Caleb and I (and our good friends Ryan & Lindey) went to go see this movie last night. It is only playing at the Angelika in our area. Caleb was eager to see this movie because he was fascinated by the book by Jon Krakauer and wanted to see how Sean Penn directed this movie.

"Into the Wild" is a story of a young man who graduates from a prestigious college. He is dissatisfied with the materialism of life and is hurt by his wealthy dysfunctional family and thus decides to become a vagabond. His name is Christopher McCandless and he wants to prove that you don't need money to have satisfaction in life and more poignantly, "that relationships are not the principle source of happiness in life." So, he cuts off all ties with his family and leaves to find himself.

He starts out with just a little money from his savings, his old yellow car, a backpack, and some clothes. He winds his way across the United States on his adventure, meeting a myriad of interesting people that he loves at a distance...with his ultimate goal of making it to Alaska to love off the land. He finds an abandoned bus in the Alaska frontier and that is his home for the remainder of the story. He lives off the land and fulfills his dream. He then ultimately realizes that he wants to go back to society. Chris writes often of his reasons but eventually decides that nature is only a refuge for a short while, that true happiness can only be shared with others.

Eventually he dies in the wilderness at the age of 24... the way they put together his story is by his journal entries he wrote religiously and interviews with the people he met on his journey.

This movie touched me in so many ways...first, the beauty of nature. This movie is breathtaking to watch.

There is also a message of the importance of forgiveness that the friends he meets try to impress upon him. He comes in contact with several Christians that tell him about the love of God and forgiveness. The old man that he meets at the end says, "Forgiveness is love and love is when God's light shines on you."

This movie reinforced the concept that God created us to be in community with people and the darkness of living a lonely life. Sadly, Chris meets his demise before he can act on this lesson learned.

Lastly, if you have never been with someone when they die, you get a small taste of that through this movie. Caleb and I have experienced this and it is so life changing...the ultimate contradiction of being tragically sad and amazingly beautiful.

Also an amazing soundtrack...check out this movie or better, read the book. This is one of those movies that leaves you thinking...and then you go to bed and you wake up thinking about it...like I am now.