The 1985 movie Tom Hanks admitted might be the worst of his career: “It made no money at all”
Arguably, despite the veil of a marketable persona, a genuinely nice Hollywood celebrity is hard to come by, yet with the American actor Tom Hanks, movie fans may have just found one.
Rising to industry prominence in the 1980s, Hanks quickly became a household name thanks to collaborations with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, Brian De Palma and Robert Zemeckis.
Throughout such collaborations, Hanks helped to create some of the most beloved movies of all time, including Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump and Philadelphia. Winning two Academy Awards for his efforts, Hanks is considered among the very best actors in modern Hollywood, even if he doesn’t think much of his own filmography, once stating: “I’ve made a ton of movies and four of them are pretty good, I think”.
Continuing in his self-deprecating speech, he added, “Movie-making is very hard work over a very long period of time that consists of so many moments of joy slapped up against an equal number of feelings of self-loathing…It is the greatest job in the world and the most confounding of labours that I know of”.
Exactly which movie Hanks is referring to when he talks about four “pretty good” films is unclear, but some of his highest-rated releases include Toy Story, Saving Private Ryan, Philadelphia and The Green Mile, providing some insight into the flicks he might be hinting at.
For an actor whose résumé contains as many celebrated titles as Hanks’, that level of self-criticism is surprisingly consistent. Rather than romanticising his back catalogue, he has long spoken about filmmaking as an imperfect process, acknowledging that even successful productions often fall short of the lofty expectations held by those who make them. It’s an outlook that has only strengthened his reputation as one of Hollywood’s more grounded leading men.
That honesty also means Hanks has never been afraid to single out the projects he believes simply didn’t work. While many stars prefer to quietly move past commercial disappointments or critical misfires, he has often been refreshingly candid when discussing the films that failed to connect with audiences, even when he was the one carrying them.
One movie that is certainly not on the shortlist is the 1985 comedy The Man with One Red Shoe, a film Hanks admitted was bad in an interview with Playboy from back in 1989. When asked to give a mini-review of the film, Hanks stated: “Not a very good movie. It doesn’t have any real, clear focus to it. It isn’t about anything particularly that you can honestly understand. It made no money at all”.
Helmed by Stan Dragoti, the movie, which starred Hanks in the lead role, told the story of a man who is randomly chosen as the target of a CIA surveillance operation. An entirely forgettable movie, The Man with One Red Shoe is only made memorable by its cast, which included Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Dabney Coleman, Lori Singer and Jim Belushi.
Take a look at the trailer for The Man with One Red Shoe below, and decide for yourself whether it is indeed one of Hanks’ worst-ever movies.
