some original thoughts (aka Movie Review)...

ok, so i watched the movie Into the Wild last night. Started a bit hokey and sentimental, but then i kinda got absorbed by it. In the end it was enjoyable and pretty sad. There was a nice dichotomy between the kid, Alexander Supertramp, and the people he met along his journeys. He kept advocating for getting up and going being with nature away from society. His acquaintances kept trying to remind him that human contact was also valuable (i.e. love, forgiveness, sharing). So while Alex forged on to Alaska and his eventual death, he finally starts to realize that all the beauty and the experience in the world is a bit lacking without others. Or at least thats how i understood it. Solid performances by Emile Hersch (he lost lots of weight during the filming, kinda creepy) and others. Including a very sad bit with Hal Holbrook. The traveling and alone scenes were filled with Eddie Vedder's a bit too self-indulgent and preachy tunes. Overall, I guessed I enjoyed the movie. At home later, more discussion followed, after reading up a bit more on Alexander Supertramp, we debated whether he was heroic, naive, stupid, foolish, genuine, spoiled, disillusioned, hopeful, or hopeless. I guess we decided on all of the above.

Silly side note: I was struck during the post-film conversation that the notion of calling a film "thought provoking" might be redundant. I mean, if you've thought to say that it is thought provoking isn't it already obvious. What about seeing something that you describe to someone as "making you want to speak out." Too late, you already spoke out about it. Redundant. This side note is my "free gift" to you all.