If you pay attention to the early parts of the movie, and think about the timeline of Tom Hanks wife getting pregnant and the relationship with dentist… it’s clear that, his wife was not being faithful to him and the relationship between her and the dentist was in full swing, before he even left on that fateful flight
Yes, it kind of bugs me that people seem to brush right past that. (Or that she at best skipped right over any mourning and immediately got pregnant by some new guy.) I think that’s the cosmic irony of the whole thing - that god WAS looking out for Tom hanks by stranding him on the island. Because he couldn’t have survived losing her by having her choose to cheat on and leave him. He gained the strength necessary to survive by his experience on the island and was therefore able to keep living when he found out the truth upon his return home.
Agreed, there are many clues that the relationship was in trouble prior to Chuck being cast away by Kelly. And it's cool that there can be other thoughtful alternative interpretations of the film, besides the obvious weak romance and survival flick.
My ex-wife & I were together for 20 years... "Cast Away" was our movie. I remember the last time we watched it together & she started crying... i had no idea why. Our son had just turned 2, our dog was on the couch with us... a month later she moved out, left all 3 of us, she was having an affair... flipping crazy
What a freaking random and total delight to see your video five minutes after you posted it! While I haven't watched the video yet and could even disagree with everything you will say about it ... I'm so happy to hear your insights. I love film, but I always get a little extra thinking mileage out of it because of your commentary. Blessings!
I just finished watching Cast Away 5 min ago seeing some symbolism in it and here I am searching for a video like this. GOD is truly giving us signs in these end days.
@@youthnation1 I am always shifting on the spectrum of belief and unbelief. My personality is resistent to supertition and believing that miracles happen. Yet, still, I am a believer in God--or a god. Sometimes I even think, "I can't believe that I actually believe." So you can probably imagine the effect your perspective had on me. Thank you for the meditative food for thought. Whether it comes tomorrow or next year, I'm looking forward to your next post. Let us know how we can support you.
James 4:8-10 "Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up."
Yes, I think it was screaming that crossroads, but in a positive way. Chuck's old life is over, and onto his new one ("Where do you wanna go?"). Also, I find it no accident that a pretty women stops and speaks with him for a moment..I took this as: No matter what life, there will always be someone else and opportunity.
Today is a day both glorious and sorrowful. So glad to stumble back upon this channel, one of my favorites, and watch this great video on a great movie. So sad to learn at the same time that Matt passed away last December. Matt brought a profoundly Christian and sacramental understanding of art and life to his brilliant film analyses, and he will be greatly missed. Requiem aeternam dona ei domine. Et lux perpetuat luceat ei.
My perfectionism gets the best of me sometimes. I'm thankful for the year I've spent thinking about this film and really the past five years. The video is much deeper and richer for it. And I hope people are ultimately encouraged by this and the ones to follow
Very interested to see how this develops in part two. Zemeckis was raised Catholic and The Polar Express strikes me as a deeply earnest expression of religious belief, not to mention the spiritual preoccupations of Contact (Forest Gump as well, albeit to a lesser extent) so I wonder if Cast Away represents some kind of role or paradigm shift in his overall filmography.
Zemeckis also directed Back to the Future where it predicted 9/11. And in no coincidence the movie The Walk 30 years later. ua-cam.com/video/o1NS-4kTCls/v-deo.html
Man. I haven't watched Cast Away in years. I have never watched it as an adult. I will have to revisit it soon. Despite my long time since watching it, and my immaturity when I watched it, Cast Away is one of my top 10 or so films. Even the young, immature, teenage version of me understood some part of his loneliness. Now, my understanding will be even more profound. I, too, made an imaginary friend (like Willson) in my mid-20s. I did this shortly after I left a volunteer program that I had close friends and several girlfriends. I was alone in my room for a long time. I personified the dark that visited me before I fell asleep as a being similar to Nyx (Greek goddess of the night), Raven (DC Comics heroine), Nocturnal (a daedric god from The Elder Scrolls), and so on. This wise, magical, dark female archetype was friendly to me. She never spoke. I would speak to her. Her company comforted me from my loneliness. She helped me go to sleep at night when I felt lonely. After a few years, I found a new and wonderful girlfriend who replaced Nyx. I no longer get visits from Nyx. If I ever had to leave my current girlfriend, then I might have Nyx to comfort me again. Who knows? ----- Also, I have felt alone from god my entire life. I have seen terrible things happen to so many good people. That's my biggest problem with "god". In the last few months, I have begun to develop a value of god as a very useful psychological concept. I still count myself an atheist, an antitheist, and maybe a pantheist (these things are compatible), but I do enjoy the psychological usefulness of an idea like god. ----- I am so sorry to learn that Matt (the author and voice of this video essay) has passed away. This video was my first that I watched from this channel. It's a great commentary on themes in the film. I wish we all could have somehow fixed his brain cancer. May Matt RIP, and I sincerely hope the wife, family, and friends are okay. ----- Actually, I have watched Matt's most famous video about No Country for Old Men. That is also a great piece of film commentary about a great film. Matt remains a valuable person through his death. ----- Yes, I recognize that my imaginary friend, Nyx, was perhaps a small tendril of the idea named god. Somewhere in human psychology, we have these archetypes built into our minds. The human condition is so interesting, and I am far from finished learning about humanity & myself. It's my belief that ideas like god and archetypes are partially shared among people (in some kind of shared unconscious), but they are also innate in the human brain. There is a small seed of these ideas somewhere in the brain. It will be hard to find these seedlings, but I'm guessing they're located in each person. These idea seedlings are cultured by the shared unconscious around us, and they bloom into whole ideas that then go on to build whole ecosystems of thought.
pantheism, and atheism and antitheism are by no means compatible, that's hilarious, must take some big mental acrobatics to figure that out. Instead of pretending they're compatible a better approach would be admitting that they are indeed not compatible, but taking the Walt Whitman approach, saying "I contain multitudes". But beyond that, no, it's merely hypocritical and nonsensical.
