A forgotten masterpiece of the 21st century

Walking in the street on a sunny afternoon with a light breeze blowing and the sun touching my face, listening to Eddie Vedder's musical score for Sean Penn's masterpiece "Into the Wild," I feel momentarily free like Andy Dufresne's co-workers on the jail roof top drinking beer in the sun. Sounds rather cliche but it is true and probably the closest I might ever get to the freedom that Christopher Mccandless, aka Alexander Super tramp experienced on the road and in the wild.

One scene from the film keeps swirling in my head. When Ron Franz (the late Hal Holbrook) tells Christopher that he wishes to adopt him when he comes back from his journey into the wild. In this one scene we encounter the old man's quiet desperation, as he, and every other person who met Christopher, clings onto him, mysteriously, impulsively. Christopher of course is stubbornly keen on his journey, on his destination, not ready yet to come to terms with the lessons of his incredible journey. As we experience the freedom and endless potential of the open road and the wild, we also repeatedly "meet" Christopher, the vagabond and wanderer, through his personal encounters with other people. Above all, we experience an ultimate love, the goes beyond the love for nature, poetry, the wild landscape. That is the love for another human being and the lust for life, which Christopher, unknowingly, bears.

Mr. Franz clings onto Christopher, like a dying man to life itself, impulsively, without any trumpeting, but with a great and inert desire that cannot be manifested on the screen (this is where a great actor may shine). This is one of the most heart felt and searing moments in the film, that speaks truly from the soul.

Christopher Mccandless may not have realized it, but he changed the lives of people with his journey. Sadly for him that was the end of the road. Sean Penn made this film that is about love, ultimate and sacred, above all a love for images and film-the most extraordinary medium that man ever created to represent the world.