User reviews

This film by Nicolas Roeg builds on the unusual titles of his past career (Don't Look Now; Walkabout; Performance) and adapts Lucy Irvine's book of her real-life experiences as a Girl Friday on a desert island.

Amanda Donohoe reaches career-grabbing perfection as Irvine, the girl who answers an ad from lonely middle-aged businessman Gerald (a multi-faceted role for Oliver Reed) and goes to live with him in the tropical sun for a year. Roeg's film requires Donohoe to appear nude or semi-nude much of the time but it doesn't seem gratuitous. Not surprisingly it helped her gain other roles in the remainder of the decade as a ballsy, sexy siren.

As a two-hander for most of its running time, 'Castaway' depends on the performances of its two leads - they have to be convincing, they have to be compelling, and they have to have chemistry. It isn't a match made in heaven - but as Gerald and Lucy learn to live with each other despite the obvious problems, the viewer is drawn in with them.

Oliver Reed is excellent as Gerald, a complex character who goes from bluster and rage to sweetness and sensitivity. It was something of a comeback role as the first part of the 1980s hadn't given him roles of any great depth to work with (neither did many films after this one), and he does well within the confines of Lucy Irvine's reminiscences.

I particularly like the ending. Fact or fantasy? But it rounds off this atmospheric film beautifully.

Castaway is based on the novel by Lucy Irvine about a young woman answering an ad in the paper placed by a man seeking a wife, to live with him on an island. Oliver Reed is perfectly cast as the gruff, thickly bearded 50yrs+ man who places the ad. And for once in a brilliant casting decision, an actress was chosen who shares much chemistry with him onscreen! Amanda Donohue is the much younger blonde and an aura of sensuality about her chosen to play his reluctant love interest in the film, Lucy. His young bride is only interested in learning island life, and the frustrated Gerald broods and seethes as young Lucy parades either naked, or wearing the tiniest of loin cloths. She is ever the tease and as she becomes more accustomed to island life, Gerald silently broods in his own lust. She has no interest in this man old enough to be her father, other than basic companionship. Gerald has other ideas. The movie is full of powerful scenes of the struggle of the sexes, and beautifully shot on a gorgeous island. Gerald and Lucy heat up the screen, and it is the contrast in their ages, and physical make-up that only add to the film. The story deals with their trials and tribulations, and contains many interesting twists. It builds up to a fantastic climax that shows the viewer the fate of both characters. Very powerful film, and beautifully cast, Castaway is highly recommended. More films of this nature should be made.

After Walkabout this is Nic Roeg's most beautiful film. Stunning photography by Harvey Harrison complements the story of two loners who set out to live on a deserted Pacific island for a whole year. Oliver Reed and Amanda Donohoe are both excellent as the two frustrated Britons who don't exactly enjoy their year together.

Nick Roeg did something which I am sure is way above most viewers' heads. A man decides to spend a year away from the madding crowd (who doesn't want to?) and takes a woman with him. So far, so good. But the man is so far removed from reality that he does not prepare properly, ignores warnings (they do not come at him as his normal world would deliver them: you should not, danger, etc. - friendly advice he sloughs off as inferior) and nearly starves to death. BUT, here's the interesting part, in his own mind he sees it all as idyllic and wants to continue. He creates his own fantasy i his head and lives there, while in truth he and the woman are starving to death. Anorexia anyone? If you know someone who believes in their own reality, make them watch this movie as psychotherapy. Will they survive? Watch and find out.

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.

In the latter years of his film career Nicolas Roeg seemed to become a shadow of his former self and seemed to be working under increasingly limited budgets, but even a minor Roeg film is still worth watching.

The film's theme connects with several with his previous films, namely the breakdown in communication between women and men. Whether it is a communication barrier as in Walkabout or here where the two characters are isolated on an island and fail in their efforts to make it a liveable environment. Whether this is a reflection of the director's own views on relationships I cannot say, but, as noted above, it figures into many of his films.

