The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 75 Days to go: 51
Movie #365: Cast Away
First of all, why is this title two words? Is it a sailing thing? Cast away? Like set sail on the open water and hope to reach civilization? Like to cast off, but further? Is that what it is? Or is it the filmmakers being funny about how the lion’s share of this movie has done away with the need for a cast of characters? Because someone who gets stranded on an island is a castaway. One word. I like double entendres, but not stupid ones.
Ah, well. I guess I have to work with what I’ve got.
Cast Away is a movie I got because it was on blu-ray at Half Price Books for a low, low price — low enough to justify owning a film I only really love the middle section of. It’s a film that I think spends a smidge too much time on set up and far, far too much time on the aftermath, but that is quite nearly perfect from the moment that FedEx plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean with Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) aboard, until the moment four and a half years later when Noland, drifting on a dilapidated log raft after days at sea, is spotted by a cargo ship.
Those moments in the dark and stormy ocean, a fiery airplane sinking beside him, are harrowing and terrifying — as much for what they don’t show as what they do. The film uses a rush of sensory images and sounds to convey the horror and the helplessness and the desperation Chuck feels. And then, when he arrives on his island, almost all sound fades away, save the endless roar of the ocean and the rush of the wind. It becomes almost a clinic on solitude and isolation. There is no musical score and almost no dialogue. It’s just Chuck by himself, trying to be rescued, trying to save himself, and trying to make do with what he has. His triumphs, therefore, become our triumphs, and we all want to thump our chests exalting the magical power of fire. We all want to taste those few precious drops of coconut water. In that same vein, though, his defeats become ours as well. We wince when he cuts his hand, and we scream in anxiety when he is forced to excise his own tooth.
A true achievement in embodying a role, Hanks put his body through the rigors to emulate the character’s transformation from puffy executive to sinewy outdoorsman. His skin is tight and sun-damaged, his muscles are lean, and his hair is completely out of control. I remember seeing him in public appearances around the time of filming, thinking he was a lunatic, but the authenticity in every bit of his performance really pays off. Even the slight madness Chuck falls into, imagining involved conversations with a volleyball and heavily mourning that ball’s loss when it comes, is completely understandable. Unlike All Is Lost, wherein I felt Redford was much too non-verbal, Hanks understands that talking to oneself naturally evolves out of silence. It’s a normal defense against loneliness, and over four years on an island would necessitate a speaking relationship with whatever you could find.
Honestly, I love that middle section so much — it’s almost meditative in its beautiful simplicity — it’s like a gut punch when he finally gets rescued only to return to a horrible monster of a woman. Kelly (Helen Hunt) is the absolute worst. I mean, I don’t really see their romance as being all that deep in the first place, considering he gives her hand towels and a beeper for Christmas, but that doesn’t excuse her up and marrying his dentist like a year after he disappeared. The timing, I’m sorry, just doesn’t work out. It never has for me. (The brilliant Mallory Ortberg at The Toast recently posted a hilarious “revenge sequel” to the film that covers this exact gripe, though she cops out and claims Kelly blameless by the end. I disagree.) Even if you can muster it up in your mind that Kelly mourned perfectly long enough before marrying that dentist and having his baby, Kelly herself claims, once the two meet up again, that Chuck is the love of her life and that she never stopped believing he was alive. Well, if you thought he was alive, if you were sure of it, then why are you married to some other dude? Ugh. I wish they’d just broken up when he gave her those stupid Christmas gifts and been done with the whole thing. But thanks for returning his car, I guess?
The very end of the movie, too, is extremely on the nose, as Chuck stands at a literal crossroads while the wind blows in the direction of the lovely butterfly artist lady who just passed by. I mean, why not just hit us over the head? But for all its faults, Cast Away has a gorgeous, exquisite center section that, if that were all the movie was, I could watch for hours and hours on repeat. I’d say that’s worth six bucks, wouldn’t you?
Viable Option 