Has anybody started a Castaway review thread yet? I hope not.
I saw it on New Year’s Eve, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. My comment upon leaving the theatre was, “I feel like I just saw a two and half hour presentation for a possible film project.” They hit on quite a few facets of a story, but they didn’t seem to do more than hover around any one. It just seemed like an incomplete film.
I wanted to see more of how he fared on the atoll throughout the years rather than a cut to “Four Years Later.”
I also thought Chuck Nolan was just a little too well adjusted once he got back to civilization. After four years of talking to a volley ball I would think he would be a little more goofy when having to actually deal with real people. He was obviously insane to a point on the island, dealing with the isolation, the constant dangers, even contemplating suicide. Then he gets back and his biggest marvel is at ice in his glass.
The other trite thing was when he delivered that one package at the end to the artist in Texas, it seemed too convenient that she was this fabulous babe, instead of, oh say, a dowdy 50 year old mother with seven kids or something.
For what they did get on celluloid, I think they did a good job. I was entertained and at times riveted, but they always seemed to lose me as they trailed off a point. It’s a good film, but way down on my “Best Of” list for 2000.
What do you say?
I actually liked the fact that Hanks and Hunt didn’t get together at the end of the film. Others in my group hated that part but I found it to be a good choice. The relationship wasn’t anything more than a plot device to keep his desire to return to civilization strong.
I did hate her reason for moving on, though. “Everyone else kept telling me to give you up but I never lost faith.” Hey, news flash, you kinda did. See Mr. Noth, back at the house? Yeah, that’s your husband. You lost faith. Deal with it.
Like you, I agree that his return to civilization was a little too unreal. At the very least, he was completely malnurished to the point of death. That takes awhile to recover from (yes, yes, “Four weeks later.” I think it has to be a bit more than that to become completely healthy). Anyway, I guess his question regarding the Tennessee Titans was supposed to cover every single question he could have asked about what’s happened over the last four years.
I found his life on the island to be interesting. I’m glad they didn’t cop out and have him open up a package filled with medical supplies or anything like that.
The point about the package was just a Zemekis trademark. He loves feathers for some reason and likes movies coming back to where they started.
My family didn’t like it either, but I thought it was perfect. What was he going to do? Break up the family, screw over the kids? I guess opinions on that would vary…
I also preferred the movie ending at the symbolic crossroads rather than showing him approaching the girl like my parents wanted. I thought anything after the crossroads scene would have been irrelevant to the story; it was pretty clear to me that he was going to drive after her and choose that path for his life. I preferred it to an unnecessary “beat ya over head” ending. (In fact, as I watching the last scene, I instinctively knew the movie would end at that point.)
I think the reason they kept the time on the island short was because he had no one to interact with (save Wilson) and lack of dialogue can make for a mundane movie. I don’t remember there even being any voice-overs, which might have helped in that respect, but I think they were trying to make us feel as alone as he is and give us pieces of quiet time to reflect on what we’d do in those circumstances.
I don’t think it was a masterpiece, but it was a slightly better than average (C+/B-) movie.
I was thrilled by the movie particularly the plane crash. I was so terrorized I accidently kicked the seat in front of me bracing for impact. The entire episode from the terror of the initial explosion, rushing air, sound alarms, mid plunge buffets, explosions and screaming pilots during the descent and on to the awful realization that I was being engulfed by the pacific ocean and descending to its depths attached to a heavy object was a truly awesome and unique experience for me.I will carry this memory for the rest of my life.
There were quite a few other interesting facets to the movie as well. I liked how he overcame the initial problem of utilizing a particular food resource on the island for one.
This movie goes into my top 10 list.
i guess when Robert Zemekis (director of such classics as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Back to the Future 3) decided to make a “serious” movie, he figured there was a good way to do so.
what, get a good script, you say? nonsense! a juvenile fantasy a la Forrest Gump will suffice.
no, you make every single scene about 30 seconds too long. that always lends an air of importance to your movie.
i couldn’t wait for this movie to end. there was a line near the end where Hanks says something like, “I’m sorry that she wasn’t with me on the island” and i really wanted to heckle, “you’re sorry you didn’t pick a better script!”
all i can really say is thank god that Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt didn’t get together in the end. can you possibly imagine the size of their children’s foreheads? or should that be eightheads?
Smeg, I saw that thread but I was hoping to generate critiques of the film as a piece of art rather than “why didn’t he build a radio out of coconut shells, like the Professer” type questions.
And hapaXL, he didn’t pick it so much as he wrote it. I beleive Tom Hanks conceived of the story and it was hanging out there pending re-writes.
The island scenes were interesting, (if mainly in a detached, academic, “oh, so that’s how one might survive on a desert island” kind of way) but the framing story, especially the final half hour, destroyed whatever small goodwill I had developed for the movie. Long, meandering, (virtually EVERY post-island scene could’ve been written to be the ending) and incredibly heavy-handed and dumbed down. And the whole final scene was just painful for me. The island scenes would rate a solid **1/2, (or “eh” as I call it) but the fact that there was so much that I hated brings it down a good full star to *1/2. Maybe ** if I’m feeling generous.
Oh, and before anyone decides I’m an idiot… I didn’t hate the half-hour wrapup because it wasn’t high adventure, I hated it because it was simultaneously a half-assed treatment of a heavy-duty subject that could’ve been its own movie, AND was long and in-depth enough to slow things to a crawl. Worst of both worlds. Though I think that if Hanks and Hunt had gotten back together I wouldn’t have even have been able to hold in my contempt as I left the theater.