God is not a mere psychological coping mechanism, He is Logos. I invite you to read Mere Christianity by CS Lewis, there you can find a more concrete definition and explanation on God.
@mranderson380 God lives in the left parietal lobe of our brain. A mere coping mechanism. Quite a few research have linked this brain area to the concept of God. Look it up.
God is absolutely there. Who do you think gave him a sail? Chuck’s love for Kelly and his realization that he could not be with her is what almost led him to hang himself. It was God who saved him by making the branch snap. It was God that brought that warm feeling over him, that instilled in him the will to keep breathing. And it was God who brought him to the woman he was supposed to be with - the lady with the Golden Wings.
It’s really so heartwarming to see you back, it’s been a year but your analysis is as relevant as ever. Thanks for continuing on for all of us who these videos have meant so much to and have been so unrelenting valuable. You are appreciated immensely brother many blessings to you and your family 🙏🏽
There's no other UA-cam channel I appreciate and savor more than yours. You're so articulate and profound in your observations. You make me better appreciate movies I've already seen, and you spark my interest in movies I'd have let pass by. I write interesting stories that people enjoy, but you show me how much more stories have the potential to be. Well done sir. I sort of wish you posted more often, but I very much appreciate that you take your time to think these videos out and do them right.
Hey man, I've listened to your story on the Ravel podcast, and it was like God was answering directly to the doubts I had over the last few months. I'm wishing you all the best and I'll be watching your videos 🙏🏼
The baby is 2, which means she married and made a baby with with the dentist around a year after he disappeared. Yet she was "terrified" to marry Chuck and seemed stand offish with him. Kelly is a person who wants what she can't have. She complains about her new life and says Chuck is the love of her life, which is bull.
I feel like I’m an auditing a survey course on world religion poetry and film I enjoy the edification I receive from your videos and at times become jealous of your critical and analytical ability to convey such elegant messages Thank you for your work and obvious love of film theology and life itself Be well and safe we eagerly await your next lesson in the auditorium of UA-cam
I'm a newbie but I'm in love 💖💖💖 Thank you too as well because your thoughtful and beautiful commentary is what made me focus on and drew my attention to the actual person's mind and intent of this video!!
Great job! I've been learning English for about 5 years now and I never thought I would watch such amazing videos and understand them at that. I subscribed to your channel a few months ago and always anticipate what you make. Also, the moment when he writes "HELP" on the sand and the tide rubs it out into something resembling "HELL" is another easter egg here.
Everybody Loves A Happy Ending - the 2004 album by British rock band Tears For Fears. The basis for so much of their work appears to have been psychiatry. ("Songs from the Big Chair", "Shout", "Advice for the Young At Heart" etc). And it's because everybody loves a happy ending that the makers of Cast Away only very lightly touched on the psychiatric issues that someone stranded on an island for four years might suffer. To make Cast Away darker, when, towards the end of the movie we see Chuck staring at the light switch, the gas lighter and the crab, the film's makers could have shown traumatic flashbacks of the island and his physical reactions to them. Instead, Chuck is just poker-faced. Also, at the welcome-back party they film's makers could also have even included a child bouncing a Wilson ball around - and lets us watch Chuck's reaction to that too. They avoided such ideas because Cast Away is entertainment. We don't merely get a happy ending, we get a fairy tale ending, re Bettina's wings.
It's interesting how we always look for signs and wonders when God has always loved the opposite of that. It's a movie but the character survives a plane crash and then survives living on a tropical island for years, and then makes it back home. A lot of it has to do with perspective, and the many hardships in life all have very good reasons for them. It is no wonder we learn the most in reflection and in a quiet place. Remember: it is hard to hear God when you're yelling.
Thank you for this video. Better than any session with a psychiatrist I could have hoped for. I've been through a lot of bad stuff in my life and I've suffered inside for it. Watching this video makes me realise I'm not alone. You kept striking chord after chord with that you said, much like Chuck Noland's "Keep breathing" monologue at the end of the Cast Away. Cosmic Irony. Finally I have a term for it. I didn't know about the movie The Grey so I'm definitely going to watch that. Thanks. 👍
Chuck is representative of what a human being comes to look like that dares not to think there may be a transcendent reality outside of himself - what he appears to be is what Charles Taylor describes as the buffered self - someone who is confronted with their stark realization of their own making that they're insulated from any transcendent reality - and given the uncompromising nature of fate in that world they occupy they lie naked with the unforgiving and harsh reality of that universe when God is no where to found - nor in a universe where Chuck doesn't even care to look for one.
@@youthnation1 Indeed. Providence is one of the most fascinating doctrines. Looking forward to a Signs video. One thing they share in common is that they're both in my top five. 😂
A ship wreck survivor on an island is actually a "castaway". The fact that the title plays on the word to turn it into a verb "cast away" is a description of Chuck's predicament. He IS cast away, by his partner who is clearing straddling the dentist long before he takes his last fight, to the rescuers who don't look hard enough to find him.
“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements-surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Job 38:1-7 ESV Best we withdraw our demand for a council before the Lord and hold our tongue, lest we open our mouth and confirm the foolishness of our ways and the wages owed for our sin!
Outstanding! Your symbolic intuition and insight rival Jonathan Pageau's. Looking forward to future installments. May God bless you and bring you healing.
