RoR: Forum

This movie was awesome. I think the main theme was "Don't give up, you never know what will wash up on shore tomorrow." Not that you're dependent on fate to deliver you, but that you have to grab the opportunity when it comes up. You see the main character making hard choices and surviving and flourishing on the island (like ice-skate dentistry). And you see him taking risks when the opportunities come up -- that big piece of plastic. And then ultimately, he translates his actions on the island to regular life off the island. The whole sequence "in regular life" after he escapes/is rescued mirrors the sequence on the island. Bad situation, despair, opportunity, seizing the day, and hopefully a happy ending.

Post 1

Thursday, April 22, 2004 - 2:07am

Andrew Bissell writes:
>The movie that gives the lie to that old collectivist platitude, "No man is an island."�

Wha...tha...? Surely you don't mean the movie where the hero is so lonely for human company that he
anthropomorphises a *volleyball* into his best friend? Who grieves uncontrollably when he finally loses said volleyball over the side of his raft, and even risks his own life to retrieve it!!?

Actually, it's hard to think of a movie that better expresses the urgent human need for *another* in order to preserve
one's own sense of self.

(BTW, the scene when the fire finally lights under the watchful gaze of Wilson is a marvellous glimpse into how belief in gods and spirits must have originated in primitive man )

- Daniel

Post 2

Thursday, April 22, 2004 - 1:50pm

Daniel Barnes writes:

>Wha...tha...? Surely you don't mean the movie where the hero is so lonely for human company that he
anthropomorphises a *volleyball* into his best friend? Who grieves uncontrollably when he finally loses said volleyball over the side of his raft, and even risks his own life to retrieve it!!?

Well of course I'm not saying that a major theme of the movie is that men can get along just fine in the completely absence of others; if that were its theme, Chuck would have just stayed on the island. What I think "no man is an island" is usually meant to express though, is the idea that individuals cannot even survive, much less prosper, without significant help and assistance from their fellow men, which makes everyone indebted to everyone else. This was the sense in which I applied the phrase. It could be restated as "no man is rich when others are poor" or various other nonsensical sayings.

********* SPOILER WARNING ***********

As far as the volleyball is concerned, Wilson does play a crucial role in helping Chuck externalize his ideas and check them against reality, and ultimately to stay sane. See, for example, the part where "Wilson" convinces Chuck to go to the summit to retrieve the last few feet of rope needed to build the raft. But he's not actually a thinking, acting agent; Chuck preserves his sense of self in the total absence of real human contact. (It helps, of course, that he remains hopeful of being reunited with Kelly.) And it's not as though Chuck ever completely loses touch with reality and comes to see Wilson as an actual human being: "Regardless, I'd rather take my chances out there on the ocean than stay here on this shithole island talking to a goddamn volleyball!"

(Edited by Andrew Bissell on 4/22, 2:29pm)

Post 3

Thursday, April 22, 2004 - 10:22pm

Andrew writes:
>What I think "no man is an island" is usually meant to express though, is the idea that individuals cannot even survive, much less prosper,�without significant help and assistance from their fellow men, which makes everyone indebted to everyone else

I think that's a little too strong. Actually the line is from a poem by John Donne and reads:

"No man is an island, entire of itself..."

The saying usually just expresses the commonsense notion that people need other people, not that they are utterly dependent on them. (The poem itself is about human empathy - "..any man's death diminishes me..." - rather than need or dependence)

>As far as the volleyball is concerned, Wilson does play a crucial role in helping Chuck externalize his ideas and check them against reality, and ultimately to stay�sane....Chuck preserves his sense of self in the total absence of real human contact.

Yes, exactly. You've got it. If you are isolated too long you can lose your sense of "self", and with it your sanity. That's why solitary confinement is the harshest punishment in the prison system.

I thought the movie was fantastic, myself. Very astutely observed. With that and the beautiful psychological thriller "What Lies Beneath" Bob Zemeckis has put himself back at the top rank of modern directors.

- Daniel

Post 4

Monday, May 30, 2005 - 2:11pm

I saw this film for the first time last night and I thought it was great.

I believe the film depicts the strength and dignity of the individual being able to survive against the odds. As Chuck adjusts to "reality" on the island, so he also adjusts to "reality" when he gets off the Island when he discovers his past life has gone.

We know that as Chuck starts his new life that he has an inner strength and dignity that will see him through.

Post 5

Monday, May 30, 2005 - 3:05pm

Yes, it is an unusually thought provoking film. The virtues the character portrays are rationality,productivity,integrity and respect for individual and property rights.
Helen Hunt is a favourite actress of mine as well. It is refreshing to see adults behaving in a mature way in a film and still moving the audience without histrionics. The word I may be looking for is dignity.

Post 6

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 5:59pm

Andrew Bissell wrote: "Well of course I'm not saying that a major theme of the movie is that men can get along just fine in the completely absence of others; if that were its theme, Chuck would have just stayed on the island."

Actually, it was only when he spelled it out that I understood why he wanted to leave. As far as I could tell, once he split the rock and got a sharp edge, his survival was assured. The abcessed tooth was a warning, but he solved that. Certainly when he "woke up" from that and the camera opened on the fish being speared and then came back... back... back... to see him all buff and successfully spearing a fish from that far away, I did not see why he wanted to leave. But he explained it and I accepted it.

Once he was back in civilization, Hanks delivered wonderfully understated expressions -- his face is so complex! -- when he looked at the large crab in the hors d'oeuvres and later when he got his car keys back and there was that little Victorinox Swiss Army Knife. He barely lifted an eyebrow but it spoke volumes and anything more would have ruined the intensity of the moment.

I think they did a great job of painting Chuck Noland as a "common" or "typical" man, but one with an obvious string of achievements. He is a low-echelon upper manager, setting up a new office in a foreign country. He is not a bigwig, but he is more than the least common denominator. He could be anyone. But more, it is that he is the kind of person, a corporate manager, who is often reviled. Compare him to the mammals in Bonfire of the Vanities. When the UPS truck has a parking boot on it, Chuck acts directly and decisively and correctly. That defines him as the kind of man who can rise to a life and death struggle against nature.

Post 7

Monday, June 20, 2005 - 9:49pm