Like An Island
Note: I've moved my blog to my own web site - the new address is:
www.nonaverage.net/insomanywords/
Comments can only be left at the new location.
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Here is another favorite movie of mine that, for a change, is not some obscure sci-fi or eclectic comedy flick. Cast Away starring Tom Hanks, with Helen Hunt as the love interest, was a successful box office hit movie in 2000. It's about a modern day, Type-A personality FedEx manager named Chuck who survives a plane crash and is marooned alone on a deserted South Pacific island for 4 years. Well, not quite alone... he has a soccer ball named "Wilson" for company, and interestingly enough the conversation is not entirely one-sided. But he spends four years isolated from the busy society that was his life, although eventually he is rescued. He returns to pick up his life, but his time on the island has changed him forever. I enjoy this film and watch it several times a year, but I know that many people didn't like it. "Nothing happens" is one of the main complaints I have heard, and certainly Chuck's time on the island is not very satisfying if you are the type of movie-goer who needs to see a car wreak or a gun shoot-out every few minutes. But for me, it is in that time where "nothing" is happening that I see the changes happening to Chuck, and that part of the story, as well as the bittersweet events following his rescue, are quite engaging for me, and why I continue to revisit this movie.
While I do think this is a great movie, I have an issue with one of the scenes, and since this is my blog and I get to write whatever I want, I'm going to comment on that scene. It is a part of the movie, before Chuck is marooned, where he and a co-worker are sitting on a FedEx plane, waiting to leave Moscow. They are talking about some of the delivery trucks did not make it to the airport in time, and the co-worker asks Chuck why he didn't just wait for the trucks and make up the time in air speed. Chuck's response is about keeping to the schedule - that if they let it slip a little today, they might slip even more that next time, and even more the time after that until, as Chuck puts it, "next thing you know, we're the U.S. Mail". Having been very familiar with the U.S. Postal Service, I take exception to this line in the name of the 500,000 postal workers around the country, and would just like to point this out as the cheap shot that it is. After all, a FedEx guy will deliver, what, a few dozen packages a day, while a U.S. Letter Carrier will deliver over 1000 items every day visiting every address on his route, which by the way is far more addresses daily than any FedEx or UPS driver. But I understand the frustration that those poor FedEx drivers feel, always wanting to be in the big leagues with Mail Carriers, but always being looked upon as "wannabes". Oh well, c'est la vie, or as I say to my friends who are FedEx workers, we can't all be professionals (can you tell I enjoy this?).
Anyway, back to the movie - I like it... I like the part where "nothing happens"... I like Wilson, and I like the ending. Well done. Mr. Zemeckis... I just wish I could lose as much weight as Chuck did on that island.
Movie Trivia: What is notable about the music soundtrack to Cast Away?
Answer: There is no music played during the time Chuck in on the island.
www.nonaverage.net/insomanywords/
Comments can only be left at the new location.
----------------------------------------------------
Here is another favorite movie of mine that, for a change, is not some obscure sci-fi or eclectic comedy flick. Cast Away starring Tom Hanks, with Helen Hunt as the love interest, was a successful box office hit movie in 2000. It's about a modern day, Type-A personality FedEx manager named Chuck who survives a plane crash and is marooned alone on a deserted South Pacific island for 4 years. Well, not quite alone... he has a soccer ball named "Wilson" for company, and interestingly enough the conversation is not entirely one-sided. But he spends four years isolated from the busy society that was his life, although eventually he is rescued. He returns to pick up his life, but his time on the island has changed him forever. I enjoy this film and watch it several times a year, but I know that many people didn't like it. "Nothing happens" is one of the main complaints I have heard, and certainly Chuck's time on the island is not very satisfying if you are the type of movie-goer who needs to see a car wreak or a gun shoot-out every few minutes. But for me, it is in that time where "nothing" is happening that I see the changes happening to Chuck, and that part of the story, as well as the bittersweet events following his rescue, are quite engaging for me, and why I continue to revisit this movie.
While I do think this is a great movie, I have an issue with one of the scenes, and since this is my blog and I get to write whatever I want, I'm going to comment on that scene. It is a part of the movie, before Chuck is marooned, where he and a co-worker are sitting on a FedEx plane, waiting to leave Moscow. They are talking about some of the delivery trucks did not make it to the airport in time, and the co-worker asks Chuck why he didn't just wait for the trucks and make up the time in air speed. Chuck's response is about keeping to the schedule - that if they let it slip a little today, they might slip even more that next time, and even more the time after that until, as Chuck puts it, "next thing you know, we're the U.S. Mail". Having been very familiar with the U.S. Postal Service, I take exception to this line in the name of the 500,000 postal workers around the country, and would just like to point this out as the cheap shot that it is. After all, a FedEx guy will deliver, what, a few dozen packages a day, while a U.S. Letter Carrier will deliver over 1000 items every day visiting every address on his route, which by the way is far more addresses daily than any FedEx or UPS driver. But I understand the frustration that those poor FedEx drivers feel, always wanting to be in the big leagues with Mail Carriers, but always being looked upon as "wannabes". Oh well, c'est la vie, or as I say to my friends who are FedEx workers, we can't all be professionals (can you tell I enjoy this?).
Anyway, back to the movie - I like it... I like the part where "nothing happens"... I like Wilson, and I like the ending. Well done. Mr. Zemeckis... I just wish I could lose as much weight as Chuck did on that island.
Movie Trivia: What is notable about the music soundtrack to Cast Away?
Answer: There is no music played during the time Chuck in on the island.
posted by Ruben at
10:44 PM
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