In my dream world, I’d love to never know a darned thing about any movie that I see. While some films actually benefit from foreknowledge, most of the time they work best when you don’t know what will come around the corner.

While I never saw Cast Away prior to my acquisition of the original 2001 DVD, I still didn’t enter it as fresh as I would have liked; the slate wasn’t full, but nor was it blank. Much of the reason for that stemmed from the film’s trailers.

As is usually the case with the films of director Robert “I love spoilers!” Zemeckis, the previews gave away an awful lot of the story. I didn’t think the ads for Cast Away were as offensive in that regard as were the promos for Contact and What Lies Beneath, but they left less to the imagination than I’d like.

However, I must acknowledge that Cast Away is difficult to discuss without the appearance of potential spoilers. I’ll do my best to avoid those, but if you’re eager to avoid any potential plot points, feel free to skip to my discussion of the disc’s quality. I’m won’t cover any material not revealed during the movie’s ads, but since those are so spoiler-filled, that decision may still be problematic.

Cast Away tells the story of FedEx employee Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks). A resident of Memphis, he works as an efficiency expert and he trains FedEx teams to perform as expeditiously as possible. Time rules his universe, and as he leaves girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt) for an apparently-quick trip, he tells her “I’ll be right back”.

Or maybe not. As part of God’s great plan to teach Chuck not to worry so much about time, his flight crashes into the Pacific. He’s the sole survivor and he washes up on a deserted island. Left with little more than his wits to survive, we follow Chuck’s attempts at survival.

On the surface, there’s not much to Cast Away; the plot seems so thin that’s it hard to imagine the filmmakers could fill an hour with its events, much less 143 minutes. However, not only does Zemeckis occupy that lengthy period with material, but also he and the rest of the crew create a rather fascinating experience that succeeds well beyond my hopes.

I maintain somewhat ambivalent feelings toward Zemeckis’ body of work. At his best, he can be absolutely terrific. Going back to the Seventies, I always loved his loopy Beatles-related comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand, and all three of the Back to the Future flicks are fun. 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit was also a delightful film, and Zemeckis has produced a number of other enjoyable projects over the years.

And then there was Gump. Objectively, 1994’s Forrest Gump was a decent movie, but I never have understood the popularity it inspired, and its Oscar victory over the vastly-superior Pulp Fiction remains absurd.

Since Gump, Zemeckis has been less than terrific. 1997’s Contact was marginally entertaining but tedious, and was a near-total dud. Zemeckis spent years with lackluster animated films before he returned to live-action with 2012’s flawed Flight.

To put it mildly, I really liked Cast Away, mostly due to the excellent performance by Hanks. One unfortunate problem with his two Best Actor victories is that they come from somewhat gimmicky roles. For his character in Philadelphiz, Hanks had to lose a lot of weight to simulate the ravages of illness, whereas in Gump he played a moron. Oscar loves performances that require the actor to stretch in some superficial manner, and Hanks met those criteria via these two roles.

Ironically, what was arguably Hanks’ strongest performance came as the boy-turned-man in 1988’s Big, but he lost to a pre-Gump mentally deficient character due to Dustin Hoffman’s work in Rain Man. For the record, I suppose one could call Big’s Josh a “gimmicky” part since Hanks played a boy in a man’s body, but at least Hanks had to play a regular human being. The character had no mental issues, and Hanks had to do nothing to alter his appearance. While Philadelphia’s Andrew was an average guy, the physical demands put the role into “gimmick” territory in my opinion.

For Cast Away, Hanks again needed to go through some physical changes, and these were actually more severe than those experienced for Philadelphia. Prior to the start of shooting, Hanks gained a load of blubber and appeared that way during the film’s first half.

The movie was shot in two parts, and after a few months of initial photography, the project went into almost a year’s hiatus so Hanks could lose weight and grow hair. When they reconvened in early 2000, Hanks had dropped about 50 pounds and scruffied up himself to play Chuck after four years on the island.

While it’d be easy to dismiss Hanks’ work in Cast Away as the kind of physical gimmickry I’ve discussed, that’d be far too easy. Instead, Hanks offers a truly great performance as the stranded man that proves to be shockingly fascinating. Much of Cast Away passes with little dialogue and not much apparently-compelling action; I mean, how interesting is it to watch a guy try to start a fire? Pretty darned interesting, as it happens, at least when Hanks is the man at work.

A great deal of the film simply displays Chuck’s attempts to survive on the island, and all of this should seem dull. There were no other humans with whom he could interact, so it was all up to Hanks. Sure, he adds a simulated person via volleyball Wilson partway through his journey, and that at least allows him to speak to “someone”, but there are no people to take the load off of Hanks or give him anything against which he can react.

It’s all up to Hanks, and he comes through swimmingly. I can’t adequately describe why the performance is so good; it’s one that must be seen to be appreciated. All I know is that it’s ridiculous that Russell Crowe beat Hanks for Best Actor; while Crowe was solid during his star-making turn in Gladiator, his work doesn’t compare with the demands and subtleties of Hanks’.

Frankly, it’s sad that Cast Away received so little Oscar attention. The movie didn’t even get a nod for Best Picture although it’s a more creative, compelling and adventuresome effort than most of those that were nominated. Perhaps all of this came from a mild backlash against Hanks and Zemeckis; I can’t think of another good reason why something unusual like Cast Away would be left out while a trifle such as Chocolat got a nod.