Sometimes you never realize how much you miss something until you see it again! I'm glad to see a new video (although I'm a little late lol) Also I always found the getting lost at sea and trapped on a deserted island scenario seemed so unrealistic but Cast Away portrays it as completely believable, I always thought that making you believe that situation seemed absolutely real was one of the reasons that made this movie so good. Oh your new logo for your channel was revealed perfectly in this video! As always, outstanding job!
06:00 you could also include from "the thin red line".. theyre talking under the moon and the sgt says "theres nothing else, just this rock" and the guy he was talking to looks up and sees the moon
I always thought it ironic that none of the examples of irony in a song called "ironic" are actually ironical. Have to say, I kept the faith, I KNEW you would be back. You have too much of value to say to not return... Makes me damn happy to see you back brother.
Not verbal or dramatic but cosmic. Cosmic Irony is the curse of Genesis 3. The child that a woman longs for to bring her happiness will also bring her pain. The field sowed in hope of a harvest will now be found choked full of weeds.
@@youthnation1 wow this is really deep. I know the whole "that's not irony" thing got big in the last decade I believe. Perhaps bc if Futurama? But to use it to describe the literary device in Gen 3 is something I've never come across
Yes! People misuse irony all of the time. "The traffic jam when you're already late" would only apply to someone attending an urban planning meeting. "Sorry I am late for the meeting, but due to traffic you all know why that is."
Great work, sir. I could have sworn that you already had a video about Cast Away. Hearing your voice combined with scenes from the film gave me a strange deja vu feeling.
He has to get his PRIORITIES in order, God, his family and himself! God never abandoned us, He promised to NEVER leaves us alone! Blessings and Hugs 💖💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕!
It's been too long! I look forward to new videos from you, almost as much as I once looked forward to my birthday and Christmas when growing up. 🎁 Great job...love it! ❤ The Matrix is so overflowing with Biblical symbolism...I've often thought that it too would be a great film for you to cover. 🎥
Matrix is a little too obviously symbolic for what I like to do here. Great film! But talked about a lot. I like to point out what isn’t already anticipated.
Excellent Video. I am doing a study on Robinsonian stories and Castaway and the Martian are the modern retellings i want to focus on. Both these narratives have the goal of engaging in their world with faith, whether it be through Faith in God or the trust of science. I do believe it is truly ironic, that when I hear stories like Castaway, my walk deepens with Christ. I know you have had a tough year @logosmadeflesh but this video has drawn me closer to God many times in the last 4 months. Thank you! May God bless your ministry and your quality literary analysis/ work here! Can not wait until your part 2. GLADLY WAITING PATENTLY, ITS TOTALLY WORTH IT. (PS, if anyone is looking to understand Logosmadeflesh more deeply, 10/10 recommend his interview with Paul Vanderklay)
Great assessment. I love that you included The Grey in your analysis, one of my favorite films. The only part you neglected is the fact that The Grey (as indicated by the incorrect spelling of gray) takes place in the afterlife. They're all dead.
I wonder if Stephens ever took a step back and thought “Why is it a habit of mind for everyone to follow a religion, or find a substitute for one?” Maybe it’s because each of us have an innate, God-sized hole within our hearts. We yearn for Him naturally, yet so many think this is some coping mechanism. No, it’s who we are as His creations. Our souls want to believe, yet we use our minds to stop it.
That is all he was doing - positing an opinion based on an observation made/question posed. You will find less stress in your day if you refrain from unnecessary cynicism and defensiveness. I love how those who question or openly refute a God evangelize most. Grow up!
Brother the insights God had given you are simply outstanding! Have you ever thought about reviewing inception, or the the show dark, I think you could draw out some amazing biblical parallels.
Chuck may not pray, but you left out one very important thing he does and doesn't do. When the box with the angel wings drifts up on the beach, he strokes the two wings on the box. He never opens that box and clearly you can see that his inner process is this might be a sign an angel watches over him. So, framed as such ...the inner need to pray is subdued by having that sense and angel watches over him already. This film is about choice, time, fate or making our own fate. It's about a man that through his own choices had to go through a metamorphosis. You see it happening to him physically and mentallly. In the choices he made prior to the crash he was not only casting others away but himself away. His choices and his view on time only being important in relation to job but not people and not time caring for himself as much. On the island, the job as priority number one faded instantly. Self care through survival became priority number one. When he got back to Memphis the people who had been in his life were priorities now. His friend he regretted he couldn't have been there for during his wife's cancer battle and his loss of her. He is a man filled with the knowing of what could have been had he been the changed man then that he is now. He loses Kelly. She has lost him. But each has gained a new life. Time moves and are choices define where we move in time. Who we become or don't become. Chuck was always leaving Kelly for the job. Even prioritizing it over her at Christmastime. In the end, Kelly married someone who stayed. Even knowing in her heart that Chuck wasn't dead. She knew it but was bound to time and choices she had to make to define her life and live it. Otherwise she'd been just as much on her own island in life. Kelly stays. Chuck leaves after reuniting and both know their time together in life is no more We see Chuck delivering the box that Chuck held out hope of delivering while on the island. The box represented hope and here he was delivering it. The woman who sent it to Russia 4 years prior seemingly living alone in an island herself. Before leaving you gives Chuck directions. He leaves then pauses at the crossroads. Gets out and looks around as to which road is the right road to take. The road going back she had told him leads to a whole lot of nothing. But he doesn't continue on it. He pulls in her drive showing he is not interested in making choices again that leaves him a cast away not leave others to be cast aways. The farm woman is as much a cast away in her own island. You know in his mind that he knows all his choices lead him there. Even going to work for Fed Ex in the first place. As did her and her choices. Call it fate. Choice. Or that angel still watching over Chuck. Chuck is changed. He's not going to place people or himself as lower priorities anymore. There is only one decision to make. Go and talk to the farm house woman. See where spending time with this other seemingly lonely soul takes him. There are roads we just take and their are roads we make. Chuck turned away from leaving to being someone who stays. In th
Stick around this time dude, your work is truly knowledgeable in the way cinema holds a deep and relevant 'hidden meaning' in western culture, thank you!
I don't agree with the main message of this movie now, that "fate is terrible" No, it's not. It is terrible to some, and beneficial to others. Fate is simply fate. It will either be for you, or against you, at any given time. It could even change its current path with your life.
I'm at that point in life, and I spent most my life saying there is no God. But after loads of acid and mushrooms and combining the two I'm still not sure but I feel life we may have the entire idea of God completely wrong.
Wow, watched this movie a week ago for the first time in 10 years and got interested what the ending of the movie really means, and got sucked into an opinion rabbit hole where i saw your name pop up somewhere, so thats how i found out about this channel, and now you randomly post a new video about the movie after a year of no uploads, what a coincidence :D funny how life works sometimes
You are great at these. Hope you can make more someday. I am sure it's difficult, time consuming, and probably does not pay much. But thank you! Really inspiring and thought provoking.
I recently re-watched this film with my kid and we saw a lot of connections with the bible story "Jonah and the Whale" but without God it turns into some strange form of Nihilism, removing all hope of discernment and leaning on the Will for self salvation through the Mind. Lord have mercy on me.
The film is by far from nihilistic. You are right to catch the allusion to Jonah and need to go further. This is a profoundly Christian story of God and how he uses suffering to create. It’s a film about idolatry and the idol which God himself made.
The parallel between his time on the island and his reality after his rescue are so far apart. Once you survive a situation where your reality and future are hanging by a thread going back to your normal life things are seen in a new perspective, shown in the clip where he says he’s so sad he lost Kelly but he was so grateful she was with him on that Island. You move on with life after such a situation but you carry on those lessons and feelings without falling victim to the same despair as the narrator explains.
If you pay attention to the early parts of the movie, and think about the timeline of Tom Hanks wife getting pregnant and the relationship with dentist… it’s clear that, his wife was not being faithful to him and the relationship between her and the dentist was in full swing, before he even left on that fateful flight
Yes, it kind of bugs me that people seem to brush right past that. (Or that she at best skipped right over any mourning and immediately got pregnant by some new guy.)
I think that’s the cosmic irony of the whole thing - that god WAS looking out for Tom hanks by stranding him on the island. Because he couldn’t have survived losing her by having her choose to cheat on and leave him.
He gained the strength necessary to survive by his experience on the island and was therefore able to keep living when he found out the truth upon his return home.
Agreed, there are many clues that the relationship was in trouble prior to Chuck being cast away by Kelly. And it's cool that there can be other thoughtful alternative interpretations of the film, besides the obvious weak romance and survival flick.
You seen that vid too.
@@youtubename7819 Great perspective there man.
Except they were not married.
Interesting though
My ex-wife & I were together for 20 years... "Cast Away" was our movie. I remember the last time we watched it together & she started crying... i had no idea why. Our son had just turned 2, our dog was on the couch with us... a month later she moved out, left all 3 of us, she was having an affair... flipping crazy
Tom hank's GF in this movie was having an affair with the dentist guy. Look at the timeline of the kids.
So sorry
Dang she understood Chunks gf behavior. I'm very sorry for you. I hope things are better. I just figured this out this year.
Sorry to hear that, man. I hope you were able to find it in yourself to move on.
You, too, were cast away.
He's back! Your channel is one of my absolute favorites. Stoked it's back on air.
What a freaking random and total delight to see your video five minutes after you posted it! While I haven't watched the video yet and could even disagree with everything you will say about it ... I'm so happy to hear your insights. I love film, but I always get a little extra thinking mileage out of it because of your commentary. Blessings!
Love to hear your disagreements if any
I just finished watching Cast Away 5 min ago seeing some symbolism in it and here I am searching for a video like this. GOD is truly giving us signs in these end days.
@@youthnation1 I am always shifting on the spectrum of belief and unbelief. My personality is resistent to supertition and believing that miracles happen. Yet, still, I am a believer in God--or a god. Sometimes I even think, "I can't believe that I actually believe." So you can probably imagine the effect your perspective had on me. Thank you for the meditative food for thought. Whether it comes tomorrow or next year, I'm looking forward to your next post. Let us know how we can support you.
Agreed
@@GUTOGWholeheartedly Agree 💖💖💖
That “The Harsh Reality of the Universe” jump cut hits so hard.
8:13
Just came here to say the same exact thing😂
James 4:8-10
"Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up."
I always interpreted the final scene where he’s at the cross road as a representation that he is literally at the cross roads of his life.
That's what a thought. Great observation.
Yes, I think it was screaming that crossroads, but in a positive way. Chuck's old life is over, and onto his new one ("Where do you wanna go?"). Also, I find it no accident that a pretty women stops and speaks with him for a moment..I took this as: No matter what life, there will always be someone else and opportunity.
Today is a day both glorious and sorrowful. So glad to stumble back upon this channel, one of my favorites, and watch this great video on a great movie. So sad to learn at the same time that Matt passed away last December. Matt brought a profoundly Christian and sacramental understanding of art and life to his brilliant film analyses, and he will be greatly missed.
Requiem aeternam dona ei domine. Et lux perpetuat luceat ei.
Man, I have been checking daily! Glad you finally were able to get this posted. Thanks for your hard work man.
