There's no Immunity Idol here... only man vs. nature. (Possible Spoilers.)

Rating: 9/10 (16 June 2001)

While CBS's Survivor may be entertaining, it certainly is nothing like being stranded on a deserted island all by yourself, with no comforts of home. First of all, on TV, all the contestants have each other... other people with which to communicate, to fight with, to laugh with, and to cry with. They also receive various trinkets and surprises from the producers of the show. Survivors? Yeah, right... more like rats in a cage.
Along comes another superb Tom Hanks film. Somebody somewhere said that nobody could do this like Tom Hanks, and it's true. Where else can you find a film that you can watch for 50+ minutes with only a small bit of spoken word, and remain entertained? I've watched many a film late in the evening, with much more action than this film, and still fallen asleep.

So what is it about this film? You want to see what happens next. Tom Hanks pulls this off beautifully. The ups and downs, the trials and errors, the good and the bad, it's all in here. As a high-level FedEx employee, Chuck Noland (Hanks) knows about the passage of time... he lives by it. However, when his plane crashes somewhere over the Pacific, and he finds himself stranded alone on a deserted island, with nothing except his wits, an old watch containing a picture of his girlfriend, a rubber raft, and the contents of a few FedEx packages that have washed up on shore, he has to make the best of his surroundings.
This begins a quest in which Noland learns about himself, his surroundings, and his will to survive and beat the odds. It is a beautifully filmed story, with superb acting, and an excellent plot. This is a definite must if you are a fan of Tom Hanks, or if you like to rent movies which draw you into the story.
It is also an eye-opener for those of us who don't know how we would deal with the tremendous obstacle of being alone with little hope of rescue. Most of my time on this movie was spent afterwards, exploring how I felt about the film, and the situation. That, if nothing else, is worth viewing this film.
My Rating: 9/10