Desert Island Discord (Castaway (DVD))

Member Name: Pinotage

Product:	Castaway (DVD)
Date:	26/01/01 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice beach

Disadvantages: Confused message, much too long

Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) lives by the clock. As a gaulieter for the FedEX empire he travels the world berating foreign staff about the importance of time and just how vital are the parcels they deliver.

So what is he to do as the only survivor of a FedEX plane crash, washed up on a desert island where time has no meaning? He stumbles around in much the same way any of us would do in the situation. Some parcels are washed up and he and we can see what the plane's crew died to deliver. A volleyball, video tapes, party dress and ice skates. As it turns out those items help Tom survive.

Just as the film is about to get interesting it fades to a sign reading 'Four Years Later'. Tom has turned into a steely eyed Tarzan spearing fish and jumping from rock to rock in bare feet and its just about time for him to construct a raft that will take him to freedom. And that?s where the film should have ended.

But, oh no. He's now arrived back at FedEX HQ and his girlfriend has married someone else. And in a sugary ending he delivers his one remaining unopened package saved from the island. And guess what, she's a great looking female newly single .......

The film is on four parts. The first tries to show that he's an utter shit obsessed with work and the American way. Which should have made a fine counter point to life on a desert island. But didn't. How did a man who couldn't even arrange a date with his lover without them both comparing filo-faxes adjust to island life? We have the second part on the island where he slowly works out how to open coconuts and catch fish. Then we have the third segment where he's a bronzed slimmed down lord of the island building a raft to escape.

In the final section where he arrives back to a FedEx welcome the film totally loses all direction. His blond dreadlocks are gone and his hair is identical to before, black short and curly. We don?t hear whether he'
ll resume his job, whether it's still important to him, whether the clock can once again rule him. We don't know whether four years on the island has changed his life at all, or how he resumes his legal identity after being declared dead. Of family, house and property, nothing. There are several false endings then it lurches limply on as if the filmmakers just didn?t know where they were going .

The special effects are good. We all know the plane will crash but they still managed to surprise when it happened. The size and power of the waves breaking on the coral reef excite and there is dramatic tension when Hanks attempts to raft across them. But the rest of the film is mildly interesting rather than gripping. The main problem is a lack of purpose. If the film is supposed to about a man on a desert island, the interesting parts happen during the skipped four-year period. If it is about a man returning from the past then it?s a failure.

A lot has been made of how Hanks lost weight for the film, but he appears fit and slim rather than emaciated, with clear skin and no sign of vitamin or food deficiency. His only food is coconuts, crabs and fish, and there seems to be too few coconut trees to supply even one nut a day.

There were few signs of any construction done by Hanks during those four years. No house, shelter, fresh water conservation, fish drying racks, or fish tanks. Yet he can knock up a raft strong enough to survive crossing the reef.

Strangely for an American film there was no religion. Even when Hanks buried the crewmember's corpse he did not pray, and put no religious symbol on the gravestone.

Three main themes run through the film, food, time, and separation. The last scene before the crash and the first scene after the rescue featured a feast. Hanks piled his plate at the family dinner. Much of his time on the island involved getting food. On his return he picks over huge amounts of unwanted f
ood left on the welcome buffet, including (ha ha) huge crab claws. The movie started with clocks, he installed clocks at the Moscow FedEX sorting centre, sent a clock to himself to judge how long the parcel took to deliver and was given a fob watch by his lover. The lover's photo in the lid of the broken fob watch was his inspiration on the island, and returned it to her at the end. He makes a sun calendar charting the months. He was separated from his lover at Christmas and separated from the world by the crash. One of the opened parcels contained divorce papers. On his return he has to recognise time has moved on and he has to finally separate from his lover. When he delivers his final parcel we see the entrance arch to the farm has had one of the pair of names removed - the red haired sculptress has separated.

And there was barely a scene without the FedEX logo. If two coffee mugs were on a shelf they were placed so Fed was on one and EX on the other.


Bottom line: Its OK, but flawed. The sort of film you'd look up at from your newspaper from time to time when it's on the telly. It?s the only film my female partner has wanted to see in the past 12 months, so perhaps it stirs something in the female psyche. Whether it's Tom in a loin cloth or maternal instincts wanting to smooth germoline on his cuts she was loathe to discuss. Oscar for the Hankman? No, but a best supporting actor for Wilson the volleyball is a possibility.

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