Cast Away (Blu-ray) (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	143:46
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Robert Zemeckis
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Tom Hanks Helen Hunt Nick Searcy
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$19.95	Music	Alan Silvestri

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 (3254Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Danish Dutch Finnish French German Italian Japanese Norwegian Portuguese Spanish Swedish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, FedEx, Wilson Sporting Goods & Dr. Pepper
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Cast Away earnt actor Tom Hanks a nomination for Best Actor at the 73rd Academy Awards. And boy...did he deserve it after being in 90% of this film, including a 75-minute stretch isolated on a desert island. No doubt you would have seen this film prior to reading this review as it was highly successful in 2001 (it was released theatrically on December 22nd, 2000). Made on a budget of $US90 million, the film grossed $US430million at the box office. It also has a 90% rating at Rotten Tomatoes and 73% at Metacritic.

     Tom Hanks plays Chuck Noland, a FedEx Systems Analyst who is a workaholic. Responsible for solving issues globally, he travels the world and is therefore rarely seen at home. He has a caring girlfriend in Kelly Frears, played by Helen Hunt, and finally he plans to propose during Christmas 1995 until his pager calls him to take on a problem in Malaysia. At the local Memphis airport, Chuck and Helen agree to discuss their future on New Year's Eve when Chuck gets back. On the way to Malaysia, the charted FedEx flight is required to make an emergency landing. The plane breaks-up on impact whilst ditching into the sea, and all on-board are killed, except Chuck, who barely makes it to a nearby uninhabited island. The lonely island paradise makes it difficult for him to first learn and adapt to survive. He struggles to collect drinking water, food and make shelter. His only contact on this island is 'Wilson', a volleyball, with which he develops an unusual relationship. Thus passes day after day and year after year. After four years he returned to civilisation as a hero, but nothing is as it once was...

     For me, this was a sure winner when Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks teamed up after their highly successful venture in making Forrest Gump in 1994, which won 6 Academy Awards. Credit must go to Tom Hanks who put on about 20 kilos to portray a pudgy middle-aged man and then lost it (and some more!) to portray a shipwrecked (or plane-wrecked) survivor, isolated for four years on a desert island. Production was shut down for a year whilst Hanks lost the weight, and Zemeckis made What Lies Beneath in the meantime with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. One hundred crew shot the film on the small uninhabited island of Monuriki in Fiji (it is approximately 1 kilometre long and 600 metres wide); the island has now become a tourist attraction.

     Contrary to logic, FedEx were not paid for their significant product placement. FedEx founder and CEO Fred Smith even makes a cameo to greet Tom Hanks' character Chuck when he returns at FedEx headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. Because the character of the volleyball has become so famous due to this film, Wilson Sporting Goods still offers a Wilson Volleyball (the Cast Away Volleyball - $US19.99) with a hand print for sale on their website to this day. Kelly mentions at the end of the film that Chuck was 600 miles south of the Cook Islands...not quite so! Remember, this is a movie and there is no land in between the Cook Islands and Antarctica. Then again, what are the odds of surviving four years on an island in the South Pacific and drifting on a raft 800 kilometres before being rescued?

Video

     Be mindful that the image is darker than an average Hollywood film. This is the case for all releases on DVD and Blu-ray worldwide. In fact, all the night-time scenes except one where shot in the day and transformed in post-production.

     The original 1:85:1 aspect ratio is presented in 1:78:1 in 1080p with a MPEG-4 AVC encode, 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

     Cast Away doesn't look overly sharp on Blu-ray in comparison to other films of its time. In fact, it contains a bit of film grain in places.

     The colour palette is quite bright at times, especially during the day scenes on the island.

     Thankfully, there is no Digital Noise Reduction or Edge Enhancement to rectify the grain; in my opinion, the film is best as it is, even if it is a tad dark at times.

     Subtitles are available in English, English for the Hearing Impaired, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.

Video Ratings Summary

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Shadow Detail
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Audio

     Alan Silvestri wrote 24 minutes of score for the film. This doesn't feature until after 100 minutes of the film has passed and Chuck's character gets off the island!

     The main audio track is a lossless DTS-HD Master 5.1 Audio track, with dubbed Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks encoded at 640kps in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish.

     Dialogue is mainly clear and synchronised considering that all sound on the island (75 minutes of the film) had to be looped in post-production due to technical problems with balancing sound in scenes and the background surf.

     As mentioned, the musical score only features in the film's third act and is used effectively to add to the drama.

     The sound design of the island setting allows for great surround channel action, with the force of the waves, the rustling of the trees, the thudding of coconuts as they fall and the crackling of fire comes through nicely in all speakers.

     The subwoofer employs some strong, resonating sounds during the plane crash and while Chuck is on the island learning to survive, especially when he is in the sea hunting for fish we hear the sound of pounding waves in the background, and when he attempts to escape on rafts.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras included whatsoever!

     The Region A United States Blu-ray was released in 2007. It did not have as many extras as the Two-disc Special Edition DVD, but did include an audio commentary by director Robert Zemeckis, cinematographer Don Burgess, visual effects supervisors Ken Ralston and Carey Villegas and sound designer Randy Thom, a theatrical trailer and a trivia track. The recent Region B United Kingdom and German Blu-ray releases are identical to the Australian Region B release, without an extras included!

     If you own Cast Away on DVD I would recommend you to keep it as this upgrade to Blu-ray is not worth it, in my opinion. A movie as important as Cast Away deserves dedicated extras to support it and I'm afraid this release by Paramount doesn't do the film justice!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall