Cast Away
A
movie starring
Oscar winning
Tom Hanks as
Chuck Noland, a
Federal Express higher-up whose sole purpose in life is to beat the clock. He is
obsessed with time to the point that he once stole a crippled boy's bike in order to make a
delivery on time. His love interest,
Kelly Frears (played by
Helen Hunt, another Oscar winner), is reluctant to marry another man whose life is ruled by his
pager.
Both their lives are changed forever when a FedEx plane carrying Noland across the
Pacific goes off course and crashes into the sea. Noland washes ashore a tiny,
remote island where he spends the next four years, isolated from
humanity and
civilization save for a few items that link him to the world he once knew: A picture of Kelly, a
volleyball named
Wilson and a FedEx package with a
butterfly painted on it.
Only an actor of Hanks's
caliber could pull off this role, that of a man torn by a
desire to end his own life in the face of desperate loneliness, and by a strong
will to live driven by the hope that he may someday be rescued.
The employment of Wilson is absolutely
ingenius. Not only does it provide the writers with a convenient way to enter speech into what would have been a predominantly
silent movie, Wilson also offers the viewer a glimpse into Noland's
alter-ego, the part of him that needs to continue living. The moving scene in which Noland ultimately loses Wilson marks the point in the movie where the character gives up totally, throwing himself to the
mercy of the sea.
The remainder of the film tells the story of the second, more profound loss that Noland experiences. It is only Noland's drive to deliver the butterfly-painted package, now four plus years old, that hints at his possible future life.
This movie is
destined to be one of the
greats.