Castaway

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.

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).

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.

What a shame that the star of "Women in Love" and "Oliver" should end his days with such trash as this and "House of Usher". He overacts all through the movie. Of course, the plot is somewhat ridiculous but is every man's nightmare, "What if you were castaway on a desert island (by your own choice) with a beautiful woman who wouldn't let you near her?" She's a complete tease but is not portrayed as the villainess she actually is. She makes me, a woman, ashamed of my sex.

He is usually the gentleman, but despite the writing, Oliver shows the desperation of the man who really got screwed (and didn't). Can't waste any more time on this trivia. Oh, yes, I own the movie in case anyone wants it.

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.