Even if it is not prime Roeg it still has moments of flare that marked his cinematic style. It does play like an adult version of the 1980 film The Blue Lagoon but with more realistic consequences as they squander their food supplies and struggle to adjust to this primitive life. The cinematography is stunning and the early scenes have a lush and vivid quality that slowly begins to fade as their circumstances change and grow more dire. Both Amanda Donahoe and Oliver Reed give exceptionally good performances. This is not among my favourite of his films but I do enjoy watching it every so often.

A middle-aged misogynist letch harbours fantasies of groping a woman half his age who will double as a door mat and assume the role of a sexually submissive automaton on a desert Island and advertises for the same omitting everything except the woman part in this true-ish story based on Lucy Irving's account of year with this obnoxious, overweight behemoth. This is a gap year with a difference, in this case the gap between reality and the ignorant daydreams of a couple of selfish, moronic Londoners. If this introduction implies you should feel some sympathy for Irving then forget it. If Gerald Kingsland, as portrayed by Oliver Reed was as crass and obvious as one of those sex cards you find in phone boxes then Irving, as played by Amanda Donahoe is a priggish middle class suburbanite who tires of the grind of city living and facts of life like crime and Royal weddings and so imagines that she alone, despite having no idea how it might be done, will travel thousands of miles to be self-sufficient and uses Kingsland to make this a reality. Initially she's not going to let anything, even the facts, get in the way of this protracted venture to la-la land. She ignores the warning signs - Kingsland's obvious fear of female intelligence, the fact that he's had to advertise for a "wife" in the first place, his obvious interest in sex with a woman 20 years his junior and even, in a wonderful example of the will to ignorance, the way he contrives to spend all their money before they've left, forceing Irving to marry him in accordance with Australian immigration law. Some women might bale out at this stage and cut their losses but those sandy beaches are quite the lure and the two sad-sacks go anyway prompting 12 months of predictable implosion in which Kingsland angrily resents Irving's lack of sexual interest while she alone is astounded by his laziness, toe curling advances, crudity and total lack of survival instinct. In fact 9 months in and the two have virtually died from malnutrition. If Irving had hoped to spend a year bathing naked while Kingsland built the house and grew the food, she's as deluded as the old man who hoped to spend 12 months engaged in vigorous intercourse, pampered by his new wife in idyllic surroundings. This is a fascinating story but its impossible to feel anything but irritation at these two characters and Roeg does nothing to pull us toward either of them. He seems content to be a bit of letch himself, focusing on Donahoe's nakedness while mercifully sparing us shots of Reed's reed. Ultimately Irving's story confirms something we already knew, namely that Robinson Crusoe is a great story but it makes a lousy lifestyle choice for a mismatched couple from west London who would normally get no closer to the life of self-sufficiency than a visit to M and S. It wouldn't have taken us a year to figure it out either. Pity they had to come back.

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).

Island travelogue and would-be 'uninhibited' male-female relations get sprinkled with psychosexual melodrama here, as only filmmaker Nicolas Roeg could present it. An older Londoner (Oliver Reed) advertises for a female companion to spend a year with him on a deserted island; Amanda Donohoe answers--she's the kind of gal who whips off all her clothes the minute the boat docks. Based on Lucy Irvine's book, one gets the sense this plot could be more a fantasy for women than for men--after all, the headstrong lady seems to call most of the shots, while Reed does the deep contemplating (with most of his clothes on!). The initial set up of the story is fun, but once the couple gets to the island, the script becomes non-existent. Director Nicolas Roeg isn't interested in lush, romantic tiptoeing through the flora and fauna (and he probably didn't see "The Blue Lagoon" anyway), yet one cannot help but imagining these two as older Blue Lagooners for a more cynical age, caught up in a messy combination between that scenario and the more political "Swept Away". Alas, this "Castaway" seems made up of leftover parts. *1/2 from ****

Two people who barely know each other, spend a year on an island together. They suffer malnutrition, stormy weather, and just plain I'm-sick-of-you-itis. I managed to catch this movie a while back on cable. I love watching movies from England, Australia or New Zealand because they're so different from what I'm used to. This movie didn't disappoint there. There was only one thing missing from this movie to make it totally realistic. Amanda Donohoe played a young, presumably fertile woman on an island for 12 months and never so much as had PMS, if you catch my drift. Forgive me, but as a woman, this is something I think of *whenever* I think about being stranded *anywhere* for months at a time. All in all, though, a very entertaining movie.

