No this is the not the film of the same name, made many years before with Oliver Reed where he went to a tropical island on purpose with a random woman and strutted around in the nude with her for the rest of the movie, this is one starring Tom Hanks as a man who involuntarily gets stranded on an island and thankfully keeps most of his clothes on!
This movie was always going to be a one-man affair, and therefore the film-makers where going to have to pick a good man to play the lead role. They chose well, and Tom Hanks pulled off what I believe to be one of his best performances of his career. He had very little support from any other actors in the movie and it truly was a solo performance, and he did it brilliantly.
The story is basically, Chuck Noland (Hanks), is a systems engineer for the FedEx company and he is just about to happily marry his girlfriend (Helen Hunt) when he is called away to accompany a set of FedEx parcels, by plane, to their destination. His life, which has been ruled by the clock for the past number of years, is about to be shattered, when his plane crashes in water off some uninhabited tropical islands. Of course he gets to a life raft and floats to safety on one of the islands along with some FedEx packages and the body of one of the pilots. After burying the pilot, he proceeds about his life. He stays there for many, many days and the transformation that occurs in this time portrayed by Hanks is quite powerful. The excitement on his face when he makes fire, the friendship which he builds up with a ball which he calls “Mr Wilson”, and the sheer determination he has to get off the island and be reunited with his love, are all wonderfully and powerfully portrayed.
This is a great and powerfully moving movie. It touches the heart on so many levels and allows you to question your life and perhaps realise how you have become governed by rules, schedules and deadlines and encourages you to live a little, enjoy yourself and do something worthwhile with the time you have with your family and friends.
The role of his girlfriend, played by Helen Hunt, is obviously a very small role, but she plays it convincingly also produces an emotional and evocative performance.
The story, although it may seem a bit clichéd, is non-the-less interesting, exciting, heart-warming, and it does hold your attention and have lots of interesting unexpected twists. It is all because of Hanks’ great acting ability that you really don’t know what is going through Chuck’s mind, or what he is going to do next. The only flaw really is the strange unnecessary twist at the end, but I shan’t go into that.
Another thing I have to say is that Alan Silvestri (the conductor and composer of the films music score) seems to have taken a little to much inspiration from James Horner’s soundtrack to “Braveheart” (another brilliant movie).
However, this movie is excellent. It is a true great to watch alone, or with your partner or whoever. It provides such a caring, heart-warming atmosphere and is really a great movie to watch even if it just be for Hanks’ performance. You cannot call yourself a movie enthusiast if you do not witness this guy’s performance.
Enjoy it. Banjo.
“A riveting adventure of body and spirit.” The Washington Post
“Hanks is exceptional… heartbreaking, striking, unbelievable and never over done… brilliant film making on every level” Jonathan Ross – The Mirror
“Hanks at his finest and Hollywood at it’s best” The Sun
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
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: 2003 - Action/Adventure - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum, Sam Jones III, Allison Mack, Eric Johnson, Annette O'Toole, John Glover, John Schneider
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
Advantages: Tom Hanks is pretty good, good SFX, unconventional ending Disadvantages: You can have too much of Tom Hanks... nothing really exceptional about the film
CaptainDisaster 30.01.2001 (22.04.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Castaway DVD
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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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
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