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    		•

    FILMS

    Cast Away (2000)
  • Starring Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt

  • Directed by Robert Zemeckis

    • There was a lot of publicity surrounding this film when it first came out. As I understand it, Robert Zemeckis took a year off from filming Cast Away (during which he worked on What Lies Beneath) so Tom Hanks could go through the physical transformation from chunky-FedEx employee to sinewy island caveman.

    I love when directors do stuff like this. No make-up or special effects. No fat-suits to be later doffed. Drop the love handles, Forrest! We're going on hiatus until you drop 'em!

    Admittedly, doing something like this smacks of "gimmick," as it is the perfect info to feed to the press so they can ooh and ahh over the little factoid (which obviously worked, as I'm repeating it over a year after Cast Away's premiere).

    I've heard people complain that there's almost no dialogue in Castaway; that too much time passes without Chuck Noland (Hanks) talking. I'm not lying, I've heard people say this. And it's a rather silly complaint. If one is purchasing a ticket, one would think that one knows the title of the film for which one is purchasing (circular logic be damned) and from the title, it should be common knowledge that the movie is about a man stranded on an island. Alone. With no one to talk to. I'm surprised there was as much dialogue as there was; but then, I guess it's not dialogue—it's more of an alternating lonley-pathetic-victorious-mad monologue.

    Tom Hanks should be commended. Not knowing much about acting, I can only presume that it's incredibly difficult not to have anyone to act off of, to help you immerse yourself in the scene or character. It's just him and some coconuts. (Though I couldn't help but think of his character on the '80s television show, Bosom Buddies, Kip Wilson. When he starts yelling, "I have made fire!" he sounded very Kip-ish. Or maybe that's just what Hanks sounds like when he's yelling.)

    This film has a very "what would I do if I were in that situation" factor to it. While watching it, I had a lot of thoughts bouncing around in my head, wondering if I'd be smart enough to survive. Could I make fire without matches? Could I find or make shelter? Could I find food to sustain me? Or would I just give up and die.

    There's a line in the Anthony Hopkins/Alec Baldwin film The Edge, where Hopkins says that people stranded in the wilderness don't die from starvation or exposure, they die from humiliation. Granted, stranded people probably physically die from starvation or exposure or by being mutilated by animals, but the point is, they most likely gave up living long before they died.

    Would I give up? Isn't the point of life to have a purpose to wake up the next day? To live? Or is it enough just to have your heart pumping, being able to breath in and out?

    A purely hypothetical situation to ponder, as no one ever knows how they'd react until placed in such a situation. Heaven forbid.

    Cast Away also talks about time. How we waste it, how it rushes past us, how we try and do so much in so little and wind up missing most of what's happening because we're too busy trying to be efficient with it. Noland learns the valuable lesson of appreciation and time. At the beginning of the film he says that no one should ever commit the sin of turning their back on time—which is ultimately what he does when stranded on his island. There, he learns what's important—an expensive and hard-learned lesson in which he loses everything to learn it.

    This film also shows us how fragile our bodies actually are when we're taken away from civilization. Much like in Stephen King's The Stand, we realize how important doctors are. Without physicians and grocery stores and car and tools, humans are incredibly fragile and delicate creatures. Noland learns this all too quickly on the island.

    (Fair spoiler warning: Stop reading if you don't want to know the ending.)

    The worst part of Cast Away is: he loses Kelly (Helen Hunt)! Four years on an island isn't bad enough. He's gotta lose Helen Hunt? That bites. Of course, he does end up with the cute red-headed arc-welding angel girl. (Or at least we can assume this from the final scene.)

    Overall, I like this movie. I've probably seen it three or four times and enjoy as much the last time as I did the first. It almost has the It's A Wonderful Life element to it, where you feel good after watching the movie. Or at least I did. After watching Cast Away, I was just happy to be alive.

    A shame that it sometimes takes a movie to make me realize this.