Wilson floating away…..
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ElizaB27 — 10 years ago(June 16, 2015 11:17 PM)
My 6-year-old son saw that scene for the first time two weeks ago and cried and cried and cried. He couldn't get over that scene. Even after the movie was over, he kept asking me if he got another volleyball and painted another face on it.
The scene was utterly heartbreaking.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. -Gandalf the Grey -
greenleafie — 10 years ago(June 30, 2015 04:09 AM)
Just to take a hard line, Wilson was lost, because of Chuck's carelessness. He didn't secure him (it) to the raft well enough. So I have to wonder, did he weep for the loss of the volley ball, or for his own shortcoming, his own failure?
I think this is a story about a man coming to terms with his own limitations. In his old life, Chuck was more or less a success, due to his station within a hierarchy, but when forced to face life alone, he learned he could not really make it. Had he stayed on the island, how long could he have survived? How long could "Wilson" keep him from going insane, before he would have to invent a new, more elaborate fantasy, to keep himself grounded? And leaving the island meant, he could survive, but only with the help of others. At the end of the movie, when he looks into the camera, I think the question in Chuck's mind must be, "Can I forgive myself, for not being perfect?" -
ragusa11 — 9 years ago(January 02, 2017 08:10 PM)
It is a very powerful scene.
I have turned it into a joke while Candle Pin bowling. Every time we go against my buddy Wilson's team and I always look at him and re-enact: "WILSON!!! I'm sorry Wilson. I'm sorry." -
goodvibe61 — 9 years ago(January 07, 2017 04:36 PM)
For me, this is one of the great moments in the movies. It's staggering in its level of heartbreak. What else has to happen to Chuck in this film? At the same time, Wilson floating away does seem to emote some final stripping away of everything Hanks had before getting his second chance at life, a life he's probably going to live quite differently if/when he gets the chance.
The power of Hanks manifests here in this scene. He's performed a kind of magic trick on the audience; he's made you care about that damn volleyball. It meant the world to him, that and a photograph. Hanks is completely convincing. It's as powerful as anything you'll see.
One other film this moment reminds me of is the last time you see Charles Foster Kane say "Rosebud"; the scene in which Susan Alexander has left him, and he throws the temper tantrum, destroying all the stuff in their tent. Then he comes across the snowglobe, he picks it up, and says "Rosebud". You now have the story of his life, and you understand completely what he's saying, the complete and total loss of the life he would know, and that no money, no matter how much in the world, could replace his parents and their love. Rosebud, something he lost, that he had no opportunity to prevent from losing. In that case, Kane's childhood, his life. For Chuck, he lost everything he ever had. Losing Wilson, it's yet one more thing he loses. It kills me.
Great, evocative film.
