Hi guys, welcome to The Movie Muscleman. This is about a very famous clip from Castaway starring Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt. So it came out several, several years ago. Now we're talking about the year 2000. One of my sort of favorite all time movies you know, that features Tom Hanks who I've been a fan for many, many years.

And I'll make no apology. I think he's a fantastic actor. But it's really a very bittersweet film. What do I mean by that? It's, one of those films which. It's sort of something that we all, it's a kind of a weird fantasy that we all want to sort of crash land on a desert island and do great. Have an adventure, so to speak.
It's a classic, it's a classic movie where you crash-land, or the hero, or the protagonist crash-lands on the desert island and he's got to escape on his way out. Help his way out, that type of thing. It's so well done. And I could talk about all sorts of different clips and scenes. But this one is about half an hour or quarter of an hour away from the very end.

It's that scene where he's on the plane coming back home. I won't give away too much of the spoiler. I won't say how he escapes, how, you know, what happens at the very end. There are a few plot twists, of course there is. Any good movie has plot twists. It's part of the job. But I will say that this is a very, big deal.
And I think you've seen that, this scene goes over a lot of people's heads. It features Chuck. played by Tom Hanks, and features Stan, who I think is, is like his sort of FedEx boss or manager, and it's set on a plane and there is this sort of, straight away, the way it's been shot, it's got this sort of very automatically sort of inherent humility towards itself.
It's very solemn, it's very subdued.

There's not a lot of shouting and screaming in this scene at all. It's very calm. Reserved conversation. It's very, very based on heavy nostalgia. What do I mean by that? It's a very, like, Chuck has been on this desert island essentially for a long time and is now going back into civilized society.

That takes a lot of emotional energy, a lot of emotional energy. And, I mean, Tom Hanks plays it so well, of course he does, he's such a magnificent actor. And it's very nostalgically driven, very, ‘I really thought you died, but you're not dead, you're alive', type of vibe, you know. Stan has to explain to him, ultimately, that he has thr funeral. And Chuck asks quite correctly, what did you put in my coffin?

And Stan explains, Oh, bits and bobs. I put in your Elvis. I'm paraphrasing here slightly. But it's such a powerful scene and it makes you wonder, like, we all have this weird fantasy of crash-landing in the Amazonian rainforest or crash-landing on a desert island, you know, somewhere or sort of being stuck somewhere so we can escape and have an adventure and it's all wow and fantastic.

But what I love about Castaway is that it doesn't paint it in a glamorous way. There is no sexy way of leaving it. There is no glamorous ending. It's very raw, very I feel, very accurate. Very realistic in the sense that, when you watch Castaway, you don't leave away thinking, ‘Oh, I'd love to do that! I'd love to be put on a desert island and escape through the ocean waves! Brilliant!'

You don't think like that. You think, I hope I don't ever crash-land on a desert island. You've, A; you've got to learn how to survive. Most people do not. Because we're used to, in the western, sort of, first world hemisphere, so to speak, you're used to, electricity, you're used to buying food in the supermarket, you're used to clean, in theory, drinking water on demand.

All of that is stripped away. Tom Hanks character, you know, Chuck, he has got to find a way to survive, and he does, early on in the movie, he has to survive, literally, at times, by pure fluke. On top of that, he even has a very bad toothache. Now, I've got a bit of a slight tooth issue myself, and, months ago, I was taking Neurofen, like, a simple ibuprofen.
Now, I'm not gonna lie to you, you try having a toothache when you're on an island. And, you're in pain, and you can't get rid of that pain very easily. These are all cleverly written in the script.

And that's why I love Castaway. It doesn't make it glamorous. Like, there are many books and movies out there where they're crash-landing somewhere.
In a sort of forest, or on the side of a mountain, or maybe there is a, maybe a crash-land in a desert. I know Flight of the Phoenix is one of them, which I love and I'll do a review of that later on. But that was essentially crash-landing in the desert. I'm on about the remake now.

The remake, which came out, again, roughly around the same time as this came out, actually.
I think that came out in 2006 or 7. I'll do a review on that. But that was all, like, slightly sexy, slightly glamorous, little bit of challenges, but not many challenges. Mostly, you know, they're dancing in a desert, and they're trying to refit the plane so it can fly away again. Here, that is striped all out.

This is a very unsexy, unglamorous portrayal of what it actually sort of fucking takes for a man, or a human being, to survive. On his own, with no help whatsoever, apart from one or two packages. And he sort of gets a little bit of help from floating debris from a plane, and that's it. I don't think we ever truly find out why the plane went down.

We know there's a storm, and that's your lot. But it's such a clever, clever clip. And it's a clip that, for me, sort of does tend to make you realise that it's not fun. You're having to repair old relationships, if you can. You're having to repair emotional trauma or heal yourself, if you can. And there's a scene later on I believe, where he is having to ultimately face the idea that, against his own will, he can't go back to the way life was.
Life before the, shall we say, the accident or the tragedy, it was routine, he was a boss, he knew what he was doing, and it was all like this. Very tickety boo. Here, he's having to realize that all that's gone away now. He's having to re-adjust to life back in civilized society. And that's tough. It's a brilliant movie.

I love Castaway and I think it's a clip for me which really hammers down the point that life is gonna change and it's, it's not sexy. It's not glamorous. It's not meant to be and I think Tom Hanks plays it as well as Helen Hunt. There's even a scene later on with, and Helen, you know, his wife, former wife, I suppose you would say now, former wife, and it's so it's clever, you know, the flame is still there.

She even mentions, I can't remember what she says exactly, but I'm paraphrasing here slightly. She goes, I never stopped believing that you died. Or words to that effect. It's not supposed to be sexy. It's not supposed to be, it's raw but it's brilliant.

I remember watching the movie and I'm not going to lie to you, I remember it being a very bittersweet movie because it ends sort of on a high. But what the high is, is very much open to interpretation. I won't give away too much. But I just thought it was a really clever scene.
It's literally the first two and a half minutes into it. It's a really solemn, reserved scene, which for me, it's such a simply shot scene. You're basically on a plane, you're seeing Tom Hanks, you know, he's talking to his manager, or the CEO, I think Stan is, is one of the managers there. It was made in the year 2000, so automatically it's got a much more nicer vibe compared to a lot of the modern stuff, which is a bit grainy for my liking.

That's me. It's beautifully shot, but it's beautifully simple. The dialogue is crisp. It's very accurately portrayed. Tom Hanks normally has a lot of energy in these scenes. That's why we love him so much. He's got such a bubbly, energetic metabolism. Here, that's all gone. Like, even when he played Forrest Gump, he had a lot of energy.

Here, that's all gone. He's very reserved, very quiet. He's clearly going within. I'm sure if you were crash-landing on a desert island, you're gonna be like, introverted in that respect you're gonna be because you need to now rely on your own inner resources because, what else is there. You know you've got to basically rely on your brain-cells so it's a really powerful scene a very simple scene but it's a very profound scene and it sets the tone for the final act, the final Homecoming.

I do recommend you watch the clip. I do recommend you buy the movie or rent it. It's a brilliant movie. I'm a huge fan of Tom Hanks. I will say that it's a movie that it gets you, but also doesn't get you. If that makes sense. It's, very cleverly written, cleverly acted, and ultimately it makes you leave, whether you watch it in your living room, or the cinema, sort of feeling slightly, grateful that you have the life you have, that life isn't so sucky after all.

Anyway, thankyou for reading this review And yeah, please buy it. Please watch it. Please be entertained.
Ciao for now