DVD review by Stephanie Star Smith

June 24, 2002

Do you think we could convince the Academy to take back an Oscar?

I mean, since they seem to have established a policy of two Oscars to a customer in the acting categories, I'd really like them to take back the award for Forrest Gump so that Tom Hanks would be eligible to win again.

Don't get me wrong; it's not that I think Hanks didn't deserve his Best Actor Oscar for his work in that film. He most certainly did. There were times I actually forgot I was watching one of the most intelligent actors in Hollywood and believed instead I was watching someone with a sub-80 IQ. It's just that if the Academy is going to stick to this two-Oscars-and-you're-out thing, I'd much rather see Hanks have a chance to win for some of the more complex, layered work he's done since and will most likely continue to do for the rest of his career, rather than the manipulative, shallow, aiming-to-please mediocrity that was Forrest Gump.

Such as his role in Cast Away, for example. For those who haven't seen the film - and may I say, as an aside, are you nuts? - this review will contain spoilers, so be forewarned. And go rent the DVD, will ya? You're really missing out here.

The Plot

Cast Away, at its most basic level, is Robinson Crusoe at the End of the 20th Century. Except it's not the romanticized story that has almost become part of the collective consciousness, where a man escapes the stresses of his hectic daily life and lives idyllically with his native companion on a deserted isle. It's Robinson Crusoe in the real world; the stranded man has to deal with such vital survival issues as finding fresh water, shelter and food, and figure out how to deal with the crushing loneliness of being the sole sentient being anywhere within communication range and still remain sane. And none of these struggles to stay alive and relatively rational is very pretty, much less idyllic.

But it's all very watchable, in fact compellingly so, thanks to Hanks. His Chuck Noland is a middle-aged, out-of-shape (the much-ballyhooed weight loss for the second half of the film overshadowed the character choice of a weight gain for the first part), middle-management troubleshooter for FedEx, globe-hopping to put out fires in the various branch offices and trying to have something approaching a life back in Memphis with his beautiful live-in love, Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt, doing her Leelee Sobieski's mom impression in the first part of the film). Chuck is ruled by time; his life revolves around the clock and pagers and plane flights and Day Planners and trying to juggle the demands of his job so he can be there for his loved ones when they need him, especially Kelly.

The character introductions, though interesting to a degree, play out rather routinely. It's once Chuck takes his ill-fated flight to bail out the FedEx Malta office that the film kicks into high gear. The plane runs into a tropical storm somewhere over the Pacific and is blown far off its original course. As happens with many real-life plane crashes, we never really learn what causes an explosive decompression that leads to the plane ditching into the ocean; we only see it happen.

And the plane crash scenes are frighteningly realistic, with Chuck being tossed around like the proverbial rag doll and just barely escaping drowning by inflating the rubber life raft. He surfaces in the middle of the storm, and can do little more than get himself strapped into the raft as securely as possible and ride out the deluge. This also marks the beginning of an extended sequence in the film that is almost totally devoid of dialogue. Again, another actor would have had difficulty carrying this off, either because of a tendency towards irritating acting tics or a lack of charisma, but we hang on Hanks' every move and share his every emotion because Chuck has become, in a short space of time, important to us; we worry about him, we root for him, and the fact that we likely know he does make it out of his dilemma alive doesn't in any way lessen our involvement in the story or our concern.

After a near miss with the jet engine, the sea begins to carry Chuck away from the wreckage, and eventually deposits him on the shore of a tropical island. And our romanticized image of being stranded on a desert island is slowly torn apart by reality. Chuck at first searches for others, certain there must be someone around. He soon begins to realize that he's going to have to take steps to ensure his survival, as rescue may be long in coming. Meaning he needs to find fresh water, some food source, and a better shelter against the frequent storms that buffet the island than the rubber life raft that brought him to shore.

This portion of the film contains some funny as well as touching moments. Watching Chuck try and open a cocoanut for the first time is actually pretty funny, especially when he finally gets one open only to spill all the cocoanut milk through careless. And exploring the island soon teaches Chuck that coral is sharp, leading him to cobble together foot coverings to replace the shoes he lost in the crash; he is later presented with more suitable foot coverings when the body of one of the crew washes ashore. It is testament to Chuck's humanity that, after searching the dead man for tools to help his survival, Chuck then gives the remains a proper burial. There's also a rather touching sequence where, in the midst of meeting his survival needs, Chuck takes the time to retrieve several FedEx packages that have washed ashore and place them out of harms way. A company man to the last, it also demonstrates that the possibility of not being rescued has yet to cross his mind.

