Product Description

TOM HANKS STARS AS A FED-EX TROUBLESHOOTER WHOSE BY-THE-CLOCK EXISTENCE ABRUPTLY ENDS WHEN HE SURVIVES A HORRIFIC PLANE CRASH AND FINDS HIMSELF STRANDED ON A REMOTE ISLAND. FOUR YEARS LATER, FATE GIVES HIM A CHANCE TO REJOIN CIVILIZATION, ONLY TO FIND AN UNEXPECTED EMOTIONAL CHALLENGE GREATER THAN WHAT HE HAS ENDURED.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28216 in DVD
• Brand: TCFHE
• Released on: 2001-06-12
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 143 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Cast Away is a good movie that wants to be much better. While director Robert Zemeckis's earlier film Contact achieved a kind of mainstream spiritual significance, Cast Away falls just short of that goal. That may explain why the film's most emotionally powerful scene involves the loss of an inanimate object, even as it presents a heart-rending dilemma in its very human final act.

It's three movies in one, beginning when punctuality-obsessed Federal Express systems engineer Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) departs on Christmas Eve to escort an ill-fated flight of FedEx packages. Following a mid-Pacific plane crash, movie number two chronicles Chuck's four-year survival on a remote island, totally alone save for a Wilson volleyball (aptly named "Wilson") that becomes Chuck's closest "friend." Movie number three leads up to Chuck's rescue and an awkward encounter with his ex-girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt, in a thankless role), for whom Chuck has seemingly risen from the grave.

It's fascinating to witness Chuck's emerging survival skills, and Hanks's remarkable physical transformation is matched by his finely tuned performance. With slow, rhythmic camera moves and brilliant use of sound, Zemeckis wisely avoids the postcard prettiness of The Black Stallion and The Blue Lagoon to emphasize the harshness of Chuck's ascetic solitude, and this stylistic restraint allows Cast Away to resonate more than one might expect. Even the final scene--which feels like a crowd-pleasing compromise--offers hope without shoving it down our throats. You may not feel the emotional rush that you're meant to feel, but Cast Away remains a respectable effort. --Jeff Shannon

Amazon.com
Cast Away is a good movie that wants to be much better. While director Robert Zemeckis's earlier film Contact achieved a kind of mainstream spiritual significance, Cast Away falls just short of that goal. That may explain why the film's most emotionally powerful scene involves the loss of an inanimate object, even as it presents a heart-rending dilemma in its very human final act.

It's three movies in one, beginning when punctuality-obsessed Federal Express systems engineer Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) departs on Christmas Eve to escort an ill-fated flight of FedEx packages. Following a mid-Pacific plane crash, movie number two chronicles Chuck's four-year survival on a remote island, totally alone save for a Wilson volleyball (aptly named "Wilson") that becomes Chuck's closest "friend." Movie number three leads up to Chuck's rescue and an awkward encounter with his ex-girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt, in a thankless role), for whom Chuck has seemingly risen from the grave.

It's fascinating to witness Chuck's emerging survival skills, and Hanks's remarkable physical transformation is matched by his finely tuned performance. With slow, rhythmic camera moves and brilliant use of sound, Zemeckis wisely avoids the postcard prettiness of The Black Stallion and The Blue Lagoon to emphasize the harshness of Chuck's ascetic solitude, and this stylistic restraint allows Cast Away to resonate more than one might expect. Even the final scene--which feels like a crowd-pleasing compromise--offers hope without shoving it down our throats. You may not feel the emotional rush that you're meant to feel, but Cast Away remains a respectable effort. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

SPECIAL FEATURES THAT AMAZON INSIST ON IGNORING
Disc One: CAST AWAY
Letterboxed - Anamorphic - 1.85:1
Audio:
DTS 6.1 ES - English
Dolby Digital 6.1 EX - English
Dolby Surround - English
Dolby Surround - French

Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - 1. Robert Zemeckis - Director, Don Burgess - Director of Photography, Ken Ralston - Visual Effects Supervisor, Carey Villegas - Co-Visual Effects Supervisor, Randy Thom - Sound Designer
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus

Disc Two: Bonus Features
Featurettes - 1. "The Making of CAST AWAY"
2. "S.T.O.P.: Surviving as a Castaway"
3. "The Island"
4. "Wilson: The Life & Death of a Hollywood Extra"

Special Effects Vignettes with Audio Commentary
Charlie Rose Interview with Tom Hanks
Trailers - 1. 2 Original Theatrical Trailers
2. 10 TV Spots
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus
Text/ Photo Galleries:
Stills Gallery
Storyboard Galleries
Concepual Art
Illustrations

Excellent
If you were expecting another Robinson Crusoe then this movie is not for you. This movie deals with the human aspect of being removed from everything you know and having to deal with not having the familiar around to keep you comfortable. If you are looking for exciting fights with the natives and constructing amazing devices from coconut shells and bamboo then you may want to go watch Robinson Crusoe or Gilligans Island. This was, I believe, probably a very difficult movie to make and probably even harder to sell the idea to a studio. Like I said earlier this is not Robinson Crusoe and you aren't given a lot of action to watch but what you are given is a look at just how man deals with what he's dealt. How many times have you found yourself having a conversation with ,well yourself, when no one else is around? Now take away all that you have and all your family and friends and, for that matter everything you have, how would you deal with it? A volleyball might just become a good friend. I don't think this movie would ever have seen the light of day if it hadn't been brought forward by such box office powerhouses as Hanks and Zemeckis and I don't know anyone else who could have pulled it off better than Hanks. So I recommend that you watch this movie but don't watch it for a survivalist action adventure flick watch it for what it is, a statement on the human condition and just how one man copes with what life throws his way.

A PARABLE OF LIFE--ALL LIVES
If you watch Cast Away simply as a movie then you will lose a powerful opportunity for introspection.

The power of this movie lies in its applicability to everyone. To Hanks' character the island is far more than a hunk of rock in the South Pacific. It represents a huge hurdle for him to clear and in clearing it his coming to grips with his life and who he is.

Regardless of who you are there are times in life that relegate us to times and situations of frustrating solitude, our own islands, if you will. We, like Hanks' character, run ourselves crazy trying to work things out ourselves only to discover, as he did, "that we have power over nothing." We also learn that if we keep on breathing and living "tomorrow the sun will rise and who knows what the tide could bring."

Expertly acted by Tom Hanks, Cast Away invites us to put ourselves in his shoes and imagine what we would do.

Yes, the script is predictable but it goes well beyond the story on the screen. Watch it and apply it to your own islands, whatever they may be, and this movie will be one that you find yourself watching again and again.