My perfectionism gets the best of me sometimes. I'm thankful for the year I've spent thinking about this film and really the past five years. The video is much deeper and richer for it. And I hope people are ultimately encouraged by this and the ones to follow
I was as shocked as I was excited to receive this notification. I love this channel!
Very interested to see how this develops in part two. Zemeckis was raised Catholic and The Polar Express strikes me as a deeply earnest expression of religious belief, not to mention the spiritual preoccupations of Contact (Forest Gump as well, albeit to a lesser extent) so I wonder if Cast Away represents some kind of role or paradigm shift in his overall filmography.
And then there’s Flight and the more recent Manifest on Netflix
Zemeckis also directed Back to the Future where it predicted 9/11. And in no coincidence the movie The Walk 30 years later.
ua-cam.com/video/o1NS-4kTCls/v-deo.html
And perhaps Groundhog Day ?
Man. I haven't watched Cast Away in years. I have never watched it as an adult. I will have to revisit it soon. Despite my long time since watching it, and my immaturity when I watched it, Cast Away is one of my top 10 or so films. Even the young, immature, teenage version of me understood some part of his loneliness. Now, my understanding will be even more profound.
I, too, made an imaginary friend (like Willson) in my mid-20s. I did this shortly after I left a volunteer program that I had close friends and several girlfriends. I was alone in my room for a long time. I personified the dark that visited me before I fell asleep as a being similar to Nyx (Greek goddess of the night), Raven (DC Comics heroine), Nocturnal (a daedric god from The Elder Scrolls), and so on. This wise, magical, dark female archetype was friendly to me. She never spoke. I would speak to her. Her company comforted me from my loneliness. She helped me go to sleep at night when I felt lonely.
After a few years, I found a new and wonderful girlfriend who replaced Nyx. I no longer get visits from Nyx. If I ever had to leave my current girlfriend, then I might have Nyx to comfort me again. Who knows?
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Also, I have felt alone from god my entire life. I have seen terrible things happen to so many good people. That's my biggest problem with "god". In the last few months, I have begun to develop a value of god as a very useful psychological concept. I still count myself an atheist, an antitheist, and maybe a pantheist (these things are compatible), but I do enjoy the psychological usefulness of an idea like god.
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I am so sorry to learn that Matt (the author and voice of this video essay) has passed away. This video was my first that I watched from this channel. It's a great commentary on themes in the film. I wish we all could have somehow fixed his brain cancer. May Matt RIP, and I sincerely hope the wife, family, and friends are okay.
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Actually, I have watched Matt's most famous video about No Country for Old Men. That is also a great piece of film commentary about a great film. Matt remains a valuable person through his death.
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Yes, I recognize that my imaginary friend, Nyx, was perhaps a small tendril of the idea named god. Somewhere in human psychology, we have these archetypes built into our minds. The human condition is so interesting, and I am far from finished learning about humanity & myself.
It's my belief that ideas like god and archetypes are partially shared among people (in some kind of shared unconscious), but they are also innate in the human brain. There is a small seed of these ideas somewhere in the brain. It will be hard to find these seedlings, but I'm guessing they're located in each person. These idea seedlings are cultured by the shared unconscious around us, and they bloom into whole ideas that then go on to build whole ecosystems of thought.
pantheism, and atheism and antitheism are by no means compatible, that's hilarious, must take some big mental acrobatics to figure that out. Instead of pretending they're compatible a better approach would be admitting that they are indeed not compatible, but taking the Walt Whitman approach, saying "I contain multitudes". But beyond that, no, it's merely hypocritical and nonsensical.
Ok
God is not a mere psychological coping mechanism, He is Logos.
I invite you to read Mere Christianity by CS Lewis, there you can find a more concrete definition and explanation on God.
@mranderson380 God lives in the left parietal lobe of our brain. A mere coping mechanism. Quite a few research have linked this brain area to the concept of God. Look it up.
God is absolutely there. Who do you think gave him a sail?
Chuck’s love for Kelly and his realization that he could not be with her is what almost led him to hang himself. It was God who saved him by making the branch snap. It was God that brought that warm feeling over him, that instilled in him the will to keep breathing. And it was God who brought him to the woman he was supposed to be with - the lady with the Golden Wings.
It’s really so heartwarming to see you back, it’s been a year but your analysis is as relevant as ever. Thanks for continuing on for all of us who these videos have meant so much to and have been so unrelenting valuable. You are appreciated immensely brother many blessings to you and your family 🙏🏽
Thank you for this :) If it wasn’t for the Hope of making a difference in those who need it, I would have stopped doing this a long time ago.
Notice the early Chuck says "We cannot allow ourselves the "SIN" of losing track of time. The reference to sin is a religious reference.
There's no other UA-cam channel I appreciate and savor more than yours. You're so articulate and profound in your observations. You make me better appreciate movies I've already seen, and you spark my interest in movies I'd have let pass by. I write interesting stories that people enjoy, but you show me how much more stories have the potential to be. Well done sir. I sort of wish you posted more often, but I very much appreciate that you take your time to think these videos out and do them right.
Agree. It's really something special he's created.
Hey man, I've listened to your story on the Ravel podcast, and it was like God was answering directly to the doubts I had over the last few months. I'm wishing you all the best and I'll be watching your videos 🙏🏼
The baby is 2, which means she married and made a baby with with the dentist around a year after he disappeared. Yet she was "terrified" to marry Chuck and seemed stand offish with him. Kelly is a person who wants what she can't have. She complains about her new life and says Chuck is the love of her life, which is bull.
The baby was supposed to be just over a year, not two years old. Around 13 mos.
