Sean Penn creates a film that allows us to enter the life of a young man how dies in the wild in his attempt to find his life on his own terms. Notably, Penn connects us to the reality that this is not a tale of fiction by showing us shots of Christopher writing in his journal, a notebook the real man kept through his journey and up to his death in the wild. These shots ground the viewer in the reality of the character's story.
Penn also captures nature in a way that connects the main character to the land and animals in a specific way. In one sequence we see Christopher reading Tolstoy with intercuts of shots of a hawk soaring near the mountains and a bee pollinating a flower. The images show us what is happening within Christopher as his heart and mind soar as his soul is being pollinated by the words of the novel he takes his time to devour.
The way that Penn films the relationships of the characters is very specific as well. There is a slowed down nature to the way they interact. With the severed connection to the modern world Christopher and the people he meets are able to have a different rhythm in life as there are no unimportant urgent matters to attend to. Instead we watch as the characters connect in close-up shots and the pace goes down even more when Penn chooses to show them in slow motion (Christopher and Tracy together in the desert). All of this reveals that life has different rhythms which are dependent on the belief systems we live from, though we often believe it is dictated by the circumstances of our lives. The film is a memoir of discovery, connection and man in the wild and the beauty and hardships of a young man's journey to find himself.
