Cast Away

About the Film

Cast Away is a film about a Fed-Ex manager named Chuck Noland who gets stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash heading on a business trip. In the beginning of the movie, he is lecturing his employees about the importance of time, and seeming uncompassionate towards his employees when yelling at them for failing to deliver packages on time. Although Chuck is shows a lack of compassion towards his employees, he has a girlfriend named Kelly Frears with whom he is in love. While he wants to marry Kelly, the traveling for his job interferes with those plans of marriage. While he is stranded on the island, he finds a couple of Fed-Ex packages that fell off the plane that help him survive physically and psychologically. His only real companion on the island is a volleyball named Wilson. With the help from the items on the package, Chuck can survive on the island for four years. After those four years, he returns home to discover that Kelly is married with a child. Later in the film, Chuck visits Kelly for an opportunity of closure. He learns that Kelly knew that Chuck did not die on the plane crash, but everyone encouraged her to accept the fact that Chuck was gone and move on from the past. Kelly also shows Chuck that she kept Chuck’s car after all those years, and the two share a romantic kiss. However, Kelly and Chuck part ways knowing that they cannot be together because Kelly has a child and Chuck must continue with his career.

Impact

Cast Away actually is not my favorite movie. I like the movie, but I am not excited about it like I am with some of the other pieces of literature I talk about. I feel like most of the movie is watching Chuck by himself on a deserted island with a volleyball, which I found boring. If there were other characters on the island with him, perhaps I would find it more interesting. However, what I like about the volleyball being his only companion is that I feel like the volleyball says a lot about psychological survival. When Wilson is there, he is sane; however, when he loses Wilson, he loses his mind. I like how the film almost portrayed Wilson as his mind. Although I say that this is not one of my favorite, I would not be writing about it if it did not make an impact on me. The way the movie came together at the end probably was my favorite part of the film. I like how the film shows the impact of Chuck being gone really had on Kelly. In other words, it showed what is lost after being gone for so long. Although Chuck’s future with Kelly is lost because he was gone for so long, her feelings for him never truly died.

We watch films with love stories thinking that if two people are each other’s “true love”, they should be together in the end. What made the ending so worthy of a mention in my literature portfolio was that the ending portrayed two people truly in love having to part ways, and it was ultimately because Chuck was gone for so long. I thought this was a more realistic portrayal of what would happened if someone in a committed relationship was missing for four years, then came back. If his or her significant other had a child, there would be a resolution of that person going back to one’s marriage rather than a relationship from four years ago. Kelly may or may not love her husband, but her child takes precedence over an old relationship even if he is her true love. I like that the movie did not end in a “happily ever after” of them getting back together, but them parting ways to live their lives.

Values

Cast Away teaches the impact one can make on his or her loved ones after being gone for so long. When one is gone for such a long period of time, so much can change after time passes whether one disappears from his or her life completely or just stops keeping in touch with loved ones. However, although Chuck is gone for such a long period of time, Kelly’s feelings for him never die. Therefore, the film shows that although people are away from each other, they can still see each other and have the same feelings they had after being away for so long. At the same time, people can change after being away from each other for so long that may be strange and even uncomfortable for others. When Chuck sees that Kelly has a husband and child, he knows that he will not have the same life he did with Kelly four years ago. However, they still love each other even although they cannot be together. Therefore, the film shows that although circumstances can change after being gone for so long, sometimes feelings do not change.

Significance to My Students

Unlike “Shiloh”, which shows that two people do not have friendship if they do not get to know each other because one is away most of the time, Cast Away takes a different approach to friendships and relationships that communicates that two people can still have feelings towards each other after not seeing each other. Although the two pieces of literature show two different relationships between two people, the nature of the relationship between two people is drastically different. Chuck and Kelly have been in a relationship in which they have actually gotten to know each other to develop those sentimental feelings towards each other. For example, when they give each other their gifts, they got them based on how well they knew each other. The values this movie teaches are so important to my students because it teaches them that if they had those friendships in which they got to know their friends from early childhood, they will still have that friendship after not seeing each other for a long time. There are moments in which old feelings will not be there, but if they still care about each other, those feelings will still be there. Students should not just give up on their friendships simply because they are away from each other. They are just away from each other for a moment, and will still be friends when they see each other again. Although Cast Away involves a romantic relationship and not a friendship, and Chuck and Kelly cannot be together in the end, they still love each other. If my students have a friendship in which they care about each other despite being away, they will still be friends even after being away from each other for so long.