OK so its been a while since I last did a post on here as I've been caught up with other things so I thought I would get back to the writing board and do another post and this one is on another movie, Cast Away starring Tom Hanks, which was released back in 2000 (15 years ago already!).
So let's get the life-raft blown up, wade onto the beach and face this harsh storm tossed island..... (or in otherwords let's just give the film a closer look...))
Right so the film begins with its main character Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) who is a systems engineer with Fed-ex who travels the world troubleshooting productivity problems at Fedex depots and takes a rather meticulous approach to his work. Chuck is also in a relationship with Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt) and they both want to get married but Chuck's work often get's in the way of their plans to do so. Chuck whilst spending at Christmas with Kelly and his relatives is interrupted by a call from Fedex to make a trip to Malaysia. However during the flight, the plane get's caught in a violent storm which causes it to crash into Pacific ocean with Chuck being the only survivor he manages to get himself ashore on an island after using a life-raft. Chuck soon after looks around the island and finds it to be uninhabited. Chuck also later on finds some of the Fedex parcels that came down from the wreck of the plane and washed ashore, which he opens most of them all except one, which he decides to leave unopened. Chuck one day also sees a ship in the distance and frantically tries to get its attention and he makes a failed attempt to swim towards it in the life-raft but he finds the waves and the coral reefs are too strong to let him progress.
Afterward Chuck tries to adapt to living on the island and attempts to find food and make fire and during his first attempt he accidentally cuts his hand and throws some objects away in frustration, one of which is a Wilson volleyball, which Chuck later draws a face onto his bloody palm print on the ball and he names the ball Wilson and starts talking to it. Chuck eventually is successful in making fire and he starts to adapt to living off the island and hunts for fish and crab to live off. Chuck however also starts to suffer from severe toothache and in the end he has to result in performing an emergency surgery by using the blade from a rollerskate which Chuck found in one of the boxes and a stone to knock out of the tooth, which he does successfully (albeit paifully!).
The story then cuts to four years later where Chuck is still on the island and has lost a significant amount of weight having had to live off the marine life on the island and now sprouts long hair and a shaggy beard. Chuck also shows signs of having lost a few of his marbles after being alone so much he now regularly talks to Wilson, his volleyball for companionship. One day however part of a portable toilet washes up on the shore, which gives Chuck the idea of using it as a sail. So Chuck then decides to build himself a raft using tree branches on the island and works out the optimal time to try and make his departure from the island. And from here once Chuck has built his raft and decided on the right time to depart he then faces a very dangerous journey ahead to try and make it back to civilisation.....
As pretty much a one-man show, Cast Away works really well in what is basically a modern day re-telling of Robinson Crusoe with one man thrown into a harsh situation of having to life off an island and use his wits to survive. The film itself was shot in location in Monuriki, an island based in Fiji, which later became a popular tourist attraction as a result of the film's success. Tom Hanks put on alot of weight to play the part as he gained 50 pounds to play Chuck at the start of the film, but the film's production was later stopped for a year to allow for Hanks to lose the weight and grow his hair and beard for the latter half of the film.
Which brings me onto Tom Hanks's performance as Chuck Noland which is excellent and Hanks does really well at playing an everyday guy who on this occasion is thrown into an extreme situation where he is forced to live off an island with virtually no hope whatsoever of rescue. Hanks as this is his film primarily has plenty of good scenes in it such as the one where he begins to try and make fire and he cuts himself on a twig and out of rage he throws away several items including the Wilson volleyball. And later Chuck picks up the ball and draws a face onto his bloody palm print on the ball and he starts to try and make fire again and during it he looks up to the ball and says "Hey you wouldn't by any chance have a match on you, would you?". Another good scene is where Chuck is in his cave and we see he has done a drawing of Kelly with a bit of broken off stone on the cave wall and he says to Wilson "She looks much prettier in real life!". Then there is the scene where Chuck starts to argue with Wilson while he prepares his life-raft and he argues with the non-commital volleyball "Well we might just make it! Didn't that thought ever cross your brain???? Well regardless, I would rather take my chance out there on the ocean than stay here and die on this shithole island, spending the rest of my life talking to a GODDAMN VOLLEYBALL!!!!". And Chuck proceeds to take the ball and kick it into the water but he quickly panics realising what he has done and yells "WILSON!" and goes after and finds the ball again in the water and says "Never again! Never again!". Then there is the scene where Chuck finally get's his fire going and he cooks crab meat and he says to Wilson "Gotta love crab. In the the nick of time too. I couldn't take much more of those coconuts. Coconut milk is a natural laxative! That's something Gilligan never told us!". And as Chuck is about to leave the island he says to Wilson "Don't worry, Wilson, I'll do all the paddling. You just hang on!".
Tom does also have some poignant moments in the film such as the one (PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD IN THIS PARAGRAPH!!!) where he loses Wilson in the ocean as the volleyball drifts off into the ocean and Chuck can't catch up with it, which leaves him inconsolable on his raft, sobbing away. Then there is the scene after Chucks makes it back home he tries to reconcile with Kelly who has moved on with her live and gotten married, but as they feel the same for each other they realise it would never work. And Chuck is left to sadly reflect on how "I've lost her all over again. I'm so sad I don't have Kelly. But I'm so grateful she was with me on that island. And I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise and who knows what the tide will bring".
As for Bob Zemeckis, the film's director, he did a great job here with Cast Away and despite it being largely a one man show he keeps the viewer fascinated by showing how Chuck adapts to living his life on the island. Zemeckis also brilliantly directs the film's tense crash scene with the plane going down in the Pacific ocean the crash totally assaults the viewers senses (and ears with its sound effects!). The film is also notable for its cinemaphotography by Zemeckis's long time collaborator, Don Burgess, which is absolutely stunning as the Monuriki island is very easy on the eye and it produces some jaw dropping scenery. And lastly Alan Silvestri, Zemeckis's long time composer, provides a pleasant score for the film, which largely resembles his score for Forrest Gump, except it doesn't really come into the film until near its end!
So flaws...... well Cast Away isn't totally perfect but then again few films are and it has to be said that the film is really in three acts, and two of those acts aren't that interesting as the film's most fascinating act is of course the main one where Chuck is stranded on the island (the intro of the film being the first and Chuck's return to civilisation the third). So in a way its a film that really depends on its main act to work and for the most part it works so well thanks to its being a one man show for Tom Hanks. But the scenes outwith the island tend to slow down the film a bit as they don't feel as interesting and you could also argue that the film's denouement is also a bit long and drawn out. And while its important that we see Chuck make it back to civilisation Zemeckis ultimately could have tighten it up a bit in doing so.
But that put aside Cast Away is still a very entertaining and at times even fascinating film to watch and as a one man show for Tom Hanks it succeeds very well in showing that one of Hollywood's most lauded stars can take his hand to just about any film he chooses to.
And on that note I shall leave yee there and will be back sometime soon with another post.
Until then bye fer now.
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