Kids, through old eyes

My children have started producing grandsons with some degree of frequency, which causes me to think about the passage of time in my own life and the lives that lie ahead for the three young males added to the clan in recent years. Our newest grandson rolled off the assembly line in the past week, joining his two cousins.

Mrs. bee is spending a few days this week with R and A and their newborn, while I tend the home fires. In addition to contemplating aging, change, children, and other mysteries of life, I've had a few hours to watch movies I've been wanting to see. Each time I load a DVD, I'm amazed by the technological changes occurring in the span it took my children to progress from being kids to having kids.

Last night, I finally watched Into The Wild, a movie that's been on my must-see list for more than a year. It was written and directed by Sean Penn, based on a non-fiction book by that title about a young man named Christopher McCandless, his decisions, and their consequences. This turned out to be a film that blended into my preoccupation this week with youngsters and transformation.

I've been a young man in my time, and I've known many other young men, so I can speak with some authority on the types of situations young men often get into as a result of their disinterest in caution and taking time to think things through. Chris, the young man portrayed in Into The Wild, is highly intelligent and idealistic and has traces of a reckless streak, a combination of characteristics that lead him to abandon his life of privilege for what he believes will be the freedom of life lived at its most fundamental level. As the title suggests, he winds up in the Alaskan wilderness, unburdened by the conveniences of civilization.

Sean Penn did some excellent work putting Into The Wild together, and this is a movie worth seeing more than once. I was impressed by its photography and the performances of its supporting cast members, particularly Hal Holbrook's as an older man whose wise advice Chris disregards. The Holbrook character is one I can relate to in a film examining American ways of life that are foreign to me. At roughly 148 minutes, Into The Wild is long but held my interest all the way. From my perspective as a grandpa, I'll recommend this as a movie every dad should see while his sons are young. Penn didn't intend his film as a cautionary tale, but it worked out to be like one for me.