Castaway

1987 "One Year on a Deserted Tropical Island. 'Wife' 20-30 needed to accompany man 35+. Write to Box 775 with details and evening phone number."
5.8| 1h57m| R| en| More Info
Released: 11 September 1987 Released
Producted By: The Cannon Group
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Middle-aged Gerald Kingsland advertises in a London paper for a female companion to spend a year with him on a desert island. The young Lucy Irving takes a chance on contacting him and after a couple of meetings they decide to go ahead. Once on the island things prove a lot less idyllic than in the movies, and gradually it becomes clear that it is Lucy who has the desire and the strength to try and see the year through.

Genre

Adventure, Drama

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Director

Nicolas Roeg

Production Companies

The Cannon Group

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Castaway Audience Reviews

ThiefHott Too much of everything
TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
olgagreer This is not the Tom Hanks Castaway but the Nicholas Roeg one full of complete nudity and great acting. Both Oliver Reed and Amanda Donahue are amazing as the couple who chose to live on an island for a year, and even more astonishingly this is based on real life events. Nicholas Roeg is an acquired taste and this film is strictly for cinephiles but you will be rewarded if you give it a chance.
Zev Roeg is always interesting and challenging so I make a point of watching his films even though I don't always like them. This film reminded me of Bad Timing, in the sense that it is a movie about an incompatible couple drawn together for the wrong reasons, their relationship put under duress and under the microscope of a reality they can't escape from, until everything snaps.He has an obsessive, idealistic fantasy about living on a desert island with a woman, her reasons are never made clear, but they both seem to want the adventure so they ignore their problems during their first few months of their relationship, and embark on the survivalist project. The problems start already on the first day, with his ideals and fantasies getting in the way of real work that needs to be done, and she takes all the wind out of his sails by suddenly denying him any more sex, and nagging him to do more house-wo... I mean island-work.At least that's the way I see it. Watching this movie, I found myself constantly wondering what's going on in his mind. His mind seems to be a mess, his behaviour is extremely erratic, and everything he does is criticized by her, blatantly chauvinistic to the point of being a caricature, or just wrong. He doesn't feel like a real person. Whereas she can do no wrong, and her emotional needs are explained to death.And then it dawned on me: This is a one-sided story told only from the woman's side, consisting of rants against a man she doesn't like nor understand, who finds herself in a survivalist adventure that didn't match her romantic ideals.Imagine my lack of surprise when I looked up the credits and found that this is based on a real-life adventure book written from her point of view.Another flaw is the lack of realism and changes in their always-displayed nude bodies, Roeg having to insert awkward shots of another emaciated body to convey the idea that they are in bad health. Compare this with Tom Hanks' physical work in his desert island movie.In summary: I like the idea, I like the acting, I like Roeg's constantly challenging cinematic work and inventive methods of telling a story, but the material this is based on feels fundamentally flawed and biased, with Reed's character making no sense as a result. This is fatal in a character study.
malexander54 Don't be misled by other comments posted here. The original uncensored version of this film shows Amanda Donohoe full frontal completely nude (yes, pubic hair and all). In fact she is fully nude in many, many scenes and with long lingering shots (almost voyeuristic).She is a very beautiful woman and her nudity made the film far more realistic for 2 reasons. One is that people do often go about nude when there is nobody around, her nudity helped to convincingly portray a sense of isolation. Secondly, as a man I can get a sense of the frustration that Reed has when he sees her walking about and he can't touch.I feel bad for the people who have seen this movie censored because there is very frequent high level nudity in this film, which means that the censored version would have been cut to ribbons. This may also explain the experience some people had with "short scenes" or "scenes that ended abruptly".A very good film worth while watching (uncensored).
elcutach This is based on a true story of a couple who were left on one of the Great Barrier Reef Islands east of Australia. I don't think this was filmed on location for the whole story, such as itis, revolves around the couple's efforts to survive in an unfriendly environment. There is good reason that natives do not live there. If you want to see half-naked people in tropical environments then watch the Survivor TV series. There is good reason for there not being a Survivor-Greenland or Antarctica. As to the north woods, the flies and mosquitoes would eat up the contestants, clothed or not along with having to endure long cold winters. The only reason to watch this is to study Amanda Donohoe's epidermis. But even that gets old after a while. Edit out Reed and the scenes set elsewhere and you might have a half hour stroke film. Otherwise forget it. The premise is because the couple cannot forage enough sustenance, she and Reed are gradually are gradually starving to death. In fact, neither appear to have lost any weight so the director keeps flashing a shot of the upper torso of some emaciated woman to make the point. But it is always the same shot. Though AD is nude most of the time , there is never any full frontal so this is rated B for boring and R for ridiculous.