Cast Away (Rental) (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	137:54
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (74:27)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Robert Zemeckis
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Tom Hanks Helen Hunt Nick Searcy
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	Rental	Music	Alan Silvestri

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Dutch	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    How could a Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks collaboration be anything other than superb? Well, with Cast Away I doubt if that question need ever be asked again.

    Cast Away is an intriguing story. Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a clock watcher, a human timekeeper, a so called "systems engineer" for the FedEx courier company. His life revolves around the clock until disaster strikes, and he finds himself in the centre of perhaps the most breathtaking plane crash scene yet put onto film. Inevitably, he ends up on an island and has to learn to start from scratch and just stay alive. Now, for over an hour we have one person in camera with no musical score and almost no dialogue, and yet every minute is incredibly engaging. I don't believe many actors could have pulled this one off nearly as well as Tom Hanks under the wise direction of Robert Zemeckis.

    One point I found intriguing is that up to the time Chuck lands on the island, and shortly thereafter he is something of a "pudgy" man, carrying around more body fat than he really needs to (tell me about that one). However, we later meet up with Chuck four years later, and he is lean and fit, and looking physically very different. Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis filmed this movie in two parts, spaced approximately by one year. Now, whilst Tom was busy getting into shape, the entire production crew of Cast Away, including Robert Zemeckis went away and made the thrilling What Lies Beneath with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, and then returned to complete Cast Away. That just tickles me pink.

    I don't wish to spoil how the movie ends for those who have not seen it, so I will leave it at that! I will, however, mention that a character named "Wilson" appears on the island to give Chuck some company, but you will have to watch the movie to learn more about that ...

Video

    This is a generally superb transfer, and one of the better DreamWorks efforts to date. It is unfortunately let down in some key areas which rob it of a reference rating.

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, being very close to the theatrical 1.85:1 35mm presentation. I found the framing of the movie to be very effective, and did not feel that a wider ratio would have served better. Perhaps 2.35:1 would have been less claustrophobic, and that may have diminished the intended effect, for this movie is a curious combination of a prison-like sentence in an infinitely large prison.

     The transfer is pleasingly sharp and detailed almost all of the time, with only the occasional instance of ever-so-naughty edge-enhancement. The opening shot is perhaps the best example of detail, with the road vanishing clearly into the distance. Grain was simply not present, neither was there any low level noise. Shadow detail was generally good, but was let down immensely by poor compression, which I will speak of below.

    The colour palette is a most natural one, with skin tones appearing very lifelike. The island scenes are often breathtaking in their realism and detail, with the subtle variances in the sea colour ranging from green to blue handled with perfection. There were no instances of chroma noise.

    Unfortunately, and in spite of the almost perfect transfer, the MPEG compression is problematic at times with readily apparent macro-blocking on diffuse backgrounds. Also, blocking is a problem for low-level, near-contiguous shaded objects such as background walls and often delicate shadow-detail is lost as a result. Particularly bad examples occur during so-called "day-for-night" shots whereby the clouded horizon breaks up horribly and looks very odd. Also, the scenes with Chuck in the lifeboat immediately during the plane crash amidst heavy rain simply becomes a mess of blocking and smearing. Thankfully, this represents a small portion of the film, but I found them distracting nonetheless. Other than that, there were no instances of film-to-video artefacts, and only the occasional aliasing due to fine detail.

    This disc is RSDL formatted, with the layer change occurring between chapters 18 and 19 at 74:27. It was not particularly distracting.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    A splendid soundtrack is on offer here, though like the video transfer it is sadly let down in some subtle yet key areas.

    You have the choice between English and German languages, both in 448 kilobits per second Dolby Digital 5.1.

    Dialogue is reasonably well recorded, though at times slightly strained in presentation. ADR looping is also evident periodically. The soundtrack had a tendency to drift in and out of sync in a few places, especially during Chapter 12 on the island. This had the effect of removing the illusion which is film-making for those times, and was unfortunate.

    Cast Away is a rarity amongst films in that the score does not appear until fully 92 minutes after the opening credits. When it does appear, it is most moving and poignant, which is as the director intended. A simple score consisting of orchestral instruments only, it is nonetheless wonderfully enveloping and clean. It is also memorable in that its striking theme is simple yet strong.

    Although not credited, I believe the soundtrack to be Dolby Digital Surround EX, given that a) The R1 release is, and b) the surrounds are used prolifically, notably with in-phase rear-centre information being often present. Standout examples include the plane crash scene, and those involving Chuck on his custom-built life-raft. Sound is a major player in this film, with the island having a character of its own. Creaking trees, the crashing waves and the odd falling coconut place the listener firmly in that environment with Chuck.

    Though used only sparingly, the subwoofer came to life during the intense plane crash, and is used to enforce the power of crashing waves.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no extras on this rental disc.

    R1 is blessed with a double-disc set loaded to the brim with extras. As we have only a rental version at this time, I cannot comment on extras. However, critical video and audio transfer comparisons between the two versions reveal some not altogether subtle differences. Whilst the R4 PAL video is inarguably sharper, with greater vertical resolution, the R1 version does not suffer any MPEG compression faults which plague the R4 disc. This results in an often smoother image on the NTSC cousin, and those with large progressive displays will surely benefit. Sonically, the DTS 5.1 ES Matrix soundtrack present on the R1 version is substantially better than the Dolby Digital track. An example is the plane crash. Being quite familiar with the R1 DTS track, I was immediately surprised to hear a very speaker-centric sound during times of stress on the R4 Dolby Digital track, with sounds appearing to come from the speakers in the four corners of the room, which had a disengaging effect. The R1 DTS soundtrack presents a far more homogenous, seamless and realistic environment, with far less obvious surround usage. I found the crash scene in particular lacked the raw emotion which the superb DTS track generated. The DTS soundtrack also made more intense use of the subwoofer. To round it off, there were no audio sync problems with the R1 disc.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• DTS 5.1 ES Matrix soundtrack
• Commentary by Robert Zemeckis & Crew
• "The Charlie Rose Show" Interview with Tom Hanks
• "Wilson: The Life & Death Of A Hollywood Extra" Featurette
• "The Island" Featurette
• Special Effects Vignettes
• "S.T.O.P.: Surviving As As Castaway" Survivalists Documentary
• HBO "First Look" Documentary
• Storyboard-To-Film Comparison
• Concept Art Gallery
• Theatrical Trailers
• TV Spots

    As this is rental only disc, the Region 1 sell-through release is the clear winner for the time being.

    Cast Away is one of the better movies I have seen of late, and a real testament to the sheer talent of Tom Hanks, not to mention movie-making as a whole. I can heartily recommend this disc as a rental, but I would love to see its faults corrected for the final retail release, as well as the inclusion of ALL of the quite wonderful extras which are present on the R1 retail version.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall