I watched "Cast Away" (Tom Hanks) last night on channel 5, the last 45min of it, anyway. And I'm so sorry that I didn't watch it until now! (The movie came out in year 2000-- I watched it.. last night.)
I was very connected emotionally to the character, and the story. I found myself asking a lot of questions, too.
If you're stranded on a deserted island for 4 years, and you've learnt to survive, and when the tide brings in a sail one day, would you leave the island to go back to civilization?
I ain't sure at all. It's a beautiful island. It's peaceful. And most importantly, I'm free of the rules and regulations of the human society, free from the politics that only exists in human society, free from all...
I think the reason Chuck (Tom Hanks) decided to go back is Kelly (Helen Hunt). Although he should know, back home, he must have been given up as dead, people must have moved on. But it was hard for Chuck to accept because time simply doesn't exist on the deserted island.
And when he really went back to civilization in the end, he met up with Kelly-- married, and with a kid. And he said, quietly, later in the night after the meeting:
We both had done the math. Kelly added it all up and... knew she had to let me go. I added it up, and knew that I had... lost her. 'cos I was never gonna get off that island. I was gonna die there, totally alone. I was gonna get sick, or get injured or something. The only choice I had, the only thing I could control was when, and how, and where it was going to happen. So... I made a rope and I went up to the summit, to hang myself. I had to test it, you know? Of course. You know me. And the weight of the log, snapped the limb of the tree, so I-I - , I couldn't even kill myself the way I wanted to. I had power over *nothing*. And that's when this feeling came over me like a warm blanket. I knew, somehow, that I had to stay alive. Somehow. I had to keep breathing. Even though there was no reason to hope. And all my logic said that I would never see this place again. So that's what I did. I stayed alive. I kept breathing. And one day my logic was proven all wrong because the tide came in, and gave me a sail. And now, here I am. I'm back. In Memphis, talking to you. I have ice in my glass... And I've lost her all over again. I'm so sad that I don't have Kelly. But I'm so grateful that she was with me on that island. And I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?
I held my breath the whole time I listened to him talk. And then when the scene changed, I breathe.
