> Even my favorite directors of today have a tendency to lapse into allowing overplayed soundtracks. Not all do, of course. Robert Zemeckis is to be commended for his sparse use of sound and music in "Cast Away," for example: the best 45 minutes of that movie have essentially no dialogue and little music. But I don't think I can call the use of silence in Cast Away "ingenius"; merely, "correct."

Cast Away is one of my two favorite movies. I basically judge quality of movies by how much enjoyment I have when I'm watching them. (This just makes sense to me, but it seems sometimes as though I'm in the minority. But this is a separate topic entirely.)

Cast Away was just amazing, and I had such a great time watching it, because it felt real to me. I was so drawn in by the movie, and at times I felt like I was experiencing things right along with the characters. A lot of this is due to what Sam mentioned, but there were other factors such as amazing visuals and what I though was an astonishing performance by Tom Hanks.

Another separate topic:
Ga"I've only seen it once; I haven't gotten a chance to see it again in widescreen and I refuse to watch it otherwise."halia