Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" is superb

Saw it this afternoon. Wise, tragic, life affirming, heartbreaking...

If they can't bring themselves to give it Best Picture, than please give old Hal Holbrook a trophy for Supporting Actor. Everyone does a great job, but his performance is one of the most touching and noble things you'll ever see.

Go see it if you can.

which is very rare for me with a movie (half the time, I cant remember what it was about the next day)...

I think EMile Hirsch was incredible in the movie, he had an intelligence onscreen that it so rare in an actor, I thought he really made the picture...I've got to rent some of his other movies now:)

and he's not too big to begin with...It's the role of a lifetime and he did it justice.

I saw it a few years ago and dont rem name and cant figure it out on IMDB.

He was bi-polar and they did a good job of showing the manic.

It wasn't "Into the Wild" was it?

:shrug:

Gotta put it on the watch list.

The whole movie was beautifully done. I think there's very little question that we progressives are the most talented:toast:

I read the book years ago and the movie captured the story just as well as the book I think (although I think the movie was a bit harder on the parents than the book...but that could be the fault of my memory not the book or the movie)

Even so, I doubt it will get best picture. I can see why it was not a box office smash (I don't know how much money it made but it certainly didn't get a lot of attention) it was almost as if Penn couldn't decide if he was shooting a documentary or a drama. Again, I enjoyed it but I think the 'caught between documentary and drama and not even clearly put together as a "docudrama" style' would not appeal to a very wide range of audience. Just my opinion of course.

and those don't tend to do as well at the box office (nor did it have much marketing support). It will get a bounce at Oscar time as I'm sure it will pull in a few nominations. Assuming they do the right thing, I'll be rooting for the old pro Hal and anyone else who is nominated.

Interesting comment about the parents' treatment in the book (which I'll now have to read).

Part of it is that I don't like Krakauer's writing. I really didn't see what was so interesting about McCandless's trip into the wilderness. He just seemed like an unprepared idealist who wasn't lucky enough to make it out alive.

I think that would be a great role for Penn