The Biography

Author: Jon Krakauer (b. 1956)

First published: 1996

The Film

Year released: 2007

Director: Sean Penn

Screenplay by: Sean Penn

Starring: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Catherine Keener, Hal Holbrook

Context

Jon Krakauer’s coverage of the story of Christopher McCandless began in 1993 with a feature article entitled “Death of an Innocent” for Outside magazine. The story gained public attention quickly, in part due to the nebulousness surrounding McCandless’s unconventional life and untimely death. After graduating from Emory University as an honor student in 1990, McCandless, the son of a prominent Virginia family, gave his savings to charity and headed west to live as a vagabond. His whereabouts were unknown for two years until his body was found in an abandoned bus off the Stampede Trail in Alaska’s Denali Borough. He was twenty-four when he died, which medical examiners posited was the result of starvation.

Krakauer took a more in-depth look at McCandless’s journey from the affluent suburbs of Virginia to the Alaskan wilderness in a full-length book, Into the Wild (1996). An expansion of his Outside article, Krakauer retraced McCandless’s steps and interviewed people who had met McCandless along the way in order to better understand the general impetus behind the young man’s decision to live off of the land. Krakauer also uses the book to analyze the literature that McCandless had been reading during the final years of his life and comment on the natural beauty of Alaska. The book proved highly popular, but also drew controversy by some who felt it romanticized and glorified McCandless despite what they perceived as the foolish unpreparedness (and possible mental illness) that led to his death.

In 2007, after years of negotiations and production holdups, actor and director Sean Penn helmed a film adaptation of Krakauer’s book. Penn served as both the director and screenwriter of the film. With actor Emile Hirsch portraying McCandless, the film aimed to capture the final two years of the young man’s life as he traveled across the American West. Produced on an estimated $15 million budget, much of Into the Wild was shot on location in Alaska, fifty miles south of where McCandless had lived and subsequently died. The film proved to be part of a cinematic trend of the early twenty-first century that explored the theme of man versus nature, illustrated by films like The Perfect Storm (2000), Cast Away (2000), Grizzly Man (2005), and 127 Hours (2010).

Film Analysis

Penn’s film is largely faithful to McCandless’s story as told by Krakauer, but the two versions of Into the Wild are distinctly different entities. Arguably the primary driver of difference between the works is perspective. The book is a patchwork of investigatory journalism, interviews, and first-person observations. As Krakauer traces McCandless’s steps across the American frontier, he speculates about the young man’s motivations and fears. Krakauer’s analysis of whether or not McCandless was delusional or suicidal is in part interpretation of what he was reading and writing in his journal during the last two years of his life. However, it is also the result of Krakauer filtering McCandless’s journey through the memories of his own youth, as the author admits to some degree. Krakauer views McCandless as idealistic and naïve because that is how he himself was in his twenties. At one point in the book, Krakauer illustrates the similarities between McCandless and himself by recalling the time when he tried to climb an Alaskan mountain called “Devil’s Thumb.”

Meanwhile, in the film adaptation of Into the Wild, Penn presents McCandless’s story exclusively from the young man’s perspective and dramatized to work onscreen. Where the book can be described as a narrative patchwork, McCandless’s journey through the prism of Krakauer’s perspective, the film feels more singularly coherent by removing Krakauer’s voice. One especially effective way that Penn establishes the film perspective as primarily McCandless’s is by including excerpts from his journal. Printed in yellow font, these excerpts move across imagery of McCandless in the wild. Emile Hirsch, who plays McCandless in the film, narrates these excerpts through voiceover.

Another distinct deviation from the book is evident in the fact that Penn never outright questions McCandless’s motivations for abandoning societal norms or depicts his time living in the wilderness as foolish or misguided. While Krakauer, too, ultimately (and controversially) celebrates McCandless as a hero of unconventionality, the book does examine the more negative aspects of its subject’s choices and personality and speculates about his mental health. By presenting the story almost wholly from McCandless’s perspective, the film tones down this ambivalence and amplifies McCandless as a hero figure. Subsequently, Hirsch’s performance is one of a primarily joyful, philosophical person on a clear search for meaning. This is especially evident in one scene where Hirsch’s McCandless has a heart-to-heart conversation with a middle-aged man named Rainey (Brian Dierker), who talks about the trouble he is having with his wife. McCandless remarks that, “Some people feel like they don’t deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps to the past.” Rainey responds by saying, “That’s a hell of an insight. Jesus! You’re not Jesus, are you?” Despite the humor of the scene, Penn invites a deeper interpretation of McCandless as a Christlike figure—someone who walks the earth looking for love, peace, and truth.