"Our lives may depend on these vegetables." Middle-aged Gerald (Oliver Reed) puts an advert in a London newspaper seeking a young female companion to spend a year with him on a deserted tropical island. Lucy (Amanda Donohoe), an office clerk, responds, after a quick marriage of convenience they head off to a Pacific island near Australia. Based on a true story I can remember all the fuss when this was released, I have always been curious about wanting to watch it and after nearly 40 years I have finally done so. I hate to say it but I wasn't terribly impressed. The story starts off in London, Gerald is teaching young kids how to swim, then he's in his (Reed's) natural environment, the pub. This was great. I also really enjoyed seeing London, the fashions and the vehicles from the mid 1980's. One thing I did pick up on though were a couple of TV news segments, one about the serial killer known as The Yorkshire Ripper, the other the engagement of Prince Charles to Diana, these events took place around 1981 yet some of the motor cars seen are clearly from several years later. Once on the island Lucy strips off and is naked for much of the running time. I had a bit of a teenage crush on Amanda Dononhoe, beautiful as well as being a great actress. Oliver Reed is one of my favourite actors, however his best roles were definitely behind him at this stage in his career. Gerald is crude, chauvinistic and randy, he gets a bit tiresome after a while and I sadly wonder if Reed had to try very hard to play him. The two just aren't very compatible, they are both rather stubborn and selfish, and over the course of nearly two hours the movie loses its initial charm. It was shot in London and The Seychelles, the visual aspect - including that of Lucy's natural charms - are for me the best thing about the movie.

CASTAWAY is Nic Roeg's chance to make a desert island film and the result is typically obtuse, although not as profoundly moving as his classics like WALKABOUT and DON'T LOOK NOW. The story is adapted from the book by Lucy Irvine and follows what happens when the young and beautiful Amanda Donohoe answers a classified ad to spend a year on a Pacific island with grizzled Oliver Reed. Now, this is one of the best films I've seen dealing with the desert island topic; no Hollywood fluff piece like SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS here, just grim realism as our characters soon find themselves at each other's throats. Both actors are up to the role and the location photography boosts the experience, but I do find it more than a little depressing.

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.

Did I enjoy this film? Actually yes. Everyone dreams of sunny tropical islands, away from civilisation from time to time. Without the hotels and the bars though, things are very different, aren't they? Only the idea and the surroundings seem perfect at first glance. This portrayal of self-inflicted island isolation presents the Robinson Crusoe life as somewhat closer to what reality is, especially if, as they seem to have done, you did you did nothing sensible to prepare. The moral of the story being, be careful who you choose to be shipwrecked with..

Oliver Reed's skills as an actor (and one of my favourites) are still there, but somewhat buried under 1980's Oliver Reed. Oliver is also completely buried under the most annoying red beard ever, making it almost impossible to see the subtelty of his facial expressions 90% of the time. Amanda Donohue is excellent as Lucy, portraying a woman with her own agenda perfectly throughout.

Being a man on a desert island with a woman you desire, who is there by choice, but who once installed, suddenly refuses to be intimate with you..? Hell. Being a woman on a desert island with anyone other than someone with Bear Grills' survival skills and the emotional intelligence of a master, not recommended.

Other reviewers are right, Kingsland and Irvine show us the full gamut of human emotions, from extreme rage to much needed tenderness, but their relationship is fatally flawed and annoying as a result. I found myself looking for that one moment of pure tranquility which never came, or if it did I missed it.

Castaway is a roller coaster ride alright. When Tom Hanks made his epic Cast Away he was at the top of his game and it shows. I can almost imagine a sozzled Ollie telling his mates in the bar, 'Listen chaps, I'll see you all after the winter, I'm off to make a shipwreck movie in the pacific...'

