Thaumatrope* Features: Into the Wild (2007)

"I read somewhere of how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong, to measure yourself at least once..."~Alexander Supertramp

This movie haunts me in a deeper way than even the novel which inspired it. My wife thinks I'm nuts because the plot can wrongly be boiled down to "dumb kid goes into woods and dies as a result of his ego and ignorance." This may in part be true, but it is only part of the message (I think). Maybe, it's a "guy thing"...

While the book was a comprehensive exploration of Christopher McCandless's experience, as well as the adventures of others who similarly sought solitude in nature, the movie is more like a poem. Christopher, who is "reborn" as Alexander Supertramp, stands in for those of us who seek to go deeper, farther and longer, in pursuit if some connection. The film depicts the mistakes he makes, and the losses he suffers without even realizing it until too late, but in the end it stands as a piece of powerful truly American film-making. A rare feat now-a-days.

Starring Emile Hirsch, written and directer by Sean Penn, with music by Eddie Vedder, I cannot recommend this film highly enough. It shares an organic, spiritual energy with another favorite of mine, Easy Rider (1969), as both deal with the road and the American soul.

Like many movies that don not feature superheroes or giant robots this film appears to be in limited release. Anne and I hunted it down and found it playing on one independent theater here in river city. Seek it out.



Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!
* Historical Note: A very early version of a "magic lantern" was invented in the 17th century by Athanasius Kircher in Rome. It was a device with a lens that projected images from transparencies onto a screen, with a simple light source (such as a candle). In 1824, the Thaumatrope was invented by (the earliest version of an optical illusion toy that exploited the concept of "persistence of vision") by Dr. John Ayrton Paris.