Despite a few minor missteps, Cast Away remains a surprisingly entertaining and winning experience. The subject sounds boring but the execution ensured that almost none of the movie passes without interesting and compelling events. Led by a great performance from Tom Hanks, Cast Away offers an unusual tale that succeeds beyond all hopes and creates an engrossing story.

Cast Away appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. A fairly early Blu-ray, the image looked generally good but showed its age.

Sharpness usually seemed positive, but exceptions occurred, as some shots could be somewhat soft. Most of the flick showed good accuracy and delineation, though. I noticed no issues with jagged edges or shimmering, and edge haloes remained absent. I noticed no digital noise reduction, but a smattering of small print flaws appeared.

Colors appeared rich and vibrant. For obvious reasons, Cast Away used a naturalistic palette, and the hues looked accurate and lush. The scenery on the island really seemed nice, as the greens, golds and blues were lovely and vivid. Black levels consistently appeared deep and dense, but shadow detail occasionally showed problems, mostly due to the use of “day for night” photography. Those shots tended to be too thick and impenetrable. Despite issues with shadows and softness, the transfer fared well in most ways and merited a “B-”.

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Cast Away alternated between louder scenes - storms, the plane crash, etc. - and gentle/quiet sequences, especially during the parts of the film where Noland got acclimated to the island. The atmosphere seemed to be involving and appropriate throughout the film, as all five channels provided realistic and engrossing sound. In the quiet scenes, the ambience was natural and encompassing; the effects cropped up slightly in logical locations and all blended together well.

However, it was during the louder sequences that the soundtracks earned their keep. When the plane encountered trouble, I nearly had a heart attack from the auditory slam that ensued, and the other scenes were also exceedingly well-presented; the sound came at me from all sides when necessary. The roar of the ocean and the rumble of thunder appeared strongly displayed, and all parts of this track worked quite well. The sound designers did a terrific job of making the movie seem natural but still powerful.

Audio quality was also terrific. Dialogue came across as warm and natural with no problems related to edginess or intelligibility; the looped lines were neatly integrated into the action and they did not stand out in any way. Music was the least significant factor in Cast Away since so much of the film progressed without a score. When we do hear music, it sounded clear and bright, with fine reproduction.

Because music and speech presented often-inconsequential aspects of the film, it was especially important that the effects appear excellent, and they did. It was clear that the sound designers really did their homework for this movie, and the various elements always seemed clean and realistic with no signs of distortion.

The effects were distinct and well-defined, and they showed fine dynamics. Bass response often could be fantastic; this flick packed some serious low end at times. All of the various elements made the soundtracks to Cast Away consistently terrific.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the original 2001 DVD? Audio was a bit bolder and more expressive, while visuals seemed more dynamic and concise. Even with the mild softness, this was an improvement over the DVD.

Unfortunately, the Blu-ray omits most of the original 2-DVD set’s extras. It does carry over an audio commentary from director Robert Zemeckis, director of photography Don Burgess, visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston, co-visual effects supervisor Carey Villegas, and sound designer Randy Thom. Ralston and Villegas were recorded together, but all other participants were taped individually. The results were edited into this one cohesive, semi-screen-specific piece.

I call the track “semi-screen-specific” because although the topics usually relate pretty closely to the parts of the film being shown at the time, they don’t hew with great strictness; the participants can veer off into other related subjects on occasion. In any case, I thought this was a terrific commentary.

One look at the roles of the track’s participants should let you know this is a fairly technically-oriented piece, and normally I regard that as a bad thing; those kinds of programs can become tedious and drab. However, that’s not the case during Cast Away, even though we hear little about the creative aspects of the film. Zemeckis provides virtually all of those elements as he discusses story changes and complications that affected the tale.

Though the other participants mainly stick to their particular disciplines, I never feel that the commentary seems dull or too technically involved. Instead, we get a great deal of fascinating information about the manner in which each man worked on the film. Since Cast Away isn’t a typical effects flick, it’s interesting to hear about the elements that Ralston and Villegas contributed, and Burgess also adds some nice statements about his area.

Surprisingly, however, Thom emerges as the star of the show. He dominates the track and contributes the most compelling sections. Thom gives us Sound Design 101 as he goes over the different challenges offered by this naturalistic film. I know more about the subject than the average Joe, but I still found a lot of new information throughout Thom’s comments. He lets us know how much work had to be put into the piece to make it appear so seamless, and he offers a fascinating point of view. Ultimately, I really enjoyed the track for Cast Away as it provides a thoroughly entertaining and illuminating piece.

A Trivia Track discusses a few areas. It covers story/character elements, sets and locations, various effects, cast and performances, the challenging nature of the shoot, and some other topics. We get a decent array of notes, but the track doesn’t tell us a ton. The blurbs pop up infrequently and offer only minor insights.

Under “Fox on Blu-ray”, we get a trailer for Cast Away as well as previews for The Devil Wears Prada, Kingdom of Heaven, Men of Honor and Night at the Museum.

Cast Away brings us a surprisingly exciting, moving and compelling affair that benefited from a top-notch performance by Tom Hanks. Frankly, acting doesn’t get much better than the work Hanks offers here. The Blu-ray offers decent visuals, very good audio and a couple of generally useful bonus materials. It’s too bad the Blu-ray leaves out so many of the DVD’s supplements, but it does deliver an improved presentation of the film itself.

To rate this film visit the DVD review of CAST AWAY