I feel like I’m an auditing a survey course on world religion poetry and film
I enjoy the edification I receive from your videos and at times become jealous of your critical and analytical ability to convey such elegant messages
Thank you for your work and obvious love of film theology and life itself
Be well and safe we eagerly await your next lesson in the auditorium of UA-cam
You possess this same gift too! All I am is just a little more obsessive than most ;)
That is the exact way to put it, his videos are elegant arguments
I'm a newbie but I'm in love 💖💖💖 Thank you too as well because your thoughtful and beautiful commentary is what made me focus on and drew my attention to the actual person's mind and intent of this video!!
@@youthnation1Wholeheartedly Agree 💯
Now this I content. not the butt shaking abs flexing or the same old motivation video. This is a great analysis
This continues to be the most underrated UA-cam channel I've ever come across. Thank you and keep up the good work!
I always liked that chuck IMMEDIATELY went to an instinctively basic mindset with the burial - give him the best you can and move on.
In our suffering is where we find God
Lol
God is responsible for suffering, God is more responsible for the sufferings of this world than Satan is.
Find or invent?
I really wonder what misinformation made u people believe that. @@JadedByDesign
@@JadedByDesign world is test to the faith ...faith not make you easy it make you stronger to face the test ....
This is a wonderful yet thoughtful essay. Interesting parallels and deep insight into their reading.
Good work bro!
This was so worth the wait. Thanks for not giving up amidst all the hoops you had to jump through to keep the video up haha. Seriously love your work.
And Cast Away has been particularly a bane. Almost EVERY TIME there's been a copyright issue. Hours of posting and reediting and posting again
@@youthnation1 I'm glad it stayed up this time! Just now found it.
Great job! I've been learning English for about 5 years now and I never thought I would watch such amazing videos and understand them at that. I subscribed to your channel a few months ago and always anticipate what you make. Also, the moment when he writes "HELP" on the sand and the tide rubs it out into something resembling "HELL" is another easter egg here.
Welcome back! Loved your channel so much when I first found it, and am happy to see a new video!
YES! The best film analysis on UA-cam right here! Awesome video! Can’t wait for more!
This is one of the greatest film breakdowns I’ve ever seen
Hey, im from Brazil. Great you are back. Congrat
I’m glad you’ve uploaded again, I e always loved your videos and your explanations to movies
Everybody Loves A Happy Ending - the 2004 album by British rock band Tears For Fears. The basis for so much of their work appears to have been psychiatry. ("Songs from the Big Chair", "Shout", "Advice for the Young At Heart" etc). And it's because everybody loves a happy ending that the makers of Cast Away only very lightly touched on the psychiatric issues that someone stranded on an island for four years might suffer.
To make Cast Away darker, when, towards the end of the movie we see Chuck staring at the light switch, the gas lighter and the crab, the film's makers could have shown traumatic flashbacks of the island and his physical reactions to them. Instead, Chuck is just poker-faced. Also, at the welcome-back party they film's makers could also have even included a child bouncing a Wilson ball around - and lets us watch Chuck's reaction to that too.
They avoided such ideas because Cast Away is entertainment. We don't merely get a happy ending, we get a fairy tale ending, re Bettina's wings.
It's interesting how we always look for signs and wonders when God has always loved the opposite of that. It's a movie but the character survives a plane crash and then survives living on a tropical island for years, and then makes it back home. A lot of it has to do with perspective, and the many hardships in life all have very good reasons for them. It is no wonder we learn the most in reflection and in a quiet place. Remember: it is hard to hear God when you're yelling.
Probably the best review I've ever heard/seen on UA-cam. AWESOME JOB!!
These videos are so good, way better than most video essay channels about movies
Thank you for this video. Better than any session with a psychiatrist I could have hoped for. I've been through a lot of bad stuff in my life and I've suffered inside for it. Watching this video makes me realise I'm not alone. You kept striking chord after chord with that you said, much like Chuck Noland's "Keep breathing" monologue at the end of the Cast Away. Cosmic Irony. Finally I have a term for it.
I didn't know about the movie The Grey so I'm definitely going to watch that. Thanks. 👍
You're back! God bless you!
Chuck is representative of what a human being comes to look like that dares not to think there may be a transcendent reality outside of himself - what he appears to be is what Charles Taylor describes as the buffered self - someone who is confronted with their stark realization of their own making that they're insulated from any transcendent reality - and given the uncompromising nature of fate in that world they occupy they lie naked with the unforgiving and harsh reality of that universe when God is no where to found - nor in a universe where Chuck doesn't even care to look for one.
Nice to see that you’re back! Welcome!
Thank you for coming back your videos have always meant a lot to me :)
So great to see you making videos again!
Congrats on 100K Matt! Very happy and proud. 💪🏼 And thanks again for the Mad Max patreon get together.
Incredible insight man. Can't wait for part 2
There’s a lot of Signs in Cast Away. More accurately, they share a lot in common.
@@youthnation1 Indeed. Providence is one of the most fascinating doctrines. Looking forward to a Signs video. One thing they share in common is that they're both in my top five. 😂
This is my signs video. This and the ones to come. Cast Away is signs without being on the nose.
@@youthnation1 Loving it so far. Keep up the good work. ALSO. Do you have any prayer request? I'd love to be praying for you.
Just lost my job last week. It’s not an extreme worry but would appreciate your prayers
welcome back!!!
a huge fan from the Philippines.
Dear God he's back! Thank you for a refreshment of actual opinions and deep digging theories.
A ship wreck survivor on an island is actually a "castaway". The fact that the title plays on the word to turn it into a verb "cast away" is a description of Chuck's predicament. He IS cast away, by his partner who is clearing straddling the dentist long before he takes his last fight, to the rescuers who don't look hard enough to find him.
