Cast Away is a sort of Tom Hanks does Robison Crusoe one-man show. In the course of the film we see him lose weight, grow a beard and dreadlocks and become best friends with a volleyball called Wilson.
THE CAST
Tom Hanks-Chuck Noland
Helen Hunt-Kelly Frears
Nick Searcy -Stan
Chris Noth-Jerry Lovett
Lari White-Bettina Peterson
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Written by William Broyles Jr.
Rated (PG) duration 143min
THE PLOT
This is a modern take on the Robinson Crusoe tale. Tom Hanks plays Chuck Noland a highly motivated Fed-ex executive who is constantly travelling around the world sometimes to the detriment of his friends and family.
At the start the film is set around Christmas in 1995. Chuck has spent time with his fiancée Kelly and they have just exchanges presents before he has to leave on a business trip. At the airport they say their goodbyes but before he leaves he promises Kelly to be back by New Year’s Eve. The Fed Ex plane he is on runs in to a ferocious storm and develops engine trouble eventually crashing in to the Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles away from its plotted course. Everyone on board is killed apart from Chuck who manages to survive by clinging on to an emergency life raft. After days of drifting he is washed ashore a desert island with only the dingy, the clothes he is wearing and some washed up fed ex parcels from the planes wreckage to help him survive. He soon realises that rescue is very unlikely and we follow Chuck has he comes to term with his situations and eventually begins to cope with survival on the island.
One of the parcels he finds contains a volleyball, which he uses as a companion by painting a face on it and calling it ‘Wilson’ after the manufacturers. Wilson becomes his only source of company and unlikely as it may sound a relationship develops between them. Four years go by until by accident an opportunity for escape from the island presents itself. I don’t think it would spoil the story too much to say that he does eventually manage to go back home, that is never really in doubt. However the audience like Chuck don’t know what has happened there during his absence and presumed death, so the real attraction of the last third of the film is to find out how Chuck will cope
with his return to civilisation and if he can pick up his life from where he left off.
BACKGROUND AND THEMES
Tom Hanks is one of the most successful actors of recent years. He was first nominated for an academy award for his 1988 film ‘Big’ where he played the part of a child trapped in an adult body. Although he didn’t win the award he was successful in 1993 with his portrayal of a man dying of AIDS in the film Philadelphia (1993). This marked a slight change in career as he tended from now on to take more serious roles rather than making the comedies or romantic comedies he used to make earlier in his career. A year after his Oscar for Philadelphia he won another for Forrest Gump (1994) and became only the second actor to win back-to-back academy award. He also received nominations for Apollo 13 (1995) and this film five years later.
Hanks’s appeal lies in his ordinariness in both looks and manner. More than any other actor he is the everyman figure, audiences identify with him and sympathise with his characters. These attributes are very important in a film such as Cast Away where ultimately it is Hanks performance that has to carry the film. Cast Away reunites him with the director Robert Zemeckis who directed Hanks in Forrest Gump as well making other successful films such as 'Back To The Future' and 'Romancing The Stone'. Cast Away seems to be a bit of a departure for Zemeckis who tends to be at his best directing action adventure films or at least films that deal with a bigger canvas such as Forrest Gump.
Cast Away is a ‘small’ self contained film for the most part it is only Hanks that features and it is very much dealing with the psychology of being alone and surviving in an alien environment. Despite its narrow ambitions the film does have clearly discernible themes the most obvious of which is time. Chuck is a control freak, he is obsessed with time and time management. This is good for his work where he has to organise efficient delivery of parcels around the world but his obsession seems to be making him neglect his personal life. He is constantly working and always has a pager with him and travels abroad so often that he and Kelly can’t seem to find a spare day to get married.
After building this side of his life up (maybe a little to obviously) in the early part of the film we are then presented with the sharp contrast of his fight for survival on the island. On the island time is to a great extent meaningless and is solely measured by the rising and setting of the sun and the daily hunger pangs he suffers. In some ways keeping track of his time on the island by counting the days, weeks, months and years become the only way he can retain his sanity and not give up hope.
Another obvious symbol of this point is that the only personal possession of any value to himself that has survived the crash is an antique watch that Kelly gave him just before he left. This watch, which contains a picture of Kelly, becomes one of only two tangible links he retains with is home and past life. The other link is one of the fed ex parcels washed up on the shore that he determines not to open but to eventually return to it’s sender. His love for Kelly and this self- imposed task become the focus of his existence and manage to keep him sane.
Another theme of the film is fate and how small insignificant decisions we make in our lives sometimes become affected by events beyond pour control and lead to unforeseen consequences. If Chuck had not decided to take that trip and had stayed with Kelly they would have married in the New Year instead that short trip became a four year ordeal. We are posed the question if something is fated happen can anything change prevent it from doing so?
One final observation the film makes is how fragile our comfortable existence is in our modern life. We take so much for granted, clean water, food, shelter all of which are necessary for our survival. It is only when we are deprived of our machines and power to control our environment, in the same way, as Chuck is, that we realise how far removed from our basic existence we have become. Life on the island is a constant struggle against the elements and the only tools that Chuck has at his disposal are his cunning and his will to live.
A large part of the film features only Chuck surviving on the island and thus would contain little or no dialogue. This is a problem for the narrative of the film and can make the story less appealing. In the Robinson Crusoe a 'Man–Friday' his introduced to provide company for the hero and act as a sounding board for his thoughts. In Cast Away this role is filled by a volleyball (!) that Chuck find in one of the washed up parcels. After he accidentally places his bloody hand on the ball and leaves a palm print he notices a similarity it has to a face and thus the volleyball develops into ‘Wilson’ his constant companion. With the passing of time ‘Wilson’ become a real friend to Chuck to the extent that Chuck risks his life to get him back when it’s washed away in the sea. This is an obvious narrative tool used by the director to make the story easier to tell and it works well and doesn’t feel out of place within the context of the story.
OVERALL IMPRESSION OR IS IT ANY GOOD?
The subject matter for this film always ensures an interesting story as long as it is handled correctly. In this regard Robert Zemeckis has done a fine job. He tells the story at just the right pace and divides the time between Chuck’s life before the crash, on the island and after his return, perfectly.
The special effects are well done without becoming bigger than the story. The plane crash sequence was especially impressive as are some of the sequences at sea both during the storm and when Chuck tries to leave the island fighting against the incoming tide. The photography is outstanding as is the camera work.
Chuck’s life on the island and his struggle to survive are portrayed very realistically but what elevated a competent piece of filmmaking into something special is the performance by Tom Hanks. In this kind of film the viewer is always tempted to put himself in the place of the hero and ask ‘what would I do in that situation?’ but in order to really sympathise with the character and take his struggle seriously the hero has to have an ‘everyman’ quality about him that everyone can associate with. Tom Hanks has this quality and was the perfect choice for the role. I don’t think this film would have worked as well with someone like Bruce Willis in the lead.
Hanks’s performance is perfectly measured. His transformation from overweight middle aged businessman to a lean, hungry savage is both physically (he had to gain and lose large amount of weight for the movie) and emotionally convincing. His final return home is touching but not overtly sentimental, a rarity in Hollywood movies. An academy award nomination was well deserved.
The only other notable role in the film is filled by Helen Hunt, another Oscar winner. For an actress of her ability she is rather underused in the film but her performance is still captivating despite the little time she is on screen.
The conclusion to the story is neat and ties in with the scenes at the very start thus giving the whole film a sense of completeness. Overall this is a very enjoyable film with a fine performance from Tom Hanks that on its own would makes the film worth seeing.
Thanks for reading and rating this opinion
© Mauri 2002
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08.01.2003 17:54
Wilson!!!
01.04.2002 11:14
I don't much like Tom Hanks, so have so far resisted attempts from my fiance to watch this, LOL!
02.03.2002 00:12
Fantastic op :) I watched this film a few weeks back and I thought it was amazing. Lyns x