The 1990 movie that Tom Hanks couldn’t stand but shaped his career
There are few actors in the ever-turning world of the movie industry who have enjoyed a level of success quite like Tom Hanks. Having assumed a public persona as one of America’s most loveable uncles, Hanks’ reputation as a significant figure in contemporary cinema often precedes him, and throughout his career, he’s given countless remarkable performances.
From his early work in A Bigger Splash right up to some of his most significant efforts in the likes of Saving Private Ryan, Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, Hanks has always imbued his characters with an effortless charm that makes them arrive as a representative of the “everyman” trope.
However, like any actor, Hanks naturally had to make a handful of missteps on the way to stardom, and when it came to the worst movies that Hanks ever made, by his own admission, there seem to be few works that he regrets less than Brian De Palma’s 1990 film Bonfire of the Vanities.
Based on Tom Wolfe’s 1987 novel of the same name, De Palma’s film saw Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Jim Cattrall and Morgan Freeman star alongside Hanks, who portrayed Sherman McCoy, a Wall Street bond trader who amassed a huge fortune of wealth. However, Hanks had actually once called the film “one of the crappiest movies ever made“.
When the film was offered to Hanks, he was still early into his career, and merely being offered a role felt like “a big deal”. The result was that Hanks started being stopped on the streets and told that he wasn’t the “real” Sherman McCoy from Wolfe’s novel but a pale imitation of the film version.
“That movie was a fascinating enterprise from the word go. It was bigger than life, and for some reason, it had a huge amount of attention on it. Bonfire taught me that I couldn’t manufacture a core connection.”
Tom Hanks
Part of the backlash stemmed from the immense expectations surrounding the adaptation. Wolfe’s novel had become a literary sensation, and translating its biting satire of wealth, race and power to the screen proved far more difficult than many anticipated, leaving the finished film unable to satisfy either fans of the book or mainstream audiences.
Hanks knew that something was up with the film adaptation, noting, “I was going contrary to everything about the character and even the screenplay”. However, he went ahead with the job. Interestingly, though, despite his regret of Bonfire of the Vanities, there was an upturn in that it served as the moment at which Hanks’ career began to pivot towards success.
“I hadn’t gone through that experience, I would have lost out on something valuable,” the actor said. “That movie was a fascinating enterprise from the word go. It was bigger than life, and for some reason, it had a huge amount of attention on it. Bonfire taught me that I couldn’t manufacture a core connection.”
What’s interesting about Hanks’s career then, in light of De Palma’s film, is to see what happens next. Just two years later, Hanks appeared in one of his most beloved roles, A League of the Own, and before long, he was starring in the iconic AIDS drama Philadelphia, plus Forrest Gump and Apollo 13, all in the space of three years.
From there, Hanks never looked back, appearing in high-quality movies like Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile and Catch Me If You Can time and time again. So, in hindsight, perhaps it was starring in his least favourite role that led Hanks towards the path to greatness, and it might just be his most important work in a roundabout way.
Signing off his thoughts on The Bonfire of the Vanities, Hanks said, “I can go to Germany, even now, and people will say, ‘How come you don’t make good, gritty movies like The Bonfire of the Vanities anymore?’ They have no concept of what it meant to be an American and have that movie enter the national consciousness.”
Looking back, The Bonfire of the Vanities occupies a curious place in Tom Hanks’ filmography. It may be remembered as one of his biggest disappointments, but it also served as a turning point, forcing him to rethink the kinds of stories he wanted to tell. Sometimes an actor’s most important role isn’t the one that earns awards. It is the one that teaches them what not to do next.
Check out the trailer for the film below.
