Tom Hanks (Character Essay)

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (Tom Hanks) is my favorite filmmaker. The man is a genius!  He not only plays the role of an actor, but also a producer, director and writer. He has worked with other famous and high standard people, such as the great film director Steven Spielberg on the movie “Saving Private Ryan” (1998).

Tom Hanks was born on July 9, 1956 in Concord, California, USA. He grew up in what he calls a “fractured family” His parents were pioneers in the development of marriage dissolution law in that state, and Tom moved around a lot, living with a succession of step-families, making him grew up on a confusing childhood. He started his acting career when he was at College, even when no one thought he was talented, because he got rejected from two different plays on his school. One day he went downtown and auditioned for a community theater play and was invited by the director of that play to go to Cleveland, and there his acting career started. He rose from the star of the cult comedy series "Bosom Buddies" (ABC, 1980-82) to become a respected Academy Award-winning actor and Emmy-winning producer.

Hanks made his name with “Big” (1988), opening the doors to eventual back-to-back Oscar glory with "Philadelphia" (1993) and "Forrest Gump" (1994). He also made international blockbusters like “The Terminal” (2004), and "The Da Vinci Code" (2006), which this last one reaffirmed his place as one of the most respected actors of the century.

The movies I watched were: “Big, Forrest Gump, and The Terminal”. I wanted to watch them in the order they were created so I could have a comparison between one and the other. What I realized is that Tom Hanks is really a great actor, because he can play diverse roles without losing track of his characteristics.

I’ll start firs with the movie BIG: “Big is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film, directed by Penny Marshall, and stars Tom Hanks as Josh Baskin, a young boy who makes a wish "to be big" and is then aged to adulthood overnight”. ⁽¹⁾

I loved to see Tom Hanks in such a young age; he looked handsome and full of energy during this movie. I really appreciated the fact that this kid, when he becomes an adult; he starts to forget his life as a kid and little by little, feels like an adult in real life. Especially with the new girlfriend he got. But even when he was truly enjoying his life as an adult (because he wasn’t focusing on all typical adult problems or stress, he was just being himself and thinking life is really easy and enjoyable); he started to miss his past life, being a kid: Something wonderful that most of all sometimes missed the most from our lives. So I loved the fact that he decided to go back and face his present stage of age: Childhood!

Then it come FORREST GUMP: “Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic romantic comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and starred Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise and Sally Field. The story depicts several decades in the life of Forrest Gump, a naïve and slow-witted yet athletically prodigious native of Alabama who witnesses, and in some cases influences, some of the defining events of the latter half of the 20th century in the United States; more specifically, the period between Forrest's birth in 1944 and 1982”. ⁽²⁾

I was thrilled by this movie! I was simply amazed; not only by the whole story, but also by how Tom Hanks managed to act the way he did, as a “naïve and slow-witted guy”. The message that you can find in this movie is (at least for me). Similar to what Big gives you: Enjoy life and stop having worries! I found some similarities between these two movies. The fact that the main character (Our lovely Tom Hanks), is a man with no worries in life, and because of that, everything is given to him without doubts or difficulties. I think that the hardest we make our own existence, is in fact how’s it going to be if we don’t change our points of view.  This is a really long movie, but really touching and self-spiritual revealing. I loved the “love-twist” between Forrest Gump and Jenny (played by Robin Wright).

Now we have THE TERMINAL: “The Terminal is a 2004 American comedy-drama film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones. It is about a man who becomes trapped in New York City's JFK International Airport terminal when he is denied entry into the United States and at the same time cannot return to his native country due to a revolution. The film is partially inspired by the 17-year-stay of Mehran Karimi Nasseri in the Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Terminal I in Paris, France from 1988 to 2006”. ⁽³⁾

This movie for me was deeply touching. I could definitely felt empathy for Viktor Navorszki (The main character played by Tom Hanks), and the way he was unable to return to his country or even leaved the airport. Then again we have a touch of innocence in this character given by the fact that he can’t speak or neither understands English and there’s not a translator for him in that situation, which I personally found this to be a little lame… I mean, being the US and in that main circumstance, they could’ve just got someone to translate to him… But then again, is just a movie! Either way, I felt sorry for him the entire music and I was really happy when he could finally go out of the airport to fulfill his father’s last will. In this movie we can also find the “love-twist” that they’ve all had. Here we have again a man, a girl, a drama story and a love-style in the middle of all that. This wasn’t my favorite movie of them all, but it was a really good one (especially the facts that they were able to film in one location for the most part of the movie and still not make it being something boring)…

I wrote about those movies mainly because I wanted to see something new, (even knowing they were good movies), I never had the chance to watch them before (except Forrest Gump, but I haven’t had the chance to finished that movie yet). I won’t say that TOM HANKS is the best actor ever, but I can tell my friend Denise has good tastes when it comes to filmmakers! J