Cast Away
The thing about the movie Cast Away...the poignant thing about it is: you know, from the very first moment that Tom Hanks is going to survive the plane crash and live on the island for what seems like an eternity and survive and go home.
You know this in the first seconds of the movie and everything that occurs in the first 25 minutes just pulls at your heart. His indifference, his lovely but flawed relationship with Helen Hunt, his obsession with timeliness. You can't even watch the movie without noticing that he is paunchy and knowing that he won't be for long. And even if you've never experienced loss (and how could you not?) you begin, in those first moments he's on the doomed plane, to fret and worry.
Then something on the plane explodes and all hell breaks loose. The crew brings Tom his oxygen - he crawls to grab the pocket watch Helen has just given him, the shit hits the fan and we sit through every second of the plane crashing.
It is spectacular. That he survives is amazing. That he has clung to the life raft is even more astounding. He bobs to the surface of the ocean, the engines are whining, there is fire on the water and he is safe. But only for a second as one of the plane engines explodes and he is thrown into the sea again. We know he survives but are gripped with fear as he crawls back into the raft in an awful storm.
It's a fairy tale, of course. But I forget that every time I see it.
It's a parable, a moral, but I fall for it time and time again.
34 minutes into it I am ready to cry. I suspend disbelief long enough to accept that he has survived a catastrophic plane crash and is washed ashore on a deserted beach.
This happens to me with movies. I can watch them over and over again and still be amazed.
36 minutes in he is cast away.
He goes through his pockets and checks his beeper first and his pocket watch second.
My heart breaks because I know what is ahead of him.
Fortunately, for my emotional state, I am watching Cast Away on television and there are commercials to break the tension.
You know this in the first seconds of the movie and everything that occurs in the first 25 minutes just pulls at your heart. His indifference, his lovely but flawed relationship with Helen Hunt, his obsession with timeliness. You can't even watch the movie without noticing that he is paunchy and knowing that he won't be for long. And even if you've never experienced loss (and how could you not?) you begin, in those first moments he's on the doomed plane, to fret and worry.
Then something on the plane explodes and all hell breaks loose. The crew brings Tom his oxygen - he crawls to grab the pocket watch Helen has just given him, the shit hits the fan and we sit through every second of the plane crashing.
It is spectacular. That he survives is amazing. That he has clung to the life raft is even more astounding. He bobs to the surface of the ocean, the engines are whining, there is fire on the water and he is safe. But only for a second as one of the plane engines explodes and he is thrown into the sea again. We know he survives but are gripped with fear as he crawls back into the raft in an awful storm.
It's a fairy tale, of course. But I forget that every time I see it.
It's a parable, a moral, but I fall for it time and time again.
34 minutes into it I am ready to cry. I suspend disbelief long enough to accept that he has survived a catastrophic plane crash and is washed ashore on a deserted beach.
This happens to me with movies. I can watch them over and over again and still be amazed.
36 minutes in he is cast away.
He goes through his pockets and checks his beeper first and his pocket watch second.
My heart breaks because I know what is ahead of him.
Fortunately, for my emotional state, I am watching Cast Away on television and there are commercials to break the tension.
Comments
True story.
Your description really lists the reasons why...
oddly, I saw it in the theater, then aw it n cable like a year later, and I remembered the ending having an additional scene. Clearly I imagined the ending I wanted and so vividly that it became real.
just sensational.
b
Marsha from Massachusetts (1st time poster)
Stupid intense movie! That will show it.
I just watched it on Saturday night. That first 36 minutes is killer.
I love the part where she chases his car in the rain and they have that really good kiss!
Great movie!
The coffee lady mentioned one of the best scenes....
"Wilson! Wilson!"
And the kiss in the rain scene that cary perk mentioned. Oh how that scene made me cry, more like SOB!
Paola
My sister and her husband are Fed Ex pilots.
I don't think I could get beyond 33 minutes.
Now that really takes me back to my early blogging days.
I've never seen Shawshank Redemption either...are we missing something?
Josh says he would be a much better castaway than Tom Hanks.
jbhat
jbhat