He awakens in me a desire to live freely and adventurously. However, I also share his desire for community and relationship...for a family. I'm wondering how the two go together. I don't think the only answer is living like a hippy in Slab City. Part of me wants to sell it all and just go on the road, into the wild. However, I know from past experiences, and also from watching his experience, that would not ultimately satisfy. We are made to be in relationship and in community.
Ultimately I want to honor God with my life. I don't want to settle. I don't want to just slip into the mainstream. However, I also don't want unrealistic romantic ideas of what life should look like to keep me from being happy or content.
I'm excited about Bolivia. It will certainly be an adventure. I'm stepping into the unknown. New job. New people. New place. New language. New culture. I pray that I can constantly rely on the Lord for strength, for wisdom, for peace.
4. And the story is just good. It's inspiring. You love what he's doing and how he's doing it.
I also like how the film is set up. It is set up like chapters of his life. The chapters have a flow to them. You see his childhood, becoming a man, learning wisdom, etc. And while the flow of the chapters makes a lot of sense, the timing is all over the place. The things he learns have a study flow, a logical progression. However, the time in which they're learned jumps all over the place. He might learn something while on the Bus in Alaska. Then his next lesson comes before he even leaves for Alaska. Perhaps that helps us as the viewer to see life more completely...not as a series of random events, lessons learned along the way, but as our collective experiences, relationships, past and present, shaping us and molding us into who we are. I like that.
The movie awakens in me a desire for adventure. I love his spirit. I love his refusal to settle. He's not charmed by things of this world: power, fame, wealth. I do not want to be charmed by these things either. However, there is also a twinge of sadness throughout the movie. You see him in relationship with people he meets along the way...and it's sad that he's choosing such a lonely road. Especially, in the end, at his end, when he realizes what he's missing, the people he's missing...and as happy as he's been in the mountains of Alaska, it would have been made sweeter by sharing it with loved ones.
It's hard to reconcile these two things in my mind. He awakens in me a desire to live freely and adventurously. However, I also share his desire for community and relationship...for a family. I'm wondering how the two go together. I don't think the only answer is living like a hippy in Slab City. Part of me wants to sell it all and just go on the road, into the wild. However, I know from past experiences, and also from watching his experience, that would not ultimately satisfy. We are made to be in relationship and in community.
Ultimately I want to honor God with my life. I don't want to settle. I don't want to just slip into the mainstream. However, I also don't want unrealistic romantic ideas of what life should look like to keep me from being happy or content.
I'm excited about Bolivia. It will certainly be an adventure. I'm stepping into the unknown. New job. New people. New place. New language. New culture. I pray that I can constantly rely on the Lord for strength, for wisdom, for peace.
6 comments:
ooh, well written. and the first time i saw it i bawled through most of it. poor jesse. it reminded me WAY too much of lucas. or bubby, as you say. heheh (pookie).
do we own that movie? I haven't seen it lying around
"The movie awakens in me a desire for adventure." ...yes, it's so true! It was the soundtrack that grabbed me first, and then the book, and then I finally saw the movie - I don't know what exactly it is that makes this simple story so beautiful but I think you've described it pretty well.
oh yeah you said you got it on your ipod. I wrote about this movie like a year ago:
http://journeythewild.blogspot.com/2008/05/into-wild-great-movie-with-lesson-to-be.htmlbut overall the movie was excellently done.
i was just talking to my dad about that movie.
good post. it's strange how there can seem to be such dissonance between two things that could be so beautiful when blended together. it's something i think about a lot.
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