A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(C) 1979 Universal Pictures 1941 (1979) Directed by Steven Spielberg Written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, based on a story by Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, and John Milius Starring: Dan Ackroyd, John Belushi, Ned Beatty, Nancy Allen, Lorraine Gary, Wendie Jo Sperber, Dianne Kay, Murray Hamilton, Toshiro Mifune, Christopher Lee, Slim Pickens [ reporting over the radio on a riot at the USO ] Raoul Lipschitz : Ladies and gentlemen, every where I look... soldiers are fighting sailors, sailors are fighting Marines! Directly in front of me, I see a flying blond floozy! Everywhere I look... everywhere, pure pandemonium... pandemonium! Steven Spielberg is doubtlessly  one of the most popular and influential filmmakers in the history of the movie industry. As a member of the New Hollywood group of directors and producers that emerged in the 1970s, Spielberg has helmed such successful films as Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T.  the Extra-Terrestr

Robert Zemeckis’ 2000 drama  Cast Away  is one of those films that aspires for cinematic greatness, nearly achieves it, yet leaves the viewer with no small amount of disappointment at the very end.   Essentially a 20thCentury take on Daniel Defoe’s classic tale  Robinson Crusoe, Cast Away  stars two-time Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks as a FedEx systems analyst who is stranded on an island after his plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean.  Chuck Noland:  We live and we die by time. And we must not commit the sin of losing our track on time.   It  is late 1995.  Chuck Noland is one of FedEx’s most driven analysts; he is a man who is obsessed with efficiency and time management, which is logical considering that he works for a company which lives by its "Absolutely, Positively Anytime" slogan.  Based in the company’s headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, Chuck is tasked with ferreting problems with the transit of packages in such places as St. Petersburg in Russia.  If t