Cast Away (2002, VHS)

It is rare to see acting of this caliber. Tom Hanks has become such a great actor over the years! He just keeps getting better with each new movie. From movies like BIG & Bachelor Party when he was a young actor doing comedies, would you have guessed back then that Hanks would turn out a super star? When I seen Forrest Gump I was amazed at how diverse and talented an actor Tom Hanks is. Now he cranking out hits like they were nothing; Cast Away, The Green Mile, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, Band Of Brothers, Catch Me If You Can and many more...It is my belief that Tom Hanks is the most diverse actor on the market!

Cast Away (2000)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Tom Hanks as Chuck Noland
Helen Hunt as Kelly Frears

Lets take a look at one my favorite Hanks movies, Cast Away. What makes this movie so unique is the fact that most of the movie is Tom Hanks marooned on an island with a Volleyball. How can you have any dialog with a man and a volleyball on an island you ask? So would I. Well they do have a dialog and it runs smooth.

Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is an upper-end supervisor for Fed Ex. He is engaged to Kelly (Helen Hunt) who was well on her way to getting a PHD. It would seem that life couldn't get much better. Chuck had to go over seas and deal with a problem at one of the distribution points. He gives Kelly a smooch and off he goes.

While flying across the vast Pacific ocean they come across a severe tropical storm. The pilot decides to try and go around the storm, this takes the plane way off their projected course. There seems to be no edge to this large storm. The storm worsens and the turbulence become to violent for the plane to take, the plane goes down in the Pacific ocean. Chuck was able to get out of the wreckage with his life and get inside of a life raft.

Chuck washes up on a very small island beach. He sets up a small camp and waits for a rescue. Mean while Fed Ex packages begin washing up on the beach. As the days turn into weeks he realizes that any rescue effort had long since been abandon. His chances of being found on this insignificant little island were nil to none.

He decides to try and paddle back out to sea using his life raft. The surf is so rough around the little island! Chuck just gets tossed around the waves and coral like a rag doll. His raft gets a hole in it and he gets a severe laceration on his thigh while bouncing off the coral. He was marooned on this island with no way off.

Chuck Makes a Friend

While opening some of the packages that had washed ashore Chuck comes across his new friend, a Wilson volleyball. He finds all sorts of things that seem useless at the time in these packages, a box a vhs tapes, the boxes themselves, a pair of ice skates and so on. While trying to learn how to start a fire by way of rubbing sticks he slips and cuts his hand which really gets his shorts in a bunch! He starts throwing stuff everywhere including the volleyball. After his tantrum is over with he starts to gather up the scattered items. This is when he finds the Wilson volleyball with a bloody hand print on it. The thing was freaky looking. It looked like a movie logo for a B-grade horror flick. Chuck needed a friend so he wet his finger and gave Wilson some eyes and a mouth (:\) ...

Now the film jumps ahead four years. Needless to say our man Chuck looks like a caveman. All he has is Wilson, by now his very good friend, hope and a bit a sanity, a very little bit. Some of the scenes cracked me up! The tide had washed in a piece of a port-a-potty. This thing was being tossed around the rocks in the surf and making a heap of noise. Chuck wakes up all bent and tells Wilson to "SHUT UP"! There are several scenes such as this one that are quite comical.

In the end Chuck ends up using that piece of port-a-potty as a sail to get over the rough breaking waves that kept him trapped on this small desolate island all those years.

SPOILER

Chuck finally makes it out to sea. After four years on the island he had decided that he would rather take his chances on the open sea, on a log raft, port-a-potty for a sail, and Wilson strapped to the bow of the raft. Chuck finally makes it to the open sea! This is where it gets like Old Yellow! While Chuck is sleeping, half dead and totally dehydrated Wilson's straps come loose. Wilson floats off and Chuck is too weak to save his ball (I was hoping he'd be able to save his ball, I know I don't want to hear it)! Now Chuck is an emotional wreck, losing a friend of the worst four years of his life. Luckily he is almost run over by an ocean freighter. The freighter rescues Chuck! Can you imagine the back pay this guy had coming?!

Conclusion

I have nothing but praise for this movie. The acting was superb! The dialog, directing, cinematography and plot were all outstanding. I would recommend this movie to about anyone.

Quotes From Cast Away

Quotes while talking to his volleyball, "Wilson".

Chuck: Hey, you want to hear something funny? My dentist's name is James Spaulding.
Chuck: You wouldn't by any chance have a match would you?
Chuck: Don't worry Wilson, I'll do all the paddling. You just hang on!

Chuck: One day logic was proven all wrong because the tide lifted, came in, and gave me a sail. And now, here I am. I'm back. In Memphis, talking to you. I have ice in my glass. And I've lost her all over again. I'm so sad that I don't have Kelly. But I'm so grateful that she was with me on that island. And I know what I have to do now. I have to keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?

Rated: PG-13
Run Time: 2 hours 23 minutes

AWARDS

Cast Away was nominated for nearly every award out there! Volleyball The "Wilson" even won several Awards (Best Inanimate Object).
.
Golden Globes (2001)
Won: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama, Tom Hanks

Footnotes
Tom Hanks took nearly a year off in order to loose 50lbs.
FED EX did not pay anything for their presence in the movie.
Fred Smith, founder and owner of FedEx, makes a cameo appearance.

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Thanks for the read,
~Mac

2003 Joe McMaster