CAST AWAY
Released: December 22, 2000
Tom Hanks' latest flick entitled "Cast Away" debuted in North American theatres during the Fall of 2000 in a unique three minute version. In one of Hollywood's most daring moves yet, the new Robert Zemeckis movie was released as a remarkable tightly edited little package, giving the viewer brief but explanatory scenes that wrapped up with a bittersweet and emotional conclusion. Now, on December 22nd, 20th Century Fox has unleashed the expanded 143 minute version of the same film. The scenes we had grown to know and love in the three minute version were now generously fleshed out, adding more background to the plot. For example, in the short version we are shown that Hanks works at FedEx and is dating his sweetheart played by Helen Hunt, flys on a FedEx jet that crashes, he washes up on a beach of an unpopulated tropical South Pacific island, stays there for four years, is rescued, taken home to discover he had been presumed dead and had been given a funeral, finds out the Hunt character has married someone else and is out of place in a world he once called home. In this new "long" version now in theatres, we get EXACTLY the same thing - only with more footage explaining those scenes in greater detail. Instead of a quick look into Hanks' job at FedEx we are shown more about just how dedicated an employee he is. Instead of just an instant plane crash we are shown graphic scenes of just how the jet went down. Instead of a few minutes of Hanks wandering the tropical island we are given an hour or so. Instead of only seeing a moment of Hanks reunited with Hunt after four years we are given long expository scenes showing the pain that ensues. In other words, if you've seen that three minute version of the movie you have NO NEED TO SEE THE 143 MINUTE VERSION. Even the ending of this longer version is so neatly wrapped up that any sense of a message from this movie populated by characters you don't care about is muted.
Zemeckis has been quoted as saying, "We know from studying the marketing of movies, people really want to know exactly every thing that they are going to see before they go see the movie. It's just one of those things. To me, being a movie lover and film student and a film scholar and a director, I don't. What I relate it to is McDonald's. The reason McDonald's is a tremendous success is that you don't have any surprises. You know exactly what it is going to taste like. Everybody knows the menu."
In other words, "Cast Away" is essentially the fast food equivalent of a Big Mac. If only he gave his audience more credit in his trailers. Hey movie fan, Robert Zemeckis THINKS YOU'RE TOO DUMB TO SEE THE MOVIE WITHOUT KNOWING EVERY ASPECT OF THE PLOT, INCLUDING THE ENDING!
This is the second Robert Zemeckis movie in 2000. The first was "What Lies Beneath", the Harrison Ford yawner. Apparently Zemeckis started shooting "Cast Away" then stopped and slapped together "What Lies Beneath" while Tom Hanks let his beard grow out so they could finish shooting the rest of "Cast Away". He could have easily shot a McDonald's drive through for 143 minutes and had a better movie instead.
143 Minutes
20th Century Fox/DreamWorks SKG