#CAST AWAY MOVIE MOVIE#
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That seems like two catastrophes when one would have done, but director Bob Zemeckis uses the storm for scenes of in-flight fear, wisely following Alfred Hitchcock's observation that from a suspense point of view, an explosion is over before you get your money's worth. But the film only scratches the surface of the emotional undercurrents at work in these disappointingly brief scenes.Noland hitches a ride on a FedEx flight across the Pacific, which is blown off course before crashing after an onboard explosion. What culture shock must Chuck endure? How does he resume his life when family and friends have died, married or moved on? How can he reconnect emotionally with a woman who has believed him dead for four years? And why did Cast Away squander so much time on the island, watching Chuck learn to catch and cook crabs, when the heart of the matter lies in these all-too-brief passages?īroyles’ finest writing is contained in the Memphis scenes, and Hanks and Hunt play them for all their worth.

#CAST AWAY MOVIE MOVIE#

Only the movie is now winding down at exactly the point when things get the most interesting.

Clean-shaven and much slimmer, Chuck is whisked back to Memphis.

After a perilous sea journey in a makeshift raft, he gets rescued. He becomes a person who has realized that to survive is not the same thing as to live.Įventually, Chuck hits upon a way of getting off the island. But Hanks the actor manages an even subtler transformation from a desperate man to one who has given up all hope. Then comes the abrupt tile card: “Four Years Later.” As has been well publicized, Hanks accomplished the transformation from slightly pudgy bumbler to weather-beaten hardbody by taking a year’s hiatus from the production schedule. Wilson serves not only as a device to let us know what’s going on in Chuck’s head but also his means of mental survival. But each turns out to be a solution to one of his difficulties.Ĭhuck solves his companionship problem by initiating a friendship with a volleyball he calls “Wilson,” which comes from one of those stranded packages. FedEx packages from the ill-fated flight wash ashore, each containing seemingly impractical items such as video tapes and ice skates. The film laboriously tracks the castaway’s methodical problem solving. As days go by and the possibility of rescue grows remote, he turns his attention to eking out an existence on the picturesque but inhospitable isle. He washes ashore on an uninhabited volcanic island in the middle of nowhere. In the distressed aircraft and then in rolling seas as he clings to an inflated raft, flashes of lightning reveal to him - and us - a terrifying scene in which survival can only be a fluke.īut the fluke happens. The film never loses Chuck’s point of view during this truly frightening nighttime sequence.

Then, while on a trip to Tahiti, an explosion aboard Chuck’s plane causes it to crash into turbulent seas. Zemeckis films the early scenes in Moscow, in Chuck’s hometown of Memphis, Tenn., and in airports and airplanes with busy camerawork and actors in motion. He is a man who lives by the clock and who preaches to employees to “never lose track of time.” Chuck Noland (Hanks) is a FedEx systems engineer, jetting off at a moments notice to far-flung corners of the globe to fix problems.

#CAST AWAY MOVIE FULL#

And it is here that the film fails to take full advantage of its theme. Having endured physical and psychological torments in isolation, the hero finds his return to civilization is as fraught with peril as his island existence was. William Broyles Jr.’s screenplay follows this well-trod path, but then it pushes into the less-examined territory of coming to terms with a successful survival. But invariably one is also asked to ponder the difference between mere survival and living - and to question what it means to be human in the absence of human society. Such tales of island castaways ask one to rethink the basics of life: water, food, heat and shelter. Of course, this is an oft-told tale, going back to Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and encompassing The Swiss Family Robinson, Lord of the Flies and The Blue Lagoon.

Cast away movie