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Castaway

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A Techtite Review

The Film : Castaway is one of those Holiday films often referred to as an "Oscar push." Thrown into the end of the year, the idea is to make sure the movie is fresh in Academy voters' minds, when voting for Oscar nominees. Given this film's overall look and feel, it's no surprise why this was the film chosen for such a possible honor. Not only was it directed by Academy-Award-winner Robert Zemeckis, it also stars Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt, who are both Academy Award favorites themselves. It also involves a story of a "Scrooge" type of business exec, who has a new view of life by the finale. This is the type of sappy story that the Academy often loves to vote for...and, for some people, the film they love to go to.

The plot involves Chuck Noland (Hanks), a Federal Express executive who is too caught up in his work. As we have already seen in the film trailers (which might reveal a bit too much elsewhere), so mechanical is his current life, he and fiancée Kelly (Hunt) have to check their appointment books to see when they are free to meet each other again. Suddenly, his latest plane flight ends in disaster, and he finds himself stuck on a deserted island, with no sign of civilization anywhere. With none of the technological tools that he hid behind in the city, he will have to open his eyes to the more simpler ways of life, just to survive. No joke; one of the bigger moments of the film is when he learns to make fire. In his time alone on a deserted island, he might even change a few things about his perspective of his life in general, and become a better person. The result is a cute --although slightly familiar-- story.

I try not to be "Mr. Wizard" in movie reviews like this. Unlike some of my critical colleagues, I don't like to make it habit to bash films based on their scientific implausibility. Still, with so many critics giving thumbs-down to the unlikely plots of fantasy films like Frequency, yet forgiving the plot lunacy of films like The Cell and Nutty Professor 2, I'm surprised nobody has tackled the implausibility of this story as well. For one thing, Chuck survives a plane crash, even when all others aboard were not as lucky. He even survives being close to an exploding propeller engine, which was a bit much. He survives all this with a conveniently available --and very durable!-- inflatable raft, that also happened to "survive" the explosion/crash. Given all the habited islands in the world, Hanks lands on a deserted one. However, this island has --what luck!-- enough food to last him the entire duration of his stay. After an hour of film --and four years on the island-- Hanks devises a plot to escape. I'm not saying how this plot resolves itself, though I do wonder why he didn't think of such an escape plan sooner.

This film's bigger flaw is bad timing. Thanks to the aftermath of a summer's worth of Survivor, most of the film's deserted island moments --basically, one hour of the entire film-- are all pretty cliché. Sure, people who loved Forrest Gump, will love the same director (Robert Zemekis) filming Hanks as a stuffy businessman turned into a survivalist. However, as you'll probably hear in many reviews galore, "no man is an island," nor is one actor on a deserted island a film in itself. It doesn't help matters --again, without giving too much away-- that the ending moments take a lot to be desired. There's word that the actual final moments were tacked-on at the last minute, after test audiences didn't like the original finale. To me, they should have tacked on even more, and given a more enjoyable finale, "Oscar Push" or not.

However, as Oscar-pushes go, it's hard to give this film thumbs down. It is well directed, and well acted, both by Academy Award veterans. With Oscar winners like Zemeckis, Hunt, and Hanks, it seems almost bullet-proof from criticism. However, when thought of as an "Oscar hopeful," even a solid thumbs-up (Large Crater in Techtite.com terms) seems like a low grade. I'll give this film thumbs-up for its talent, though much like Eyes Wide Shut, it should have edited the flawed final reel, if it wanted to get the Oscar win many had likely hoped for.

The DVD : This is a two-disc set, with far more additions than you would think for a a film of this type. After all, let's be honest: the whole middle of the film involves Tom Hanks, on a deserted island, talking to a soccer ball. This doesn't seem like much to work with in the way of bonus materials. However, that isn't about to keep Zemeckis & company from delivering a collector's edition that's worth a look...and perhaps, even worth the purchase price.

Audio Commentary is done by Zemeckis, as well as most of the film's other crew members. However, that isn't the major draw for this film's behind-the-scenes additions; it's the nearly half a dozen featurettes. This even includes an Interview with Tom Hanks, from The Charlie Rose Show. There's another featurette called simply "The Island," whose subject matter is obvious, yet still worth watching. A survivalist's documentary called "Surviving as a Castaway" should be equally intriguing, as well as an HBO First Look documentary, and snippets explaining the Special Effects scenes. Perhaps the most inspired (and also a little humorous) featurette offered, would have to be "Wilson: The Life and Death of a Hollywood Extra." Keep in mind; Wilson was the name given to the soccer ball. Personally, I think they could have made a few additional video sales, selling soccer ball puppets with video purchase. However, that's getting a little carried away, I admit.

All this, plus the typical trailers and a photo gallery (of conceptual artwork), as well as a storyboard-to-film comparison, makes this 2-disc set almost rival the extras for the recent 2-sided Superman DVD. At least fans of Castaway didn't have to wait 23 years to see their favorite film immortalized on digital discs. Looking at the DVD set offered, fans of Castaway are very, very lucky.

	Rating : Large Crater. "Oscar push" or not, it has its flaws, including particularly the finale. However, it has its strength, even when half the film is all up to Tom Hanks alone.
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