Tom Hanks’ existential approach to his worst movie: “Isn’t that the question of all cinema?”
Tom Hanks is one of the founding fathers of American cinema, starring in decades of iconic classics that have shaped our collective cinematic experiences. Whether it be the timeless legacy of Forrest Gump, the lasting nostalgia of Big or his infamous voicing of Woody in Toy Story, the actor has forged a reputation unparalleled to many others from his generation, becoming the definitive leading man of a generation and starring in countless modern masterpieces.
Over the years, he has worked with some of the most celebrated directors of all time, forming a lasting collaborative relationship with Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg in films like Saving Private Ryan, Splash and Apollo 13, as well as working with Wes Anderson, Baz Luhrmann and Nora Ephron. However, anyone with as much experience as Hanks would become well-versed in the ruthless rules of the film industry, with the actor sharing his astute observations of Hollywood after years of experience in show business.
The business of filmmaking is famously ruthless and unmerciful, with people being chewed up by the Hollywood machine and discarded if they no longer serve it. It’s a brutal system that thrives on extreme wealth, interpersonal connections, corruption and discrimination, with very few people being allowed into the elusive club and most struggling to get their foot in the door. But when you are finally inside, you are able to contribute to a force that is larger than life itself, something that represents much more than just the flickering of images on a screen. It is a representation of life in its most pure and distilled form, capturing a range of human experiences and having a lasting impact on our perspective and the way we view the world.
For Hanks, this is the ultimate reward for being in such a temperamental business. You can work on film sets and feel as though you are suffering for your art and being met with no tangible reward, with the entire crew in pursuit of sharing a story that you cannot yet see, united by your faith in the director’s vision and love for the characters. But ultimately, all of this is worth it when the film touches even one person, having a magical impact on audiences and enriching our collective sense of empathy and perspective of the world.
However, while not all of his films have been successful, Hanks has found his own outlook with which to view failure, something that he clung to after his role in the disastrous Pinocchio remake in 2022. When discussing the failure of the film and what he hoped audiences gleaned from the film, the actor said, “Well, isn’t that the question of all cinema in the first place? I think there is no substitute for an audience seeing something they did not expect from a movie”.
“When you are just taken to places beyond your expectations, that’s the magic of cinema. And it’s not just about what you saw. It’s about what you got involved in. The emotional beats of a movie are what make the movie. It’s not just how it looked or how great the music was or how cool the fight scenes were or even how scary Monstro was. It’s about the emotional connection”.
The actor expanded on this when sharing his personal experiences with unexpected success, saying, “I’ve had people come up to me and mention the tiniest details of a movie that I haven’t thought about in a million years that weren’t even the things that we were going for. And they’ll say they always remember where they were, what they were doing when they saw it, what the circumstances were, and it’s astounding how truly important this emotional beat was that they were not expecting from a movie, and they carry it with them for the rest of their days.”
For Hanks, this is the simplest way to attack a movie, to connect with the characters and the audiences who watch them: “That’s what you aim for… that’s when the faith that we all have in making movies and going to the movies pays off when something unique happens. And what’s great about it is it’s undeniable, and sometimes it’s only undeniable to that one person who happened to see the movie at a certain circumstance happened to be open to this one very particular dilemma. But that means it’s going to stay with somebody for the rest of their lives, and great movies last forever”.
