Cast Away 2000

CAST AWAY (2000)
Analysis of a film segment (1:39´ - 1:42´)
The following analysis aims at highlighting the use of cinematic elements to convey an enhance meaning in a segment of one of the many relevant scenes of the film Cast Away(2000), directed by Robert Zemeckis and starred by Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt.

SYNOPSIS
After FedEx systems engineer Chuck Noland is ripped out of his hasty lifeby the clock in a plane crash, he finds himself alone a tropical island. Realizing how little his chances are to ever get back to civilization, he creates a miniature civilization for himself in the form of “Wilson”, the friend he makes out of the volleyball that has washed ashore from the wreckage. Wilson comes into being accidentally: Chuck cuts himself while he’s making his first fire and, ina temper tantrum, he grabs the volleyball in his bloody hands and flings it as far as he can. Later, he recovers it, and traces a simple face into the bloody smear. Four years later, Chuck has learned how to survive on his own. A photograph of his girlfriend Kelly has kept his hopes alive all these years. Finally, Chuck takes the opportunity to take off for home: He sets off on a wooden raft witha sail that has washed ashore.
* PLOT TYPE: Candide: Chuck, who has been so absorbed by his time-chasing career, comes to the realization while isolated on a tropical island that he has neglected the one person who gave meaning to his life, his girlfriend Kelly. He has learned to maintain hope of survival and rescue-also a sort of faith-by interpreting signs provided by his surroundings."Tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide will bring." And finally, in an act of free will, he has decided to risk his life in an attempt to go back to civilization.
* FILM GENRE: Adventure- Drama
* THEME: Focus on ideas (growing awareness)
* INFRANARRATIVE: - The complication sequence of the film can be intellectually related to Defoe´s novella Robinson Crusoe(1719).
- Chuck´s learning of true values, instinct for survival, search for meaning of the signs presented to him, his isolation on an island, his inner debate between struggling for life and surrendering to death, his homeward journey, can be linked to mythic associations, universal themes of the human race history.
The analysis will be focused on the following elements:
* FICTIONAL AND DRAMATICELEMENTS
1. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE: The title anticipates the story and hints Chuck´s future reality.
2. DRAMATIC STRUCTURE: Linear or Chronological Structure
3. CHARACTERIZATION THROUGH:
- External Action: Chuck shows his change of values when he risks his life to save his self-created friend, Wilson, and desperately cries when he cannot rescue him.
- Choice of name: Chuck´ssurname is “Noland” which represents his going from country to country during his working life as a Fed Ex systems engineer, his apparently being nowhere, since he was not rescued from the island, his literal no land at sea and his uncertain future when he finally gets home but finds his beloved Kelly has married.
- Variety of character: Dynamic or developing character
4. SYMBOLISM
- Thesetting, the immensity of the ocean, has contradictory symbolism. It shows Chuck´s immense struggle and will to get free from the island and be rescued, but at the same time reflects Chuck´s solitude and vulnerability. Now he is “imprisoned” on his raft at the sea.
- Kelly´s watch represents Chuck´s hope, his attachment to life, the reason for his reckless journey and his new awareness of realvalues.
- Wilson, symbolizes the human need for companionship, a behaviour induced by prolonged periods of solitude. Wilson sprang to life from Chuck’s own blood. Wilson is company for Chuck, but he’s also Chuck’s way of holding onto his sense of self — there is no individuality when there are no other human beings to compare and contrast yourself with.
- The unopened package, is another symbol...