Zemeckis has produced a true beauty with this film, and coming from the side of the director, it has to be said that he is one of the best out there, and this film really shows it.
Tom Hanks plays Chuck Noland, who is a systems engineer for FedEx, basically he tries to make things more efficient, and we first see him in Russia at Red Square, were we see that his life is ruled by the clock(and that he has a bad tooth), "We live and we die by the clock, we should never turn our backs on the clock", or something to that effect.
He flies all around the world trying to make things work a bit faster, making sure packages take less time, and on his return to Memphis, America, we first see his girlfriend Kelly, played by Helen Hunt, who puts in a sterling performance, although she is not really in it much. At a family gathering at Christmas, we realise the extent to which Chuck is busy, as he is paged and
has to fly off again, and he also receives a pocket watch from Kelly, which we will soon realise will become very important. But this flight will be a little different to normal.
At first we are lead to believe it is turbulence, but then the plane hits massive trouble and goes down in the middle of the pacific, 100s of miles off course, as they had to fly round a storm. The plane scene is simply fantastic, and as the water gushes into the plane, the visual effects could not be better. Chuck manages to escape with the life raft that was given to him, and reaches the water's surface, only to be almost killed by the rotor off the plane, which was done using computers, and never really was there, of course. Chuck manages to escape this, and floats away on the stormy ocean.
The next thing we hear is the life raft being punctured, and Chuck peers over the rock that he has hit to get the first glimpse of the island, in the dark, with amazing lightning affects, and we see the moutain for the first time.
Chuck soon realises that he is all alone on the island, as he collects the FedEx packages that wash up on to the island, which he soon opens to find videotapes, dresses, papers, ice skating shoes and a volleyball, but one package he doesn't open, and the things that once seemed important are gone, his watch doesn't work, nor does the pager, and time is meaningless in this environment.
At this stage I began to wonder what was going to happen, as with no conversation things would have been pretty dull, but after exploring the island and making a shelter, Chuck realises that he must create fire in order to cook the fish that he catches, and this ain't easy. When doing this he cuts his hand on the stick that he is using and throws the volleyball at the rock near him. On calming down, he realises that the blood print on the ball looks like a face, and so he puts in the details, and places it on a stand. On making a fire again, he begins to talk to the volleyball, and since it is a Wilson volleyball, it becomes known as Wilson.
The two become good friends, and the relationship develops well, as we all need companionship in isolation like that, and this event actually happened by mistake, when the creators were researching what it would be like to be deserted on an island, and most of the other events took place as well.
In 4 years we return to the island, and we see Chuck as a thin man with long hair, and very capable of surviving on the island, with what are now great skills, but the relationship with Wilson has become a little tense, and it becomes obvious that the two are really getting along too well. Without giving too much more away from now, basically Chuck escapes from the island, only to lose Wilson in the ocean after taking a battering from the sea, and this scene I find is very emotional, and the music is brilliant and really comes in at the right time. After all, for 4 years, Wilson was his only companion, and the lose is really a sad one to watch. The escape from the island is also very emotional as we see the island for the last time, and the look of Tom Hanks really sums up the sadness he feels.
I won't tell you the rest of it, but this is definitely a oscar winning performance from Tom Hanks, who is simply fantastic, and I doubt anyone else could have done it as well as he did. The film is a very sad one, but is incredibly powerful, the best film I had seen all year, and believe me I watch a lot. Everything about the film really fits into place well, the script, the acting, the direction and the production is fantastic, and I would not have asked for anything else. I definitely recommend this film as a true classic.
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Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
Action/Adventure - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Jack Ging, Marla Heasley, Lance Legault, Melinda Culea, Mr T, Dwight Schultz, Dirk Benedict, George Peppard, Carl Franklin
Advantages: Great film, great direction, great individual performances, gripping plot Disadvantages: Slightly dodgy lighting, plot not properly explained
Cheesefather 24.01.2002 ·
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