Into The Wild - Movie & Sountrack Review

So I finally had the opportunity to see the long awaited film based on Jon Krakauer's book Into The Wild. Sean Penn has been trying to make the book into a movie for about ten years and finally was given the rights to do so.

The story goes that Jon Krakauer would only allow the story to be made into a movie with the permission of the McCandless family. So After hearing Sean Penn out and holding him off over the years for various reasons, the movie was made.

I read this book back in 1996 or 1997. I was really intrgued by how they were able to trace Chris's footsteps all across the US for two years leading up to his death in the Alaskan wilderness.
This was originally a story written for Outside Magazine and from that article, many people from all over the US who had encountered Chris, came forward with their little stories of of he was a part of their lives. This is what allowed Krakauer to take the magazine article and make it into a book.

Ok there's my little history of what happend over the course of history from the time of the article to the movie. So now let's review the movie and the soundtrack.

The movie starts off with Chris making his way "Into the Wild". From there it will jump back and forth telling the tale of his life and showing his time alone in the wilderness of Alaska. A lot of the the story was able to be told because of the people who surrounded him. As for the time in Alaska, there were several journals found and well as lists through the time and pictures to trace back what his life was like.

I really enjoyed the film and thought that Penn did a great job of putting it all together and keeping you interested in the 2 1/2 hour movie. Part of what really made the movie was the scenary, long shots and the soundtrack. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam took on composing the sountrack to the film.

The movie is composed of several songs 11 which make up the soundtrack.

Setting Forth
No Ceiling
Far Behind
Rise
Long Nights
Toulumne
Hard Sun
The Wolf
End of the Road
Society
Guarenteed

All songs written and recorded by Eddie Vedder.

It certaily is a change from the rockin' sound of Pearl Jam, but it fits really well into the movie. Eddie obviously had seen the movie and wrote the songs to fit each part. Very mellow, but fantastic to hear Eddie's voice in a nice raw format like this. He really did a great job.

The movie kept it's pace and kept it interesting, the soundtrack was awesome as well. I would highly recommend seeing this one, you will enjoy it.

Cheers!