Verbal Communication In Castaway, By Robert Zemeckis

Directed in 2000 by Robert Zemeckis, the movie Castaway stars Tom Hanks as protagonist Chuck Noland. Chuck is an ambitious man, leading the Fed Ex team as their systems manager. Being the man he is, come Christmas he decided to hop on a plane with one of the shipments, leaving girlfriend Kelly Frears behind thinking he’ll be back. Soon after takeoff the plane is headed into a storm, resulting in the pilots losing communication and becoming lost. During the chaos, a mislabeled container of hazardous material exploded and damaged the engine, causing it to crash into the Pacific Ocean. Finally, after the raging storm ended, Chuck was the lonely survivor that washed up on a deserted island. Stranded, almost in a state of oblivion, Chuck cannot …show more content…
Castaway predominantly lacks verbal communication as for Chuck is stranded by his lonesome. Facial expressions and body language are some of the largest contributors to this type of communication. A person could undoubtedly tell when Chuck was uncomfortable in a situation, just by looking at his face and how he conducted himself. When Chuck’s friend Stan was discussing the condition of his sick wife, Chuck became noticeably detached from the situation by turning away and having an expression of discomfort. One can also communicate a level of pain or hurt through their facial features. Several times throughout the movie Chuck had injured himself, whether it is his tooth, cutting open his foot, or slicing his hand open. There is a sort of look Chuck gets in his eyes, ranging from painful discomfort to undeniable throe. Besides the obvious crying out in agony from an injury, a person could tell when Chuck was hurt just by looking at his face. Non-verbal communication such as facial expressions and body language is just one of countless ways to …show more content…
Communication is a two-way street, it needs a sender and a recipient. Miscommunication can come in a great deal of ways, such as not receiving feedback or misinterpreting the original message. For instance, when the pilots on the plane puts everyone in crisis mode, several commands were miscommunicated among people. One of the pilots had ordered Chuck to sit in his seat and buckle up, but Chuck defied the given instructions to retrieve the pocket watch that Kelly had given him. The command was miscommunicated because Chuck was given instructions to do something, and he failed to do it. Another example would be that Chuck had created something, or someone, to talk to out of a volleyball. He named him Wilson and blatantly held conversations with him to keep sane. Chuck knew Wilson the Volleyball was an inanimate object and continued to talk to him without regard to the fact that he wouldn’t ever reciprocate any sort of communication. After some time had passed, Chuck actually pretended that Wilson was talking and holding a conversation with him. This doesn’t nix the reality that Wilson doesn’t provide feedback, proving the idea of it being