Cast Away

Cast Away isn’t just a film where one escapes by taking a dramatic adventure, but is also an escape from the traditional adventure film. Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks worked together before on the cult-classic Forest Gump, and their teaming up will have that as the staple memory. Their efforts together shine much brighter with Cast Away a three-act desert Island story that avoids all cartoonish gimmicks that desert Island stories carry. We are attached to Hank’s character by admiring his determination and obsession with time, trotting the globe motivating and organizing FedEx workers. His relationship with Kelly, played by Helen Hunt, is leveling its way into an engagement when Chuck hands her a box to be opened New Year’s Eve when he gets back from the South Pacific. The plane crash is the most terrifying part and it leaves us just as adrift and scared for Chuck when he and his raft tumble through the vast blackness of the South Pacific storm.

            In the second act we are on the island with Chuck watching him learn to adapt step by step. What makes this separate from most other island adventure films is that there is no background music while he is on the island. While the film is setting up we are tapping our toes to Elvis and holiday music throughout Chuck’s busy 21^st century life in the industrialized world. The film never cuts back to the industrialized, as so many Island movies do, feeling the need to hit us over the head with, “hey you’re missing out on life”. There is no soundtrack to island life, just the rustling palms and the pounding tides.

            The third act is Chuck leaving the island, and there is an unforgettable shot of the island from a distance, and is the first time in a long time that we hear music. The violins come in and Chuck is prepared to endure the worst on his tiny-wooden raft. Before the classic, and now overly spoofed scene of losing our beloved Wilson, Chuck endures a storm that tears his tiny vessel apart. While it leaves him more stranded than he’s ever been at this point, his attitude towards losing his make-shift sail is, as forest Gump would say “shit happens”.  After being rescued and brought back to the familiar sounds of busy airports and Elvis tracks in the comfort of Memphis, Chuck re-unites with the one-who-got-away, letting the love he was longing for the whole time on the Island go.

            The film came so close to being a Gilligan-type gimmick and leaving Chuck at a literal cross-road at the end of the movie works much better than a run off the plane, kiss Helen Hunt, and roll the credits hoisting hanks on our shoulders as so many welcome home scenes are. The closing of the film is so realistic because it captures the awkwardness of having to start over from everyone thinking your dead and being so used to the fact that you are gone.