Cast Way is a film that is unique. It is unlike anyting you have ever seen. In no other film does the plot and entirety of the film center around one man with no other people to talk to or no other dialogue involved. This is without any doubt Tom Hanks’ best film EVER. In fact it jsut might be one of the greatest solo performance acting movies of all time of one man.
Cast Away is about a man named Chuck Noland, played by Tom Hanks who is a Fed-Ex manager. He delivers packages and is in charge of the company. On one such mail delivery made by plane, a storm hits and makes the plane crash, killing the pilots, and Noland’s friends, leaving him as the only survivor. He is somehow able to escape the crash into the ocean and swims to an island that is uninhabited. He is left all alone in the world on this island, with no electric devices no communication with the outside world, and nobody to talk to.
The heart of the movie centers around this one man’s plight aboard this desserted island and how he is able to survive for many years there. He is able to keep track of time through a system of markings and uses parts of the plane that have been washed up onto the island to survive. He buries the body of his fallen friend and pilot that has been washed up onto the island and mourns his death. He also goes somewhat mad as he makes a volleyball that he found in a package into a human being. He gives the volleyball a name in Wilson, after its brand and talks to it as his personal friend. When he looses his friend Wilson that he has come to care about deeply, he goes crazy trying to find it and eventually does. As a viewer you feel on an emotional level for Chuck Noland and his volleyball which only is an inaminate object but still his only friend in his imagination.
Finally Chuck Noland decides to get back to the real world somehow. He can no longer take living on this island. The only things that have kept him alive is a locket from his wife and one package delievery he has vowed to make as his last delivery ever. Using creative genius, he strings together a man made raft and uses the tide to bring him out to see, the waves knock him unconscious but he is found by a ship that rescues him and brings him back to the U.S. His story is told to everyone who stare at him is disbeleif in awe. His wife nearly has a heart attack on the phone after learning that he has survived after all of these years that she thought he was dead from the crash. However, she breaks Chuck’s heart when he finds out that she has married another man all of these years he has been away.
Now the only thing that is keeping him alive is his last package delivery. He drives to the location and drops off the package surprising the person at the door after deleivering the package after all these years.
The ending is strange but still fitting as it leaves the viewer somewhat unsatisfied. As Hanks makes his final delievery, he stops his truck at a fork in the road, gets out of his vehicle and stares down both roads, uncertain which way to go as the film fades into the background and ends.
As I have said Tom Hanks is a must see and is truly masterful in the film. He really transforms himself into a cast away from society, changing his entire appearance. I highly recommend this film. It has won several academy awards and Hanks is worth every penny for the film.