This is the only channel I have notifications turned on for
What a pleasant surprise to get this notification. Glad to see you back
And I'm thankful you're back! I missed these conversations and the wonderful people here.
Very well put together, this.
The quality of editing is really good bro keep up the great job.
You are on the path to become one of the best video essayists
Wow, thanks
Glad you are back!
Magnificent! Great to see you back, Matt.
You too, brother!!!
Nice to see you back making quality videos!
So glad you're back! Excited about the Castaway essay series, by the logo it seems something wonderful has been brewing
This channel is simply brilliant!
“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements-surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
Job 38:1-7 ESV
Best we withdraw our demand for a council before the Lord and hold our tongue, lest we open our mouth and confirm the foolishness of our ways and the wages owed for our sin!
Wonderful analysis! Really fascinating to see your take on this.
So freaking happy your back man!!!!
Wait. I just used "freaking" in my comment. Sorry for plagiarizing!
lol!
Outstanding! Your symbolic intuition and insight rival Jonathan Pageau's. Looking forward to future installments. May God bless you and bring you healing.
Sometimes you never realize how much you miss something until you see it again! I'm glad to see a new video (although I'm a little late lol) Also I always found the getting lost at sea and trapped on a deserted island scenario seemed so unrealistic but Cast Away portrays it as completely believable, I always thought that making you believe that situation seemed absolutely real was one of the reasons that made this movie so good. Oh your new logo for your channel was revealed perfectly in this video! As always, outstanding job!
I am so delighted to see a new video from you! And about a movie I loved so much!
Beautifully put video, eagerly awaiting part 2.
Heeeeey! Welcome back Matt!!
Because people were created to worship. A lack of appropriate worship leaves a void that will beg to be filled.
wow, this was so great!! love your chanel so much, haven't seen your videos in some time. great as always!!
06:00 you could also include from "the thin red line".. theyre talking under the moon and the sgt says "theres nothing else, just this rock" and the guy he was talking to looks up and sees the moon
Bro I just watched your Mad Max video. Good stuff, amazingly insightful. Thank you.
I always thought it ironic that none of the examples of irony in a song called "ironic" are actually ironical.
Have to say, I kept the faith, I KNEW you would be back. You have too much of value to say to not return...
Makes me damn happy to see you back brother.
Not verbal or dramatic but cosmic. Cosmic Irony is the curse of Genesis 3. The child that a woman longs for to bring her happiness will also bring her pain. The field sowed in hope of a harvest will now be found choked full of weeds.
@@youthnation1 wow this is really deep. I know the whole "that's not irony" thing got big in the last decade I believe. Perhaps bc if Futurama? But to use it to describe the literary device in Gen 3 is something I've never come across
Yes! People misuse irony all of the time. "The traffic jam when you're already late" would only apply to someone attending an urban planning meeting. "Sorry I am late for the meeting, but due to traffic you all know why that is."
Anyone know who does that version of "Ironic"?
Great work, sir. I could have sworn that you already had a video about Cast Away. Hearing your voice combined with scenes from the film gave me a strange deja vu feeling.
I did and do. But I've taken them down because I think these new videos will end up supplanting them.
@@youthnation1 Heh. I thought I was going loopy. Looking forward to part two (of two?).
He has to get his PRIORITIES in order, God, his family and himself! God never abandoned us, He promised to NEVER leaves us alone! Blessings and Hugs 💖💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕!
Merry Christmas ⛄🎄!
Your film analysis is always such a pleasure. Thank you for posting this.
Rip! Will see you in glory one day!
He hasn't passed away yet, why do you say that?
@@joeytour5618 Watch " To My Subscribers" video
@@teamsonicx3127 damn man, makes you reflect on the shortness and spontaneity of life, RIP, hope he's in a better place
It's been too long! I look forward to new videos from you, almost as much as I once looked forward to my birthday and Christmas when growing up. 🎁
Great job...love it! ❤
The Matrix is so overflowing with Biblical symbolism...I've often thought that it too would be a great film for you to cover. 🎥
Love the matrix.
@@youthnation1
You love the Matrix?
*Fantastic!*
_Does this mean that we can expect your angle on it a future episode?_ 😃
Matrix is a little too obviously symbolic for what I like to do here. Great film! But talked about a lot. I like to point out what isn’t already anticipated.
@@youthnation1
Indeed...I see what you mean.
Excellent Video. I am doing a study on Robinsonian stories and Castaway and the Martian are the modern retellings i want to focus on. Both these narratives have the goal of engaging in their world with faith, whether it be through Faith in God or the trust of science. I do believe it is truly ironic, that when I hear stories like Castaway, my walk deepens with Christ. I know you have had a tough year @logosmadeflesh but this video has drawn me closer to God many times in the last 4 months. Thank you! May God bless your ministry and your quality literary analysis/ work here! Can not wait until your part 2. GLADLY WAITING PATENTLY, ITS TOTALLY WORTH IT. (PS, if anyone is looking to understand Logosmadeflesh more deeply, 10/10 recommend his interview with Paul Vanderklay)
Great assessment. I love that you included The Grey in your analysis, one of my favorite films. The only part you neglected is the fact that The Grey (as indicated by the incorrect spelling of gray) takes place in the afterlife. They're all dead.
Beautiful essay
Welcome back!
I wonder if Stephens ever took a step back and thought “Why is it a habit of mind for everyone to follow a religion, or find a substitute for one?”
Maybe it’s because each of us have an innate, God-sized hole within our hearts. We yearn for Him naturally, yet so many think this is some coping mechanism. No, it’s who we are as His creations. Our souls want to believe, yet we use our minds to stop it.
