Into the Wild (2007)
Starring: Emile
Hirsch, Vince
Vaughn Director: Sean
Penn Rating: R (Restricted)
I remember reading the actual account this film was based
on & I felt sad. From what I read, I assumed that the subject of the news
article had been suffering from some form of mental illness. So I knew the
ending & this movie provided the history.
Sean Penn's film presents us a young man who is not mentally disturbed, but a
person who is clearly "troubled," a person seeking a Self unstiffled
by the realities of modern, materialistic society. This causes him to engage in
very few relationships, and those he does form are on his own terms & with
his right to terminate at any time. This is more than a kid running from a
bickering upper middle class mother & father. I don't know how many other
viewers saw the hero (anti-hero hero really) as much mentally ill as a rebel.
When you do see it that way, you can't help but sympathize with the
parents--and particularly with the sister who seemed very close to him.
In the opening sequence, we see Nemo (I call the main character "Nemo"
because he saw himself as a reality in search of an identity)graduate from
college & offered a place at Harvard. His parents are ectsatic, but he's
not interested. The fact that he graduated with honors does not necessarily
rule out mental illness. Schizophrenia, for example, often doesn't manifest
until young adulthood.
Nemo carries on full conversations with himself, acting out the parental anger
& dysfunction. A major symptom of schizophrenia. He makes up wild names for
himself. Another sign of borderline personality disorder. However, his quest
for perfect freedom in Alaska is on a par with any one who is inspired by a
goal, vision of a painting, etc. Nemo logically plans his quest over an
extended period of time, demonstrating that if he IS mentally ill, at least
he's very high functioning.
I see Nemo's Alaska goal as being a form of "The Great Work" for him.
It's accomplishment will free him from the lower forms of reality & raise
him into unified, perfected/pure consciouness, a transcendental unity with One.
He has overcome his father & mother and in doing so, has become his OWN
father & mother. He states as much in the course of the movie. This is a
metaphor of alchemy & magick ritual--it is also found in the New Testament
teachings of Josahua ben Joseph (Jesus.) Nemo has also cut off the emotional
attachment to his sister, his last long term relationship. He does not have
sex--even when offered by a beautiful girl. Celibacy, another stage of The
Work. He eats strange plants & roots--yep, yet another stage. Finding the
bus in the middle of a gorgeous nowhere was like a gift from a spirit, an
offering literally out of the blue.
When in extremis, he encounters a bear who snifs him, then passes casually on.
A totem image? hallucination? The bus was as much a gift as it was as a warning
he failed to read correctly. His failure to assess the element of water in his
calculations/metaphisical formula was, in the end, tragic. Such is the fate of
many of attempt "The Work" on totally on their own.
It is tragic, not just pathetic as some reviwers claim.
Maybe, unlike most of us who don't take risks for the sake of comfort &
security, Nemo could have found his inner Self, his true Godhood.
Maybe he could have really healed, but didn't.
That's a tragedy for any broken soul.
PS NOTES: Hal Holbrook is excellent as the bitter, sad old man who lost his
family--and he regenerated via his relationship with Nemo. As matter of fact,
the persons he managed to connect with, all benefited from the relationship. There
was a great deal of good in him that went unrealized & unfulfilled
The music in the film is really good & very appropriate to the scene they
illuminate.
At the films' conclusion, a photographic self-portrait of the man seems to
indicate a man more troubled than at peace.
Review: JEFarrow
Updated 1/10
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