Blu-ray Movie Reviews

This is the true story of Christopher McCandless. Freshly graduated from college with a promising future ahead, McCandless instead walked out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of adventure. What happened to him on the way transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for countless people - a fearless risk-taker who wrestled with the precarious balance between man and nature.

Sean Penn has been impressing me more and more with both his roles in film and his efforts behind the camera. Into The Wild is a moving film about a young college graduate that decides to go off the radar and embark on an adventure across the country and into the wilds of Alaska. Along the way he makes friends and faces some interesting challenges in the wild. The film is based on true events and I must say it was quite inspiring in spirit. The photography is outstanding, as is the score and original songs by Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder. Newcomer Emile Hirsch also gives a stellar performance as the young traveler finding his place and living his dreams.

This was one of the last HD DVD releases from Paramount and this Blu-ray release is every bit as good as the previous HD transfer. As I mentioned before the photography of this film is stunning, especially in the wide open landscapes of the southwest and the Yukon area of Alaska. Detail and depth are first rate and fine object detail is as good as I’ve seen on any HD release. The image is just impeccable in terms of detail and how clean and defined the image appears. Fine film grain is preserved perfectly and I didn’t notice anything in terms of distracting elements.

While the HD DVD release was limited to a Dolby Digital Plus mix, this new Blu-ray encode features a full lossless Dolby TrueHD mix. While the difference wasn’t huge, subtle spatial design cues were noticed and the track had more open quality to it. The highlight of this soundtrack for me was the score and original songs by Eddie Vedder. The rich vocals added a lot to the emotion of the film and the score was balanced perfectly with the onscreen action. It literally added another character to the story. The sound design relied heavily on the ambience of the outdoor environment and the 5.1 mix does a great job with spatial cues and putting you there. The soundstage is extremely wide and everything is balanced nicely from channel to channel. Dialogue sounds very natural in balance and timbre and imaging in the front soundstage was solid.

Extras are identical to the previous HD release. There are two featurettes that seem to be spliced from the same feature. The first includes interviews with the cast and a look at the story. The second has more to do with production and focuses on the process and some of the issues Hirsch had to deal with in character. The trailer is also included.

It would be hard to walk away from this one unmoved. Most could only dream of being brave enough to take a journey like this one. Penn has done an outstanding job bringing this story to the big screen and Paramount has done a wonderful job with the improved Blu-ray presentation. Highly recommended.