A journey of a thousand miles starts in front of your feet.
-- Lao-tzu
I would like you all to think of the things that you think you need to survive. Is it your makeup? Your money? Even that delicious hamburger that you have everyday? Now imagine if all of that was taken away from you. What would you do if you had to work for everything you got and had to survive? Could you succeed even if there was no one there to help you.
One thing that would certainly happen is that you would lose your mind. It is only natural that someone lose their mind under the immense pressure of trying to survive and no one is there for you to vent your frustrations to. This is what happens to Tom Hanks’ character in director Robert Zemeckis’ new film Cast Away.
In this mesmerizing film Hanks plays Fed Ex worker Chuck Noland. Chuck is completely in love with his job, somewhat neglecting his girlfriend Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt). Chuck is the boss who is always there to push the workers to work harder, traveling all over the world with his team.
It is Christmas time, the busiest shipping time of the year. Chuck is called to work on Christmas Eve and must get on a flight across the Pacific. Kelly does not want him to go but Chuck ignores her pleas, promising he will be back by New Years Eve.
This is a promise he can not keep though. The plane hits a lot of turbulence flying in the bad weather and soon tragedy strikes. The plane crashes into the ocean. This whole plane wreck sequence is brilliantly done thanks to director Zemeckis’ knack for special effects and emotional turmoil.
Chuck is of course the lone survivor, escaping on a inflatable raft. He finds himself washed up upon a island shore. No one is answering his desperate calls for help. He is alone.
Chuck stays on this island for an amazing five years, as everything from his weight to his sanity withers away. He is lucky to find boxes from the fatal Fed Ex flight which wash ashore. It is here that Chuck finds his only friend on the island. A volleyball which he calls Wilson. With his blood he paints a face on the ball and this is his companion. It just shows that in moments of desperation one will do anything to have a friend.
What now transpires is something that would make the ultimate Survivor show. We see Chuck having to do everything for himself. We even see him drinking water from the ground like a dog. This is how any of us would react if put in this situation and that is what draws us into the film. The character of Chuck suddenly becomes so likeable and easy to show compassion for.
Chuck is a man who is consumed with work and is consumed with doing everything quickly. His job is all about racing against the clock to deliver packages on time and of course Christmas time is the busiest time of year. Like he tells his FedEx workers, “We live and die by the clock!” It is only when he is alone for five years that he is truly given time to think about his mistakes. Finally Chuck learns that time never waits for anyone.
The screenplay by William Broyles Jr. has all the elements of a great human drama. It’s interesting since the film deals mostly through action instead of dialogue. This is what makes it unique. The hero must do everything possible to survive, and the film shows this as Chuck finds various methods to do everything that we take advantage of.
Hanks is a phenomenal as Chuck, delivering one of his best performances ever. The film has given the best material since Forrest Gump to showcase his comic and dramatic acting chops. He delves so deep into this role that he basically becomes the character. We believe that he is losing his mind and that he is a man searching for a way back to civilization. He also goes through a complete transformation. Filming stopped in the middle of the film so Tom could have time to change and look like a man who has been on that island for over five years. He grew a mammoth sized beard and lost over fifty pounds. This transformation is pretty amazing. Hanks, with this look along with the lose of mind and reality, reminded me of Grizzly Adams on crack.
It is the rest of the cast that does not measure up to Hanks. Not that they do not try and not that they even have to. Hanks is the man here carrying the entire film on his shoulders. Where as another actor would have let the film collapse Hanks is proud to carry the film and all of it’s difficult elements on his shoulders.
Helen Hunt finds the right tone for her character but is not shown enough in the film. Basically is in about thirty minutes of the entire time, but still gets the most screen time than any of the other actors besides Hanks. I was especially pleased with her performance in the latter part of the film. It is then that her character is given more substance, yet it is still not enough.
Part of the problem there is that even though the film runs over two and a half hours it would have been better if another thirty minutes or even hour were added to it. Possibly, if the film had added another fifteen minutes to both the build up and culmination, and then another thirty minutes into the island sequences the audience would be able to get a glimpse at more excellence. The problem here is that audiences would probably get restless watching a three and a half hour film. I believe it is great the way it is now.
It is so evident though that the film is made by the same people that did Forrest Gump. Even though it does not become very sentimental like Gump, Zemeckis still wows us with visuals and an emotional story. Alan Siverstri delivers a poignant score just as he did with Gump. Cinematographer Don Burgess, who gave us so many splendid images in Gump, does his magic here also. The images are simply breathtaking. I have always been fascinated with the ocean and was in awe when seeing it in Cast Away. I know that the treacherous waters were supposed to be Hanks’ main nemesis but nothing can stop me from loving the wide open sea.
Just like Gump, the film also leaves us with a very poignant conclusion. Cast Away has been getting some flack for having a poorly done set up and conclusion. Blasphemy! The first thirty minutes are a proper set up to the adventure that rests before us. The final thirty minutes is a intelligent and poignant finale to a great film. I hope the Academy Awards recognize this film and do not overlook it like the Golden Globes have.
The main reason that I loved Cast Away is the very fact that I’ve never really seen a film like this before. Other attempts at this topic have not gotten into the psyche of the subject. There is no narration to guide us along. The only other character besides Chuck during the majority of the film is the volleyball Wilson. It would have been so easy for this film to resort to other methods such as narration or placing another person on the island in order to make it more conventional. I applaud Zemeckis and screenwriter William Broyles Jr. for not resorting to that. The film never comes close to being boring because we are pulled into this emotional roller coaster and do not want to get off.
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