Cast Away - 2000, Robert Zemeckis

Robert Zemeckis, by and large, hasn't been treated well by "serious" cinephiles. I myself have been guilty of this, and for several of his films, I still feel it is the correct response (the animated period seems largely like a failed experiment). But his latest, the excellent Flight, has made me start revisiting his work, leading me last night to an old childhood favorite, Cast Away.

Like Flight, I was pleasantly surprised to find a genuinely visual film, a real experience in the senses. Zemeckis' shots linger far longer than those of his contemporaries, allowing settings and details to gain and hold their expressive qualities. This becomes heightened in the film's middle portion, a raw experience in nature. The verisimilitude of the island is lent startling vibrancy by an incredibly rich soundscape, various ambient elements that feel rhythmically in tune with the patience of his camera.

Cast Away is a very physical film. Hanks, stripped from the meanings civilization's context provides, must exist solely to survive, the film essentially stripping him down to a body in conflict with environment. The film has a palpable sense of danger, emerging with the remarkably staged plane crash that begins the second act, and punctuated further by three separate injuries, each heightened as physical reality by grueling soundtrack accompaniments (the rip of coral shredding Hanks' leg being a particularly horrifying example).

Cast Away, as well as Flight and Contact, reveal, lest we forget, Zemeckis as a primarily visual filmmaker, a rarity in contemporary Hollywood. And while all three of the aforementioned films are marked by cliched emotional beats, each earns these "rote" moments through a meticulous cinematic presentation, founded upon intelligent and thoughtful mise en scene, remaining at all times true to the characters and their physical contexts.