And a chance does come fairly soon, as Chuck sees a light out at sea one night as he's answering Nature's call (the movie doesn't dwell on bodily functions, but neither does it shy away from them). Unsuccessful at drawing the attention of what he believes is a ship using the flashlight he got from the dead crewman, the next morning Chuck sets out in the life raft, determined to paddle his way out into what he now believes are the shipping lanes. But at this stage, Chuck is still woefully out of shape, and the waves become quite high after he rows just a short distance from the shore. Instead of escaping, Chuck is nearly drowned, and ends up with both the raft and his leg punctured on a coral reef.

After this failed escape attempt, Chuck begins to seriously plan for an extended stay. The excellence of the script really comes to the fore here; there is not one false note, one moment where a viewer says, "Oh, yeah, right. An ordinary schmuck would really know that!" Everything Chuck discovers is at a sufficiently crude level that the viewer can believe he or she would have thought of it, or something similar. A little brains, a little knowledge, and using the tools at hand are all that stand between Chuck and death. Of course, once the company man decides his survival is more important than the integrity of the FedEx packages, it turns out there are some useful items, but nothing blatant, like a set of knives or an outdoor cook stove. Chuck has to use his wits to improvise tools out of what he's presented, and again, none of it rings false. One of the packages, however, remains unopened; on the front, a pair of wings has been painted, such as the ones we see at the ranch the FedEx truck is visiting in the opening sequence. We will learn much later that Chuck views the wings as a kind of talisman; he not only keeps the package with him throughout his stay on the island, but takes it when he leaves.

No discussion of Cast Away could be complete without mention of Wilson and his impact on Chuck's survival. As has oft been written, humans are social creatures; deprived of contact with any other sentient being, whether it's other humans or pets, people go slowly mad. Thus Wilson, created literally by accident in the film, becomes savior of Chuck's sanity. Even though it's Chuck doing all the talking, Chuck voicing his thoughts and "hearing" Wilson answer, the volleyball with the face made from Chuck's blood still serves the function of companion. It's something else to talk to besides the wind, the sea, the trees and oneself; that Wilson's "dialogue" could only be heard in Chuck's head, there was still social interaction of a type, enough to keep Chuck from going completely mad. And while a bit odd at first, Wilson does become every bit as much a character in the film as Chuck, due in no small part to Hanks' success at bringing his volleyball sidekick to life.

Another factor in Chuck's survival, also vividly illustrated by the actor, is his love for his hopefully-fiancée, Kelly. I say hopefully, because in the set-up portion, we learn she's pretty gun-shy of marriage, but Chuck's Christmas present to her is a small box that looks very much like a ring box, which he gives her just before taking his doomed trip. In a very real sense, it is Kelly who saves Chuck's life, time and again. It begins during the plane crash. Chuck is just coming out of the plane's bathroom when the decompression occurs. He manages to hang on until the initial vortex has subsided, but loses the pocket watch that Kelly gave him for Christmas in the process. Rather than staying strapped in his seat near the front of the plane, he goes to retrieve the watch, and ends up holding onto the webbing in front of the cargo bay as the plane goes down. Had he been in his seat, he'd most likely have perished, just as the crew did.

The pocket watch, no longer working due to its prolonged submersion, still remains in one piece and still holds the picture of Kelly, established as Chuck's favorite of her. This becomes Chuck's touchstone, his connection with the real world, and his love for Kelly and desire to return to her become his entire reason for surviving. In fact, we learn later in the film that the one thing that leads him to consider suicide while on the island is the moment he realizes he very likely will die where he is, never seeing her again.

The suicide attempt is handled in a very subtle, brilliant way. After seeing Chuck adjusting to life on the island, having created tools from the materials at hand and bonding with Wilson, we cut to four years later, finding a vastly different Chuck than the one we left. Now svelte and showing the effects of four years living a hard-scrabble life, Chuck has very clearly adapted to life alone; the beginning of this sequence again contains no dialogue, as we watch Chuck going through his daily routine, clearly existing far more than living. He has become resigned to his fate.

