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Cast Away

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The film ‘Cast Away’ directed by Robert Zemeckis, is set around FedEx worker Chuck Noland, who crash lands a plane in the ocean on a business flight. Chuck wakes up on a stranded island, to find that he is alone, and trapped. An important scene within the film is when Chuck opens the FedEx packages he collected when he first arrived on the island, and proceeds to open them to use the contents of the packages to help him create a fire, which is significant to the theme of survival. A variety of aspects such as camera techniques, lighting, symbolism, and sound usage all have an effect on how this scene shows important to the theme of ‘loneliness’ + ‘survival’.

Zemeckis uses various camera techniques to show the importance of how Chuck believes …show more content…

Silence played a big part in displaying the sheer isolation that chuck experienced. The use of silence emphasises the sound of his surroundings, reinforcing the fact that there is nobody else around for him to talk to. The silence Zemeckis uses helps us as an audience focus more on Chuck’s actions, for example, when he opens the parcels, or is creating the fire. Another important use of sound was the dialogue. Within the same package that he finds Wilson in, there is a birthday card which Chuck reads out loud. The card’s message reads “The most beautiful thing in the world is the world itself” which is almost ironic because Chuck is on a very beautiful tropical island, however to Chuck the island is a prison that he wishes to escape from. From this the audience can start to see from Chuck’s perspective, and you can imagine what it would be like to be Chuck, and how these words on the card appear to Chuck. To us as an audience they appear cheerful, or inspiring, but when Chuck reads them it feels dull, almost woeful. This shows how Chuck disagrees with this quote on the card, as if the words he is reading are nonsensical, or he doesn't believe that these words are true. Up until he gets stranded on the island, Chuck was so absorbed in life and his job that he never took the time to realise his surroundings, as he believed time was scarce, and …show more content…

When Chuck begins to open the parcels he collected, he notices a pair of ‘angel wings’ on the side of a package. Although the wings are supposed to be a logo, Chuck sees them as a symbol of hope or freedom. This use of symbolism shows Chuck is thinking creatively, and he believes that he is being watched over – like there is a guardian-like being that he thinks will guide him off the island alive. Examples of symbolism like this get the audience to join Chuck’s belief, as if there is still hope in survival. Before Chuck leaves for his plane flight earlier on in the film, he was gifted a pocket watch by his girlfriend Kelly for Christmas. He keeps this pocket watch on him, and it symbolises time. In this scene there is a close up that shows Chuck staring at the pocket watch, wasting time. He is thinking about Kelly, as there is a small picture of her within the pocket watch which he often turns to when he is feeling lonely. Chuck has never been used to this sort of environment, and he has ‘all the time in the world’ when he is stuck on the island. As a FedEx worker Chuck has never had a lot of time to spare, so being on time was a very crucial part of Chuck’s life. The picture of Kelly represents ‘hope’, as Chuck tends to turn to this picture when he feels like he has given up, or can't so something anymore. The mid shot that shows Chuck’s emotions as

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