Despite the fact that such themes led to a complex, heavy tone in the book, the film Into the Wild is for the most part significantly lighter and more hopeful. In addition to the screenplay, this tone is established by the cinematography. A combined effort between director Sean Penn and director of photography Eric Gautier, the film’s camerawork emphasizes the natural beauty and sunshine that surrounds McCandless. Often times the protagonist is seen as a small figure within the wide-open spaces of the American wilderness, which conveys a feeling of endless possibility. When McCandless is distraught or facing challenges, Penn does not let the darkness of these scenes linger for long.

Both the book and the film share a narrative structure that begins with the last time that McCandless was seen alive. The book weaves in and out of different parts of McCandless’s life, while the film strikes a firmer balance between his last days in Alaska, when he was living out of an abandoned bus, and the two years leading up to it, during which he traveled as a vagabond under the name Alexander Supertramp. Combined with Krakauer’s investigative journalism, the fact that the book focuses on McCandless’s death from the beginning infuses a sense of suspense throughout the narrative. In contrast, the film’s mostly straightforward narrative structure prevents it from ever feeling like a mystery.

Where the book and the film are the most similar is in their central themes. This includes the rejection of materialism and other markers of late-twentieth century American mainstream culture. In the book, Krakauer highlights the unusualness of McCandless’s decision to reject societal norms and live as a vagabond by contrasting it with his upper-middle-class suburban childhood. In the film, Penn expresses these values visually. McCandless tells his parents he does not want a new car because he is happy with his old Datsun. Then, in an especially revealing scene, he abandons the Datsun, the last vestige of his materialistic life, by the side of the road and continues on foot. In case there was any doubt to his commitment, Penn also shows McCandless burning the last of his money. Both book and film look sympathetically on this rebellion, presenting it as liberating, if difficult and potentially dangerous. However, the film in particular emphasizes that McCandless ultimately realizes he goes too far by isolating himself from not just materialism, but from social bonds with other people.

In this way, Into the Wild is in large part a story about the pursuit of self-knowledge. Like his literary heroes Henry David Thoreau and Jack London, McCandless believed that the only way one can truly understand oneself is by stepping out of society. Penn’s depiction of McCandless traveling across the country often feels two-pronged. On one level, McCandless is discovering who he is spiritually; he is achieving self-knowledge by submitting himself entirely to nature. On the other, Penn’s depiction is that of McCandless becoming an adult in a more conventional sense. Throughout his journey he is tested by hardship and meets valuable friends and mentors who teach him life lessons. Some of these figures, like the young woman Tracy Tatro (Kristen Stewart), who meets McCandless at a campsite and becomes a potential love interest, are fictionally expanded beyond the facts of the book. Penn’s slight changes serve to reinforce McCandless’s final realization that relationships with others are the most transcendent experiences of life. While tragic, the film takes the uplifting view that McCandless ultimately found and understood the meaning he searched for.

Significance

The book Into the Wild was quickly considered a classic work of nonfiction, and has become a staple in high school curricula. In addition to becoming a best seller, it has been translated into multiple languages. Similarly, Penn’s adaptation proved to be both a commercial and critical success. Between the domestic and international box offices, the film grossed a total of nearly $56.3 million. In addition to earning an 82 percent positive rating on review-aggregating website Rotten Tomatoes, the film went on to earn two Oscar nominations, for best editing and best supporting actor for Hal Holbrook’s performance. The soundtrack, by musician Eddie Vedder, was also popular and highly praised, winning a Golden Globe for best original song.

However, both versions of Into the Wild have proven controversial. More than anything, they have been criticized for celebrating McCandless’s attempt to survive in the Alaskan wilderness without proper experience or equipment. According to reports, there have been hundreds of hikers who try to make a pilgrimage to where McCandless died every year since the publication of Into the Wild. The fact that so many people, often inexperienced in wilderness survival, feel so moved by the story that they undertake the journey is evidence of its lasting power. But for many Alaskans, this phenomenon is both stupid and dangerous. There are numerous accounts of those following in McCandless’s footsteps requiring rescue or even dying. The popularity of the film has been blamed for a surge in interest in McCandless and in the number of adventure-seekers inspired by him.

Into the Wild helped make McCandless a common focal point for debates over appropriate conduct in the wilderness and the glorification of living ascetically, especially in Alaska. Detractors often suggest that McCandless, and by extension Krakauer and Penn, promote a dangerously romanticized and self-centered view of nature. Supporters argue that McCandless’s journey is worthy of conversation; regardless of whether or not the actual decision to live in the Alaskan wilderness was misguided, his motivation to question the state of society and the materialism that it values is important. Krakauer and others have furthered this positive view by continuing to present evidence that McCandless did not simply starve to death due to incompetence, but was compromised by accidental poisoning.

Further Reading

Bibliography