Into The Wild

What is remarkable about Into the Wild is not the subject of the film. This is a story of a boy afraid to grow up -- so afraid to become his parents that he puts his life at risk repeatedly. By the time he has completed his journey, and is ready to grow up (or has) he is too far into jeopardy to live more life. In some way, this is a universal story of coming of age. Some people never complete the journey. Some people complete is rather rapidly -- and I do consider two years rather rapidly, since it took me nearly a dozen. Most people complete it and pay some price -- but not usually such a large price.

So what makes Into the Wild remarkable is not so much its subject matter. Variations of this story play out in many lives. What makes Into the Wild so remarkable is that it focuses on a particularly archetypal telling of the story, and it does so extremely well. There is, in fact, no better telling of this kind of journey, whether literally as a journey, or in its many other guises. In fact, considering how frequent the journey takes place in the lives of many people, it is remarkable how seldom the arc of this tale is told.

What comes to mind, in cinema, to compare it to? Wim Wenders' road movies, if they were ever conclusive. A few others' work. Nothing conclusive. Into the Wild is unique.

(By the way, contrary to so much talk about the real protagonists' life, I don't see the film as a story about society, or getting back to nature, or any of that. Those are points along the journey, red-herrings or macguffins, and little more.)

Chinese Ghost Story and The Simpsons

In "A Chinese Ghost Story" the Taoist sings an empty-headed song that captures and mimics the Taoist poetry of Lao Tze in his Tao Te Ching. A friend seeing the silly song and dance declared it a "Homer Simpson Song". And so it is. Which suggests that in some ways, Homer Simpson embodies "the Way"(Tao).