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this movie again!

It has a beautiful sea-side setting, that has been explored from "Robinson Crusoe" to "The Black Stallion" to "Summerfield". That's apart from reading "Coral Island" & "Lord of the Flies" as a school-boy & such as TV-series as diverse as "The Count of Monte Christo" to "Gillian's Island". Since I enjoyed all of these, I fell into the familiar surrounds with abandon!

Supposedly, it's based on a true story, but I would think some of what's presented is unlikely, like the willingness of the beautiful young woman to embark on such a reckless voyage of discovery, & having been caused to enter into a contract involving marriage in the process. These are merely introductions into the nature of the potential partners evolving, but they attempt to serve each other & at times, seem quite close.

But they are in an Adam 'n' Eve-type scenario of ambivalence. So the hostilities between them do not take long to surface! And they dare to reflect remarkable similarities to the difficulties & modern complexities we are all part of, in our respective worlds, as islands, within islands, of government religion & media domains, almost always beyond our control, operate.

So we have a movie here, a little over 20 years old as I write this, which invites the viewer to see a microcosm of the world that surrounds us everyday as we live & watch TV & visit the cinema! A bit ahead of its time, I would suggest!

So, in the process of preparing this, I have upgraded my rating of it from 8 to 9 out of 10. Relationships are complex & its ending is rather sudden, but I felt I'd been on a good journey overall in watching this & didn't regret having re-visited this idyllic wilderness of natural beauty! Easy on the eye & yet not failing to note the turbulence all around!

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.

This is yet another one of those movies that tries to study complex or unusual male-female relationships and thus what any particular viewer will get out of it depends upon that viewer's own life experience. Another reviewer here characterized the relationship in this film as being between "two selfish morons" and that is about the way I took it as well. If you have ever been in a long-term relationship with a selfish partner you will see a lot that looks familiar here, and as a tool to help sort out your own feelings and make sense of your own experiences you might find watching this useful. Otherwise, I'm not sure what purpose the film or the underlying literary treatment it was based on would serve. Basically this movie is about two not-especially likable people who don't really like each other all that much, either, trying to have a relationship together, and the entertainment value you get from that exists right at that level.

Yes, there is a good deal of nudity here involving the heroine, but it is usually not especially erotic; it is presented so matter-of-factly and almost entirely in non-sexual situations (in fact, most often while she is entirely alone) to the point that I got the impression that she was more of a sensualist than anything else, and certainly she was no party girl or anyone else with anything more than an ordinary female interest in sex, if that. Moreover, I never got the impression that she was conspicuously teasing the male lead as some other reviewers seem to have indicated, beyond the mere fact that she was there with him on this same island with nothing or nobody else around, and granting that such circumstances alone might make for some of the subtlest and most provoking kind of erotic torment possible. Certainly there are women in real life capable of the same.

The male main figure is no less selfish in his own way, and the mere fact that at his age he can't think of any way to bed this woman other to demand sex like a love-sick college freshman shows it as well as anything else. For a man of his maturity to behave the way he does certainly justifies the description of "lecher" given him by some other reviewers. Whatever complaints might be assessed against his would-be mate, he certainly didn't make much effort to treat her very well. If the dummy had done just a few simple things to make her feel good about herself for having made the decision to shack up with him on this island for a year, they both would likely have had a much better time. But he was too selfish or at least too self-absorbed to see that, something that is shown in the film to be just as true of his life before the island (and which, indeed, would explain his reason for wanting to be there in the first place).

What some of the movie reviewers more talented than I have said on here about the cinematography and so forth is true; those aspects of the film as as good as any, and make me wonder if this film wouldn't be better watched over a glass of wine or two and the right music on your stereo while the sound on the TV is turned OFF.

I saw the movie in 1987 and me thinks the plot is not such a bad idea! Fantastic scenery, erotic, entertaining. Would love to get a copy of it on video but no luck. See it if you can.