Product Details

• Actors: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Paul Sanchez, Lari White, Leonid Citer
• Directors: Robert Zemeckis
• Writers: William Broyles Jr.
• Producers: Robert Zemeckis, Cherylanne Martin, Jack Rapke, Joan Bradshaw, Steve Starkey
• Format: Color, Special Edition, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English, Russian
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: November 6, 2001
• Run Time: 143 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (595 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005PJ8J
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #148,874 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Cast Away is a good movie that wants to be much better. While director Robert Zemeckis's earlier film Contact achieved a kind of mainstream spiritual significance, Cast Away falls just short of that goal. That may explain why the film's most emotionally powerful scene involves the loss of an inanimate object, even as it presents a heart-rending dilemma in its very human final act.

It's three movies in one, beginning when punctuality-obsessed Federal Express systems engineer Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) departs on Christmas Eve to escort an ill-fated flight of FedEx packages. Following a mid-Pacific plane crash, movie number two chronicles Chuck's four-year survival on a remote island, totally alone save for a Wilson volleyball (aptly named "Wilson") that becomes Chuck's closest "friend." Movie number three leads up to Chuck's rescue and an awkward encounter with his ex-girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt, in a thankless role), for whom Chuck has seemingly risen from the grave.

It's fascinating to witness Chuck's emerging survival skills, and Hanks's remarkable physical transformation is matched by his finely tuned performance. With slow, rhythmic camera moves and brilliant use of sound, Zemeckis wisely avoids the postcard prettiness of The Black Stallion and The Blue Lagoon to emphasize the harshness of Chuck's ascetic solitude, and this stylistic restraint allows Cast Away to resonate more than one might expect. Even the final scene--which feels like a crowd-pleasing compromise--offers hope without shoving it down our throats. You may not feel the emotional rush that you're meant to feel, but Cast Away remains a respectable effort. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

Tom Hanks "gives one of the towering screen performances of all time" (New York Post) as Chuck Noland, a FedEx systems engineer whose ruled-by-the-clock existence abruptly ends when a harrowing plane crash leaves him isolated on a remote island. As Chuck struggles to survive, he finds that his own personal journey has only just begun...

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SPECIAL FEATURES THAT AMAZON INSIST ON IGNORING, August 8, 2008

By	Gracex (Egypt) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cast Away (Two-Disc Special Edition) (DVD)

Disc One: CAST AWAY
Letterboxed - Anamorphic - 1.85:1
Audio:
DTS 6.1 ES - English
Dolby Digital 6.1 EX - English
Dolby Surround - English
Dolby Surround - French

Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - 1. Robert Zemeckis - Director, Don Burgess - Director of Photography, Ken Ralston - Visual Effects Supervisor, Carey Villegas - Co-Visual Effects Supervisor, Randy Thom - Sound Designer
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus

Disc Two: Bonus Features
Featurettes - 1. "The Making of CAST AWAY"
2. "S.T.O.P.: Surviving as a Castaway"
3. "The Island"
4. "Wilson: The Life & Death of a Hollywood Extra"

Special Effects Vignettes with Audio Commentary
Charlie Rose Interview with Tom Hanks
Trailers - 1. 2 Original Theatrical Trailers
2. 10 TV Spots
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus
Text/ Photo Galleries:
Stills Gallery
Storyboard Galleries
Concepual Art
Illustrations

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, June 24, 2001

By	T. Hahn "Gadget" (Southeast Missouri) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Cast Away (Two-Disc Special Edition) (DVD)

If you were expecting another Robinson Crusoe then this movie is not for you. This movie deals with the human aspect of being removed from everything you know and having to deal with not having the familiar around to keep you comfortable. If you are looking for exciting fights with the natives and constructing amazing devices from coconut shells and bamboo then you may want to go watch Robinson Crusoe or Gilligans Island. This was, I believe, probably a very difficult movie to make and probably even harder to sell the idea to a studio. Like I said earlier this is not Robinson Crusoe and you aren't given a lot of action to watch but what you are given is a look at just how man deals with what he's dealt. How many times have you found yourself having a conversation with ,well yourself, when no one else is around? Now take away all that you have and all your family and friends and, for that matter everything you have, how would you deal with it? A volleyball might just become a good friend. I don't think this movie would ever have seen the light of day if it hadn't been brought forward by such box office powerhouses as Hanks and Zemeckis and I don't know anyone else who could have pulled it off better than Hanks. So I recommend that you watch this movie but don't watch it for a survivalist action adventure flick watch it for what it is, a statement on the human condition and just how one man copes with what life throws his way.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Blu-ray version review, December 30, 2007

By	Rev2010 (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cast Away [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

I own movies in both HD DVD and Blu-Ray formats so I've seen very many HD movies and am well familiar with the formats capabilities.

Being one of my favorite movies, Cast Away's release in Hi-Def got me very excited. I'm a big fan of the movie and give the movie itself 5 stars but am only reviewing the quality of this release here. The opening sequence where the FedEx truck drives up and picks up the package for delivery to Russia looks only slightly better than the standard DVD. When the truck opens up and the Russia scene starts it looks a lot better, but still more like 720p quality. Through the rest of the movie the HD quality stays about the same, decent but not great. It's certainly a step up from DVD but there are a few scenes that seem to be no better than my 2 disc DVD edition. The best looking scenes are the closeup scenes where the HD quality becomes more apparent but it still doesn't look anywhere near as good as other HD titles I own. Some of the best looking HD titles I own are: The Matrix collection, 2001, The Fifth Element, Apollo 13, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Pirates of the Caribbean, and number of others.

While watching the movie and examining the quality I came to the thought that it might not be the transfer that's the issue but possibly it was the director of photography's filming. It looks like the DP tried hard to keep a balance of focus between the actor and the background thereby not getting a truly sharp focus. I could be wrong but this is what it looked like. The 5.1 surround sound was fantastic. I didn't notice any difference between my DVD and Blu-ray versions, though I do admit I really didn't examine the audio.

Overall the movie was nice but I was let down as I was expecting better, especially from a movie with such a great environment. If you own the 2 disc DVD keep in mind the 2 disc set has all those extras and this hi-def release does not. So you may want to hold onto your set. Don't go getting Cast Away expecting the same HD quality you see in all those top notch movies that people use to showcase the format. It still looks great and certainly better than DVD just not leaps and bounds better for most of the scenes. Again, I can't say for sure but it may simply have been the way it was filmed.

Viewed on:
Sony PS3 (latest update)
Samsung LN-T5265F 52" LCD 1080P (calibrated)
Toshiba 5.1 surround sound system