Until one day, when a piece of a Port-a-Potty washes up onshore, and Chuck realizes it can be used as a sort of makeshift sail, a sail that could help a raft crest the waves and make it out into the open sea. As he goes through the list of things that he needs - material to make rope, logs for the raft - he converses with Wilson, and eventually "Wilson" brings up the fact that there's 30 feet of rope someplace that Chuck is unwilling to go. Of course, the idea of escape eventually overcomes this objection, and we watch Chuck, on the highest atoll on the island, pull rope from over the side...at the end of which is a tree that looks oddly like a person with a noose around its neck. Later conversation with Wilson, which leads to the famous scene from the trailer where Chuck angrily throws Wilson out of the cave, makes sufficient reference to what happened that we realize Chuck used the log as a test, preparatory to taking the plunge himself to end his life. The complete story is told near the end of the film, as Chuck recounts for one of his friends the despair that led him to his decision.

But first there's the raft to build, and within a tight timeframe, as Chuck has decided the best time to leave is when the winds blow from the west, which happens sometime in April, by his reckoning (still a man tied somewhat to time, he has fashioned a crude calendar in his cave, the position of the sun telling him what month it is). Again, script and actor mesh to create a raft-building sequence that seems very plausible; after four years alone, surviving on a desert island, one would naturally pick up more knowledge and skills about creating objects from the materials at hand.

The raft is completed in time for the shift in the wind, and Chuck begins the final leg of his journey, Wilson lashed securely to the raft. His strength much improved, he is much more successful at rowing the raft far enough from shore to catch the waves as they're cresting; he deploys the metal sail...and we see a replica of the wings from his treasured FedEx package. The sail works, and the castaway and his companion are on their way back to civilization.

The trip to the shipping lanes is no less fraught with danger than was the plane crash or the initial attempt to escape. It rains nearly as much as it is sunny, and even catching the rainwater in ingeniously-devised cocoanut-shell containers still doesn't quite meet daily water needs. The sole shelter on the raft, the Port-A-Potty sail, is ripped away in one violent cloudburst, leaving Chuck exposed to the elements. The lack of food and fresh water, combined with the physical effort of handling the raft during the rains, takes it toll, and before long, Chuck is floating, barely alive.

As if things weren't difficult enough for Chuck, it's at this point he loses his boon companion, Wilson. One day while Chuck lies sleeping, nearly comatose with exhaustion, the sea dislodges Wilson from his perch and begins to take him away. Chuck, eventually roused by the sound of Wilson's now-empty nesting place, makes a frantic but ultimately futile attempt to rescue his friend. The paddles to the raft are long-since lost, so Chuck attempts to brave the ocean currents without being swept away himself. He uses a long rope as a tether, but alas, Wilson has already drifted too far. One last, desperate attempt by Chuck to reach Wilson causes Chuck to let go of the safety line; for a few harrowing moments, it's not clear if Chuck has stepped over that line of sanity and will truly give his life for Wilson. But in the end, the instinct for self-preservation prevails, and Chuck grabs the rope once again, calling out his apologies to Wilson. The scene that follows, of Chuck lying on the raft, great sobs wracking his body over the "death" of Wilson, is heartbreaking in its intensity. It looks and sounds for all the world as if Hanks himself has lost his dearest friend; that's how real this scene plays.

Just as it looks as if Chuck's sort-of luck has finally run out, he's spotted by a ship. The last shot we see of the castaway Chuck is him reaching toward the ship, saying, "Kelly".

And we cut to four weeks later. Clean-shaven, with a new haircut and a variety of drugs to cure whatever ails he acquired during his long exile, Chuck wings his way back to Memphis, cups of ice cubes in his hands. It's quickly established, by dialogue but mostly by Hanks' demeanor, that Chuck is a changed man. Where earlier scenes of his interaction with family and friends showed an awkwardness at expressing deep feelings, we see now that he is genuinely compassionate when told of the passing of his friend Stan's wife. He's also somewhat horrified to discover that a funeral was held for him; in answer to his natural query as to what was in the coffin, he's told everyone put in something that was special to them that was also meaningful to Chuck.

Of course, Chuck's return is big news, and FedEx is going to make as much hay of it as possible. Scenes of the welcome-home press conference play on televisions at the Memphis hub as Chuck walks into a deserted terminal. He's there to meet Kelly; he's been assured she'll be there, and he's understandably anxious to see her. Of course, what he doesn't know - but we do - is that Kelly is married now, with a daughter. So instead of Kelly coming to meet Chuck, it's Kelly's husband, Jerry Lovett (the wonderful Chris Noth in a pretty thankless role). Crushed at the knowledge that he has once again lost Kelly, Chuck can only stand numbly as Jerry delivers the message that Kelly isn't ready to meet with him and leave. Chuck instinctively walks to the window and watches as Kelly at first resists Jerry's attempts to usher her into the car, then finally, weeping, gives in to her husband's ministrations.

Later at the hotel, after the crowd of friends and FedEx workers who have come to celebrate his return has left, Chuck wanders aimlessly, looking at the array of food available to him (and taking a very definite pass on the crab's legs) and seeming to not know what to do with himself. That night, as Chuck lies awake on the floor next to his hotel-room bed, recreating a scene from earlier where he continually turns a light on and off while looking at the faded picture in the pocket watch, he comes to the decision to go to Kelly's house. She was also spending a sleepless night, and the two have an uneasy, half-sad/half-funny reunion scene. Kelly catches Chuck up on some of the sports scene changes in Memphis, and also shows him the collection she has made over the years of all the news articles regarding the search for him after he went down and his rescue. Just as we're sure these two are going to part, never to see each other again, Kelly goes running out into the rain after Chuck. She confesses that she never really believed he was dead, but that everyone told her she had to move on, so she did. She also her love for him, a love that has not diminished with time. They embrace and kiss, and Kelly joins Chuck in his SUV, which she had kept and continued to drive all the years he was away.

But there will be no happy ending; Kelly has a husband and family, and Chuck realizes that her future lies with them. As he later tells Stan, it was Kelly and the idea of returning to her that kept him alive. He describes in detail the suicide attempt; having realized that he was probably never going to be rescued, and that he would die in some way on that island, it occurred to him the only thing he really had any control over any more was the manner in which he would meet his demise. He makes a half-joke about how he always has to test everything, and then describes using the tree to test the rope, only to have the tree branch he was planning to use break. Having this last bit of control wrested from him, a feeling of peace washed over Chuck; he came to the realization that he had to survive, had to keep living, because one day, the tide would bring something, some little bit of hope. And it did. And he realizes that, now that he has truly and completely lost Kelly all over again, that that is what he must do now; he has to keep breathing, keep living, because the tide will bring him some hope, something to help fill the void in his heart that Kelly's loss has created.

So the movie ends much as it began, only it's Chuck's car that traverses the dirt road to the ranch with the angel wings. Chuck is returning his talisman package; finding no one home, he leaves a note attesting to the package's role in saving his life, and returns to the crossroads. There, a young woman in a truck - which we soon discover is the woman who owns the ranch and makes the wings - gives Chuck directions on what he'll find depending on which fork of the road he takes. As Chuck watches the truck pull away and sees the wings on the back, we see the realization wash over him that he has the rest of his life ahead of him, and that the tide might just have brought in that little bit of hope.

Movie Review

This film - in my opinion, anyway - simply would not work with another actor, because so much of the film's running time focuses solely on Chuck. Well, and Wilson, but that character (if you can call him that) is also basically Chuck. Someone more manic or mannered in his acting would have become extremely annoying in a very, very short time, but Hanks really does have that Everyman quality that Jimmy Stewart had. He draws you in; you can see a myriad of emotions cross his face, yet there are no histrionics, no tics and twitches, just a layered, quiet performance that mesmerizes the audience and makes them care, makes them give a damn what happens to Chuck.

And this is Hanks' essential genius as an actor. He doesn't have to figuratively shout at the top of his lungs to be convincing in a role. He just goes in front of the camera and does it. And any film he graces is the richer for it.

Your enjoyment of Cast Away is going to be in direct proportion to your enjoyment of Tom Hanks as an actor. Since so much of the film is just Hanks up there on the screen, if you don't like Tom Hanks, you're not going to like this film much at all. On the other hand if, like me, you find him to be one of the greatest actors of our generation, then you're going to be blown away by his work here. The nuance, the emotional layers, bringing Wilson to life in such a believable way...as I said earlier, there's not one false note, not one moment when you don't completely believe in the character and his actions.

The physical choices for the role bear mentioning again, too. While appearing as the buff, sculpted Chuck of the latter part of the film would appeal to just about any performer, adding an extra 15 pounds or so and then parading around half-naked, showing off that nice, round, middle-aged paunch, is not something that many of your more vain actors would undertake. And to go from the one extreme to the other takes a bit more commitment than your average role, too. But Hanks pulls it all off masterfully. Even the middle-aged paunch works, less an embarrassment than a physical manifestation of the easy life Chuck has led to this point.

Two scenes keep standing out in my mind that I haven't mentioned to this point. The first is after the famous throwing-Wilson-out-the-cave scene. Chuck almost instantly regrets having gotten so angry as to toss his companion of four years and so goes out to look for him. Chuck runs along the beach in the dark, calling Wilson's name as though he expects Wilson to answer back. Now that sounds pretty silly on paper, but Hanks makes you believe it; watching him frantically searching for the mute volleyball, you can see that, although Chuck realizes on one level that Wilson is an inanimate object, the bond he's created with the ball has become so real to him that he treats it as though it were a person. Not in a crazy hermit way, but as a way to have held on to his sanity and his humanity. It's not showy; it's not, "Hey, look at me! I'm ACTING!". But you understand it, all the same.

The second scene is near the end, when Chuck is telling Stan about his visit to Kelly. As Chuck speaks of the realization that she is finally and irrevocably one, he begins to cry. It's very brief; manly men bring such emotions into check right away. But oh, Lord, for those few moments, you really believe that Hanks has lost the love of his life. His chin trembles with the effort not to cry; you hear the tears in his voice and see them at the edges of his eyes, and you watch the effort expended as Chuck masters his emotions. Just thinking about it gives me goose bumps. And it's such a small moment, really, but so, so telling of Hanks' incredible talent.

So, did I like this movie? Hell yes. Do I recommend it? Double-hell yes. Unless you don't like Tom Hanks, in which case, I suggest you give it a wide berth.

DVD Review

The scope of the DVD is as sweeping as the scope of the movie. This one comes so chock-full of extras, they had to add a second disk.

The picture and sound quality on the DVD is excellent. It's letterboxed, of course, and the digital reproduction is stunning. And the sound is so good, even without a Surround Sound set-up, you still get some of the ambient feel; I don't happen to have such a set-up, and yet I still heard various sound effects coming from the sides (and let me tell you, hearing waves lapping the shore off to your left when you're sitting in your living room is an odd experience).

The extras were carefully selected to highlight portions of the film that most viewers would probably find a bit obscure. For instance, the location manager describes how they located the island, what they were looking for and how they secured use of the island for a year from the local tribespeople (because I guess you can't really find a truly deserted island nowadays). I don't want to spoil any of it, but apparently the part of the island that the crew wanted to use to film was a scared place to these people, and quite a bit of negotiation and ceremony went into securing it as a location.

There's also an extended sequence with the survival specialists who took the screenwriter, William Broyles, Jr, out for a week to an island off of Mexico to teach him survival techniques. Broyles wanted the script to be as realistic as possible, and wanted to learn what dangers Chuck would face and how he might go about solving the problems presented in just surviving daily. And the survival specialists talk about how they basically let Broyles figure things out for himself, because he wouldn't have the real experience, or be able to write the experience, if they came to his rescue. It's fascinating stuff, even for those of us who figure we'll never, ever be in such a situation, especially willingly. It also shows partly why the survival sequences on the island are so compelling; they're based on actual experiences and grounded in reality. The survival specialists also dissect the finished product, discussing the choices made by Chuck - and by extension, the script - and the reasonableness of those choices.

There's the obligatory "Making of" feature, with interviews from Robert Zemeckis, Tom Hanks and William Broyles as well as snippets from the features with the survival specialists and the location manager. It's during this featurette that we learn that the film was actually shot in two sections a year apart, with the split being the jump from Chuck's early months on the island to four years later. It's also confirmed that the weight gain anyone watching the movie already suspected had occurred was intentional; not only does Hanks discuss both the weight gain and loss, but there's an article in a Russian paper while they're shooting in Red Square that makes mention of the fact that Hanks has gained weight. It's fascinating to hear the process discussed, from the genesis of the script through the various shooting decisions.

But probably the most fun featurette is the profile of Wilson. Yes, Hollywood's most famous volleyball finally gets its due. Wilson's humble beginnings are profiled; the survival specialists and Broyles actually found a Wilson volleyball on the beach of the island where they stayed, and started playing around with it, making jokes and talking to it, little realizing that the volleyball would end up in the film one day. There's a discussion of how Wilson was created, both in the film and by the Props Department, and how his changing look came about. There's also a very cute scene where Robert Zemeckis starts setting up a shot and discussing the fact that Hanks can't enter from a certain direction if Wilson is "looking" in the other. After several minutes of Zemeckis going over this with his first AD, Hanks points out that they've got all the elements to deal with, but what's giving them the most trouble is a volleyball. Wilson's "death" scene is also dissected at length, giving fitting end to the volleyball star.

Cast Away is not only a worthwhile film to see, but a worthwhile DVD to own.

Do it for Wilson.