Cast Away (2000) DVD Review – UK

When Federal Express troubleshooter Chuck Noland's plane crashes into the sea he finds himself washed ashore on a deserted island.

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When Federal Express troubleshooter Chuck Noland's plane crashes into the sea he finds himself washed ashore on a deserted island.

Runtime

2 Hours 13 Minutes

US rating

PG13

Region

Region 1

Sound

Dolby Digital 5.1 EX

Aspect

2.35:1

Release year

2000

Details

When Federal Express employee Chuck Noland boards a plane on Christmas Eve he expects it to be nothing more than a routine flight delivering a cargo of parcels. However, when the plane encounters severe weather over the Pacific and loses contact with air traffic control he realises he is in for a rough flight. Things get even worse when the aircraft suffers a catastrophic failure and plunges into the sea, from which he is the only survivor.

Hanging on to an inflatable dinghy for dear life he rides the storm out and the next morning finds himself washed ashore on an island far away from the crash site and any possible rescue craft. Unfortunately, his initial scouting mission reveals that the island is deserted and so he must fend for himself. With debris and parcels washing ashore he gathers what he can and uses the varied contents to survive until, after four years of isolation, he finally decides to build a raft.

Picture & Sound

With the disc being THX certified you'd expect something special from both the picture and sound. Fortunately you won't be disappointed with either as the picture is just incredible, so much so that you could almost be on the island yourself. The picture is bright and colourful with some wonderful colour and flesh tones. The bit-rate remains continuously high throughout the film and manages to produce a flawless picture without any signs of artifacting or outlining.

The sound is equally impressive, especially during the plane's doomed descent and subsequent crash, but the best moments are reserved for the island itself. The simple sound of the crashing waves and very little else really highlights Chuck's true isolation. There is a reasonable amount of activity in the surround channels and, although there is precious little of it at times, the dialogue remains crisp and clear in the centre channel. There is little to separate the two sound formats, although I did think that the DTS version sounded just that little bit clearer.

With the majority of the film taking place on the island you would have thought that being alone would be a challenge when it came to dialogue, and indeed at times there is a lot of silence as Chuck struggles to survive. However, as one of the featurettes goes on to interestingly show, Chuck makes friends with a volleyball and calls it, aptly, "Wilson", giving him someone to talk to - even if it doesn't talk back.

Menu & Extras

With the length of the film and the fact that both Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks have been provided, the extras have spilled onto their own disc.

Both discs have nicely animated and scored menus and although only the director's commentary is available on the first disc, the second is filled with many interesting documentaries. One in particular goes into some of the research done for the film, including leaving someone in isolation to fend for themselves. All interesting stuff which is rounded off by the usual theatrical trailers and television spots.

Overall

Yet again Tom Hanks manages to produce the goods and his total box office takings must now be heading in the direction of the GDP of a small country. His performance here is nothing short of remarkable, carrying long stretches of the film almost entirely on his own and somehow keeping it engaging throughout. However, this film is not quite what I expected and at times it feels a little disjointed, particularly with the shifts in pacing between the early scenes and the prolonged isolation.

This film could easily have been extremely boring but with the box office lure of Tom Hanks you could probably have him just sitting there doing nothing and it would still have been a monster hit. Thankfully, there's enough emotional weight, visual spectacle and sheer curiosity about his survival to keep things moving along, even if it occasionally feels a little drawn out. It's not quite the masterpiece some make it out to be, but it's still a compelling and very watchable experience.