Into the real wild in Sean Penn film

The location list for director Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild” reads like a road trip itinerary for adventurers. The film, which memorializes the wide-ranging travels of Christopher McCandless and his ill-fated quest to tough out a season alone in Alaska, creates a picture of off-the-grid Western America as sublime as one will ever find in a movie.

(For other film locations, check out the Travel story “Best Picture Oscar Contenders Set in One Place, Shot in Another.”)

The film crew took great care to visit the actual places McCandless, played by Emile Hirsch, explored during his post-college freedom trip.

Q: What location would you most like to visit from “Into the Wild”?

“Everything was shot on location,” says John Kelly, the film’s executive producer. “It became evident we were going to make the truest movie for the story.” That meant 100 shooting days and 170 days on the road, often flying from 20-degree weather in Alaska to 120-degree temps at Lake Mead on the Arizona-Nevada border. Filmmakers even re-created the abandoned school bus where McCandless’ body was found in the wilds of Alaska, about 40 miles from where the real bus still sits.

Kelly says that director Sean Penn also used very few extras in the film based on Jon Krakauer’s book of the same name. “Those are mostly real people you see along the way,” he says.

Here are some of the real places/travel destinations to check out:

Salvation Mountain in Niland, California: Leonard Knight, founder of the “God Is Love” folk art shrine, explains his jumble of found items and painted inspirations to actors Hirsch and Kristen Stewart. Leonard is the real deal; we’re guessing this scene was largely unscripted. Great footage too of scenes in and near nearby Slab City, where squatters thrive on a dismantled military base in the vast nothingness east of the Salton Sea.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park two hours east of San Diego: Hirsch and Hal Holbrook, nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar, head up a rocky patch of desert in a poignant scene that rather defines Holbrook’s character as loneliness squared. The Fandango website names the spot as Blow Sand Hill in Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area, big with the dune-buggy crowd. The site’s film commentator Jack Barth suggests heading off to Font’s Point within the park, “for an equally great vista that would surely be more to Chris McCandless’ liking.”

Other locations in the West include the Grand Canyon/Hualapai Reservation in Arizona (for the river scenes); Healy and Cantwell, Alaska; Los Algodones, Baja California; Wild Horse Sanctuary, South Dakota; and even Los Angeles, in all its seemy, downtown hubbub.

— Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

[Photo: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times]

Permalink | E-mail | Print | Add to My Trips

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28, 2008 at 6:23 pm by Mary Forgione and is filed under Alaska, Arizona, California, Las Vegas, News, Tips & Advice, Outdoors & Adventure, Palm Springs, San Diego, Weekend Getaways. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.