Every Man is an Island

by Sasha Stone
Tom Hanks wouldn't have bothered making CAST AWAY if he weren't prepared to make a grand statement about life and, more importantly, about love. While the man himself will tell you that all he wants audience members to get out of his film is "to laugh, to cry, to kiss your $8.50 goodbye," the truth is that he wants more for you than that.

That Cast Away made $100 million in two weeks should be all the proof Hanks needs that there are people, lots of them, who crave his brand of enlightenment. This isn't a true survivor film; this is a message movie: don't lose out on what's important because you don't have the time.

For most of the film, Cast Away rings absolutely true. Chuck Noland (Hanks) lives and dies by the clock, the Fed-Ex clock, that is. He is devoted to his job more than most - which makes him a great manager for Fed-Ex but not so great a boyfriend to Kelly (Helen Hunt). He is so married to his schedule that he breaks up his Christmas with his beloved to catch a plane and, in checking his watch, decides they can open presents in the car at the airport in five minutes time.

Up until this point, clocks and so-called time saving items rule Noland's life. His pager and cell phone all conspire to make him move that much faster, keep to an even tighter schedule, with not even time enough to sit with his sweetheart on Christmas. The filmmakers do a great job pointing out these time pieces from the very beginning -- Noland is even given a gold watch for Christmas. He immediately sets it to Memphis time and promises to keep it there. To him, the watch is a way of telling time, but all of that is about to change.

This is a man who is owed a lesson, Twilight Zone style. So, after a beyond frightening plane crash, Noland is cast off to a desert island where he will survive, by any means necessary, for four long years. Suddenly, the man who didn't have the time has nothing but time, and the only thing that matters to him is the woman he left behind. The gold watch, with her picture in it, takes on a great significance.

All of this is magnificently executed by Hanks and director Bob Zemeckis (the same team who took Forrest Gump all the way to Oscar). Hanks was primed for this project in every way, physically (taking almost a year off to lose fifty pounds), and emotionally -- after a fairly rough life, Hanks settled in with a wife whom he's celebrated famously. It's not that far a leap to imagine why he'd put love right at the top of the list of the most important things in life.

The "survivor" sequences on the island are oddly compelling, even with no music and no dialogue (and certainly no Tribal Council), because Hanks delivers such an understated performance, seeming to be acting for no one, which is unusual for him. The most moving scenes in the film take place between Noland and his volley ball, Wilson (wife Rita's maiden name).You absolutely believe Wilson is a real and true friend. Hanks has said that in studying survivors of various situations he found that they need someone to talk to as much as they need fire and water - if they don't have them, they create them.

Unfortunately, once the film returns Noland back to normal life, someone dropped the ball. One big problem is that they cut from his rescue to four weeks later when he's all cleaned up and on his way to see Kelly. After all the detail on the island about how this man struggled to survive and become who he becomes, the matriculation back into society is skipped over. We'll never know what it was like the first time he sees another human being.

Zemeckis and Hanks seem more interested in the character's acknowledgement of how easy our lives have become - lighters, pocket knives, room service that brings you piles of crab legs and sushi. This is our world. We can't know what really has meaning because nothing really has meaning for us; we don't have to struggle to survive, so we don't appreciate all that we have.

Chuck Noland took us all on a journey that will ultimately lead many to reconsider their lives, even if they do it for only a day afterward. It doesn't matter much that the movie isn't perfect - the bulk of it works, and this is a message many of us need to hear over and over until we get it right - the only thing we have is the same thing we're always running out of: time.

In the same way that Jim Cameron's Titanic was a great set piece flanked by a silly, unbearable story, Cast Away has memorable greatness beyond its flaws. Mostly because, when all is said and done, some of us are grateful to be reminded, as many times as it takes, that it's the people in our lives that matter most, and if we don't have time for them, we're wasting time, and ought to be cast away ourselves until we get it right.

CineScene, 2000.