But the project poses such complex artistic challenges (how to maintain visual interest in the deceptively unlimited central location, etc.) that one exonerates Zemeckis for coasting where he could. As a trick vehicle for Tom Hanks, Cast Away works beautifully--he was robbed of what would've been a third Oscar. After we've spent an hour with Hanks being the only human presence on-screen (as plane-crash survivor Chuck attempts to rescue himself from four years of tropical desolation), he still impels our soulful glances, to the exclusion of others, when characters are reintroduced and tell us what they did in Chuck's absence. (I hope I'm not spoiling anything; if the trailer didn't ruin Cast Away's third act for you, people complaining about the trailer did.) Between Hanks and the film's core sincerity--and it actually manages to decry workaholism without romanticizing utopia--I found Cast Away very transporting, all the more so the second time around.

Fox's 2-disc Special Edition DVD release of Cast Away does what too many SEs don't: it enriches the movie-watching experience. Disc 1 contains a bang-up, THX-licensed transfer of pristine elements in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. (The cover art states "2.35:1," but this is a misprint, and the image is not meant to be in that aspect ratio.) Shadow detail is so fine that the dread I developed for each next night scene at my theatrical screening was very quickly dispelled at home. (Aside: several of the evening exteriors were shot 'day-for-night.') Colour, too, is spectacular and precise.

Meanwhile, I can hardly imagine the extra rear speaker enhancing the included DTS and Dolby Digital mixes, which are ES and EX encoded, respectively: in either 5.1 configuration, this is the best-sounding DVD of the year to date. Alternately charged and quiet, always supple and intricate, the DTS version, in particular, confirms that Zemeckis and his sound designer Randy Thom can be counted on for a rich listening environment, and that the underused split-surrounds of Zemeckis' What Lies Beneath (shot to completion during the production hiatus imposed on Cast Away by Hanks' involved diet) were an anomaly. The plane crash is put over the visceral top by airtight bass and zippy sidewall imaging; it all starts with a What Lies Beneath-ian jolt of LFE in chapter 7, at approximately the 23:12 mark.

Thom joins Zemeckis, cinematographer Don Burgess, and special effects supervisors Ken Ralston and Cary Villegas on an ensemble commentary. Each player was recorded separately, Zemeckis himself at a USC lecture. (His comments are therefore inconsistently specific to what we're seeing.) The track often surprises with information, even if one listens to it after perusing the second disc's supplements. Zemeckis, for instance, reveals that there were 125 drafts of the screenplay--despite his protests to the contrary, that's a phenomenally high number. Thom remembers several things that made me smile, like the precise casting of a photocopier for its musical quality. (This I don't say often enough: Viva Bobby Z!)

Over on Disc 2, Ralston and Villegas again chime in atop 6 special effects "vignettes," the longest of which focuses on Chuck's encounter with a whale. These and three other refreshingly un-slick featurettes are more satisfying than the DVD's "The Making of Cast Away", recycled from HBO. "S.T.O.P.: Surviving as a Castaway" (27 mins.) interviews screenwriter William Broyles, Jr. and those professional survivalists who showed him how to subsist on a small amount of food and water in the wild (the acronym, by the way, stands for stop, think, observe, and plan); "Wilson: The Life and Death of a Hollywood Extra" (12 mins.) is a deadpan look at the concept of Chuck's island companion, a happy-faced volleyball, and not a mockumentary, although some slo-mo, "Baywatch"-style footage of Hanks running earns unintentional laughs; and "The Island" (14 mins.) explores the uninhabited "Monu Riki" that doubled as Chuck's home away from home.

No wonder Disc 2 is in RSDL format: in addition to all of the above, you'll find Charlie Rose's hour-long interrogation of Hanks that aired in time for Cast Away's December opening (about halfway through, their talk turns semi-political), 10 TV spots, 2 non-anamorphic trailers ("A" is the enticing teaser that played in multiplexes last summer), an image gallery, three storyboard galleries, and an Easter egg that leads to the hilarious answer Zemeckis gave when asked what was in the unopened FedEx package. If I were to compile one of those absurd 'desert island' lists of DVDs, I'd seriously consider packing Cast Away.-Bill Chambers