The Indian Runner (1991)
Directed by Sean Penn
Two brothers cannot overcome their opposite perceptions of life. One brother sees and feels bad in everyone and everything, subsequently he is violent, antisocial and unable to appreciate or enjoy the good things which his brother desperately tries to point out to him.
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What critics compared The Indian Runner to
This is, however, the kind of narrative ambition that also eluded Sean Penn (in the similar-feeling “The Indian Runner”) as well as Cianfrance’s own cinematic father figure, John Cassavetes, in his later films.
Into the Wild is Sean Penn's fourth feature film as a director, following 1991's The Indian Runner, 1995's The Crossing Guard, and 2001's The Pledge.
From The Indian Runner to The Pledge, the main characteristic of his directorial work is his unquestioning closeness to his material and characters -- in its need to get hungry, wet and cold along with the protagonist, the picture feels like an account of the filmmaker's own exploration of nature during the course of production.
After the arch dramatics of The Indian Runner, the considered tone poetry of The Crossing Guard, and the anti-thriller excellence of The Pledge, the Oscar winning actor pools all his talents to take on one of those too good to be true storylines.
There are some who think Penn is a better director than an actor, although there's insufficient evidence to make that assessment; he's only got three other features on his director's resume, "The Indian Runner" (1991), "The Crossing Guard" (1995) and "The Pledge"(2001), versus his more than 30 acting roles in films.
After the deeply internalized sorrow, longing, and rage examined in The Indian Runner, The Crossing Guard, and The Pledge, Into the Wild find another way to explore identity and damage, and to make them immediate and more abstract.