The movie that let him down and broke Tom Hanks’ heart: “There is a difference”
There are a handful of American actors who serve as true paragons of Hollywood brilliance, and only a fool would argue that Tom Hanks does not fit into such a category. With the nuance and versatility of a master actor, Hanks has traversed countless memorable roles throughout a remarkable career at the pinnacle of performative excellence.
From his breakthrough appearance in Big to the unforgettable effort he gave in Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump, Hanks has always delivered the goods and has top-order films littered across his filmography, like Saving Private Ryan and Apollo 13. Simply, Hanks is a true legend of the acting game.
While there have been so many brilliant releases from across Hank’s remarkable career, not every production has been smooth sailing in actually making its way onto screens. Most notably, one of Hanks’ movies had to go straight to streaming, bypassing its theatrical release because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It might seem like a trivial moment, to remove the cinematic release, after all, surely a good movie stands up on its own no matter what. But to come to this assumption is to completely ignore how a movie was intended to be seen. There’s a reason David Lynch once said that those who watch movies are going into his own version of hell. And, likewise, HJanks was desperate for the picture to be seen on the big screen.
Hanks had written the screenplay for the 2020 war film Greyhound, directed by Aaron Schneider, and also starred alongside Stephen Graham, Rob Morgan and Elisabeth Shue. The actor once told Datebook of his being drawn to the book the film is based on, noting, “I think one of the reasons that I took to C.S. Forester’s book The Good Shepherd is because I had a familiarity with all things Navy based on growing up so close to the Naval Air Station in Alameda.”
Going on to explain the authenticity of the film, Hanks added: “We shot onboard the USS Kidd that is usually sitting on the Mississippi River there. . . and on the actual iron steel decks of the USS Kidd, which is an actual Fletcher-class destroyer that might be the only authentically preserved destroyer in America.”
Greyhound sees Hanks play Commander Ernie Krause, the leader of a US Navy fleet on his first assignment taking charge of a multi-national escort destroyer group, which defends a 37-ship-strong Allied Convoy from a swarm of German U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II.
In another interview with The Guardian, Hanks admitted to being heartbroken about the way the film was finally put down. “It’s an absolute heartbreak,” the Saving Private Ryan actor said. “I don’t mean to make angry my Apple overlords, but there is a difference in picture and sound quality.”
Of course, there are moments where streaming can provide a moment for the entire world to come together, but Hanks believes it was the communal experience of watching the movie unfold in the cinema that is the worst loss.
He signed off on the matter, adding: “Apple TV+ comes along as a saviour and a gem and offers us the opportunity to have the movie out. The great advantage is, the entire world can see the movie at the same time. The heartbreak is that 800 people don’t get to go into a theater as strangers, watch Greyhound and come out 88 minutes later with something in common.”
In truth, whether it was released in cinemas or via Apple, the movie never really reached the audiences Hanks desired it to. The movie doesn’t make the top ten of his best pictures, and that’s probably more painful than not having a cinematic release.
Check out the trailer for Greyhound below.
