Cast Away
 Aug 20th, 2007
Advantages:
tom hanks, great acting, beautiful scenery, very moving
Disadvantages:
long runtime, though that's not a disadvantage !
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
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Story
Characters / Performances
Special Effects
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  Pyrokeet
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Member since:28.05.2003
Reviews:63
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Review rated by 9 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
Some people mistake Cast Away for the British reality TV program 'Castaway'.
No way, reality TV is arguably rubbish, but this film is a shining masterpiece, equal parts amazing acting, superb direction and beautiful camerawork. The film follows the tale of Tom Hanks as Chuck Noland, a busy and important man in the 'FedEx Family'. His work obliges him to travel far and wide at the drop of a hat, providing motivational speeches for FedEx employees in far-flung reaches of the globe.
He enjoys his work, and has a girlfriend and family he really loves, so inevitably, it all goes wrong. Noland is in a FedEx aircraft that goes down in flames, and washes up alone on a deserted island somewhere in the South Pacific.
This makes the film somewhat unusual, as Noland is the only human character on-screen for much of the movie, an acting feat that earned Hanks 'Best Actor' at the Academy Awards.
Luckily for Noland, a number of items from the plane wash up on the island with him and he is able to use his ingenuity to put them to good use. For instance, an ice skate doubles up as a mirror and an axe, video tapes become rope, and so forth.
The scriptwriters got these ideas from real survival experts - they presented them with a list of seemingly random items and asked what they could
be used for. This lends the film an air of realism, as nothing seems forced.
Amongst the items is a Wilson Sporting Goods brand volleyball. After Noland cuts his hand and angrily bats the ball away from him, a bloody handprint is left upon its surface, resembling a face. This leads to the ball becoming a character in its own right, appropriately named Wilson. This allows Noland to preserve his sanity a little longer, as it gives him something to talk at and keep him company. The name Wilson is doubly-appropriate, as Hanks' wife's surname was also Wilson. Scenes with Wilson the volleyball have been widely parodied in popular culture, in the film Madagascar for instance, and the TV series Family Guy.
The film has a four year interval in the middle (if that makes sense), and we later see a bearded, tanned, and very much leaner Noland. The crew too had to break for this, for a whole year in fact, for Hanks to adjust his body accordingly. We see that Noland has become an expert at fishing and survival techniques. A few days later, Hanks is awoken by the sound of something washing up on the shore, a section of a Port-A-Loo, from which he tries to make a boat.
Cast Away is a very moving film, right from start to finish. I may be biased because I think Tom Hanks is an acting genius, but there is no doubt that this is an excellent film. From the moment of the horrifying and startling plane crash (named in Maxim's Top Ten Horrific Air Crashes), to the feeling of desolation and hopelessness as Noland realises his situation, we're emotionally involved with him and rooting for him all the way.
There are moments of jubilation too, for when Noland learns how to effectively create fire he is absolutely ecstatic and it makes you think, 'How awesome would it be to be the person that invented fire?'. The depth of our involvement with the character is no doubt due to a combination of fine acting and the fact that there is nothing else on the screen to be interested in. Whilst this is unavoidable, given the synopsis, it's also very clever as it allows us to see so much of the character.
The soundtrack is used to focus us even more on Noland, in that there isn't one for the entire time that he is on the island. This gives no distractions to Noland's plight, but also doesn't reinforce it, just shows it for what it is. A couple of moral lessons are woven into the fibre of this film. Implicitly there is the anti-materialism lesson. As Noland has been without any modern conveniences or fancies for four years, he will have discovered that all such things are entirely superfluous to a human's enjoyment and survival. Indeed, if/when he returns to civilisation, he might find himself repulsed by so much laziness in people, getting machines to do everything for them, and eating rubbish.
Explicitly given is the 'Don't give up hope' lesson, which Noland reveals to us in a soliloquy, he says he must keep breathing, because tomorrow the sun will definitely rise, and 'who knows what the tide will bring in?'. This is a good lesson, take each day as it comes, who knows what things will happen to you each day.
Very much embedded in this film is the product placement of Federal Express. The company did not pay for their inclusion in the film, but the extensive support they leant to the film-makers throughout could be considered payment. FedEx made sure all their goods featured in the film were authentic, and they even loaned the crew the use of their buildings for filming some scenes in. Similarly, whilst the first half of the film is set in 1995, FedEx were called FDX Corp at the time, yet no mention is made of this old name. UPS were allegedly approached before FedEx, but didn't like the thought of one of their planes going down. A couple of possible references to other films I noticed here. In the plane crash scene, one of the crew is impaled by a piece of flying debris, and Noland cradles him in his arms briefly as he gasps his last. This reminded me of the scene in Catch 22 (the book, I've not seen the film) where Yossarian does similar, humourously trying to button the wounded crewman's top button as he complains of being cold, and then adjusting the flak-jacket, only for all the crewman's guts to fall out..
Another is that at one point Noland asks for a Dr. Pepper drink, which is Forrest Gump's favourite drink, who is also played by Hanks.
Someone came up with the idea of Cast Away : The Series. This eventually turned into the hit US show, 'Lost'.
In conclusion, this film is an absolute masterpiece. It's simply incredible to behold, and I'd recommend it to absolutely anyone. In fact, I wish I hadn't seen it, so that I could see it for the first time again!
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27.08.2007 17:01
Great review. Flo
20.08.2007 14:03
A great review! I love this film!!