Speak for yourself please.
That is all he was doing - positing an opinion based on an observation made/question posed. You will find less stress in your day if you refrain from unnecessary cynicism and defensiveness.
I love how those who question or openly refute a God evangelize most. Grow up!
Never knew movies were made with this level of depth until I watched your videos. Mind blown.
Not many are anymore
Brother the insights God had given you are simply outstanding! Have you ever thought about reviewing inception, or the the show dark, I think you could draw out some amazing biblical parallels.
Chuck may not pray, but you left out one very important thing he does and doesn't do. When the box with the angel wings drifts up on the beach, he strokes the two wings on the box. He never opens that box and clearly you can see that his inner process is this might be a sign an angel watches over him. So, framed as such ...the inner need to pray is subdued by having that sense and angel watches over him already.
This film is about choice, time, fate or making our own fate. It's about a man that through his own choices had to go through a metamorphosis. You see it happening to him physically and mentallly. In the choices he made prior to the crash he was not only casting others away but himself away. His choices and his view on time only being important in relation to job but not people and not time caring for himself as much. On the island, the job as priority number one faded instantly. Self care through survival became priority number one. When he got back to Memphis the people who had been in his life were priorities now. His friend he regretted he couldn't have been there for during his wife's cancer battle and his loss of her. He is a man filled with the knowing of what could have been had he been the changed man then that he is now. He loses Kelly. She has lost him. But each has gained a new life. Time moves and are choices define where we move in time. Who we become or don't become. Chuck was always leaving Kelly for the job. Even prioritizing it over her at Christmastime. In the end, Kelly married someone who stayed. Even knowing in her heart that Chuck wasn't dead. She knew it but was bound to time and choices she had to make to define her life and live it. Otherwise she'd been just as much on her own island in life. Kelly stays. Chuck leaves after reuniting and both know their time together in life is no more
We see Chuck delivering the box that Chuck held out hope of delivering while on the island. The box represented hope and here he was delivering it. The woman who sent it to Russia 4 years prior seemingly living alone in an island herself. Before leaving you gives Chuck directions. He leaves then pauses at the crossroads. Gets out and looks around as to which road is the right road to take. The road going back she had told him leads to a whole lot of nothing. But he doesn't continue on it. He pulls in her drive showing he is not interested in making choices again that leaves him a cast away not leave others to be cast aways. The farm woman is as much a cast away in her own island. You know in his mind that he knows all his choices lead him there. Even going to work for Fed Ex in the first place. As did her and her choices. Call it fate. Choice. Or that angel still watching over Chuck. Chuck is changed. He's not going to place people or himself as lower priorities anymore. There is only one decision to make. Go and talk to the farm house woman. See where spending time with this other seemingly lonely soul takes him. There are roads we just take and their are roads we make. Chuck turned away from leaving to being someone who stays.
In th
MAN WE NEED MORE FROM YOU!!!!!! LOVE YOUR CONTENT!!!!
Stick around this time dude, your work is truly knowledgeable in the way cinema holds a deep and relevant 'hidden meaning' in western culture, thank you!
Tell me you didn't lean back in encapsulation of facts you didn't know were right in front of you. Great work, can't wait for the next video
What? Please explain :)
The god of film analysis is back!!!
I don't agree with the main message of this movie now, that "fate is terrible" No, it's not. It is terrible to some, and beneficial to others. Fate is simply fate. It will either be for you, or against you, at any given time. It could even change its current path with your life.
Thx for making this video. I have enjoyed every second of it.
Ayyo. Glad I stayed subscribed.
Me too :)
Powerful analyses once again... looking forward to part 2 🙏
I'm at that point in life, and I spent most my life saying there is no God. But after loads of acid and mushrooms and combining the two I'm still not sure but I feel life we may have the entire idea of God completely wrong.
Wow, watched this movie a week ago for the first time in 10 years and got interested what the ending of the movie really means, and got sucked into an opinion rabbit hole where i saw your name pop up somewhere, so thats how i found out about this channel, and now you randomly post a new video about the movie after a year of no uploads, what a coincidence :D funny how life works sometimes
You are great at these. Hope you can make more someday. I am sure it's difficult, time consuming, and probably does not pay much. But thank you! Really inspiring and thought provoking.
Now I understand what happened. God rest your soul. Prayers to your family and thank you for your wisdom and work on these video essays.
I very much enjoy your work. Looking forward to part 2.
I recently re-watched this film with my kid and we saw a lot of connections with the bible story "Jonah and the Whale" but without God it turns into some strange form of Nihilism,
removing all hope of discernment and leaning on the Will for self salvation through the Mind. Lord have mercy on me.
The film is by far from nihilistic. You are right to catch the allusion to Jonah and need to go further. This is a profoundly Christian story of God and how he uses suffering to create. It’s a film about idolatry and the idol which God himself made.
Several years behind videos, same quality. Keep up the good work yo!
Brother you are one of a kind. You’re channel has helped change my life. So glad to see you again. Christ is King 👑
Amen
Brilliant exploration of a modern classic! One of my favorite movies. Thank you for your insights!
The parallel between his time on the island and his reality after his rescue are so far apart. Once you survive a situation where your reality and future are hanging by a thread going back to your normal life things are seen in a new perspective, shown in the clip where he says he’s so sad he lost Kelly but he was so grateful she was with him on that Island. You move on with life after such a situation but you carry on those lessons and feelings without falling victim to the same despair as the narrator explains.
Welcome back King
Welcome back!!!
AMAZING THAT YOUR BACK!
Thank you! Missed you guys!