best film: Saving Private Ryan and now that we’ve had a little bit of distance between now and Hanks’ best work I don’t think this one is particularly close. I think there are a number of top 10 (or close) of their year quality films Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Big, Cast Away, Apollo 13, Road to Perdition and Captain Phillips but nothing that really gives me pause when going with Spielberg’s brilliant, visceral, war film.
best performance: Philadelphia and to me this one is much more debatable than Hanks’ best film. I’m confident it’s either Philadelphia or Saving Private Ryan but could go either way. Both have tremendous scenes that showcase Hanks’ acting chops. In Philadelphia it’s the opera scene—just give him the Oscar right there (and they did). In Saving Private Ryan it’s the slow motion non-verbal distress sequences. Beyond the top two performances there’s great depth and debate here. I’m not even married to picks 3-5 below and think I could put Forrest Gump or Apollo 13 in there.
stylistic innovations/traits: 17 films in the archives (same as Denzel) with five Academy Award noms (zero since 2000 but Captain Phillips with his performance at the end—come on!) and two wins (Philadelphia and Forrest Gump in back to back years). Hanks has an undeniable gift for affability- tremendously likeable. He’s challenged himself (Cloud Atlas, Big, Road to Perdition) but can also play the sturdy leading man modern day Jimmy Stewart (without Stewart’s dark edge) in films like Sully, Bridge of Spies, The Post.
directors worked with: Spielberg (4), Zemeckis (2), and then once a piece with Demme, Mendes, Mike Nichols and Eastwood.
Top 5 Performances:
- Philadelphia
- Saving Private Ryan
- Cast Away
- Big
- Captain Phillips
Archiveable films
| 1988- Big |
| 1990- Joe Versus the Volcano |
| 1993- Philadelphia |
| 1993- Sleepless in Seattle |
| 1994- Forrest Gump |
| 1995- Apollo 13 |
| 1998- Saving Private Ryan |
| 1999- The Green Mile |
| 2000- Cast Away |
| 2002- Catch Me If You Can |
| 2002- The Road to Perdition |
| 2007- Charlie Wilson’s War |
| 2012- Cloud Atlas |
| 2013- Captain Phillips |
| 2015- Bridge of Spies |
| 2016- Sully |
| 2017- The Post |
Toy story doesn’t count?
@Azman- with very few exceptions over the years I don’t count voice work.
Would ‘Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ crack your top 5 performance now?
@Z – Thanks for the comment and for visiting the site. No- it wouldn’t and I’d go Apollo 13 next probably.
Shouldn’t a league of their own(1992) be in the archives?
@Janith– seen it multiple times. Enjoy it- but have never felt the need to put it in the archievs. Maybe I should
Loves his performances in Charlie’s Wilson War, Captain Phillips, Bridge of Spies & Sully. Good actor but a bit overrated i think.
Drake ranks him in the right place
I think you are probably underestimating his performance in Forrest Gump.When I think about Tom Hanks it’s that charming performance in Forrest Gump.Saying things like “life is like a box of chocolates you never know what you’re gonna get”,”stupid as stupid does sir”.Pulp Fiction or Shawshank Redemption should have won the oscar for best picture but I have no major beef with Hanks winning the oscar over guys like Travolta.
Maybe. I dont know. Im not a big fan of « retard » performances. I love when the actor is subtle. Hanks rarely is.
It’s his career defining performance just like Nicholson in one flew over the cuckoos nest or Harvey kestrel in bad lieutenant.
@Janith— I’m not so sure about all that- either for Jack or Hanks
It’s funny, my favorite performance of Nicholson is Chinatown (or maybe The Last Detail).
From Keitel, it’s The Duelists or Mean Streets.
What will be his other 3 performances if you do a top 10?
Will it include A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood?
Today is big Tom’s birthday. One of the greatest actors of all time.
What will be his 8th 9th and 10 th best performance if you do a top 10?
I wasn’t always a big Tom Hanks fan but have come to appreciate him over time. I was really impressed by Cast Away as he carries most of the film as a one man show.
Question
A. Do you think Hanks could play an effective villain role?
B. Would you want to see Hanks in a villain role?
@James Trapp- I remember a lot of talk about 2002’s Road to Perdition and it being a villainous role for Hanks. Turned out to be far from it of course. Honestly I’m not dying to see Hanks as a villain. He’s in his mid-60’s. He’s had a great career and has, mostly, leaned into his strengths as an actor and I applaud that. It looks like he’s playing Elvis’ controlling manager in Baz’s Elvis film coming out in 2022. maybe that’ll be a chance for a little more range https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3704428/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_4
I mean, Hanks is just a year older than Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West, but admittedly I think you’re right to mention his age and he doesn’t have much time left to try it, if any.
@Zane- great comparison here with Fonda. Man– that would take Hanks to another level
I don’t know about Hanks. But looks like De Niro is playing the prime antagonist in Killers of the flower Moon at 78! I’m not bothered by this at all. Every performance from De Niro in a Scorsese film is very good including the big 2 of course. I wonder if this will take De Niro to another level.
@Anderson- yeah I didn’t mean Hanks (or any actor) couldn’t do great work in their 60’s and beyond, I just meant he (Hanks) hasn’t really shown that villainous side yet. The Fonda call out was good. De Niro has played the villain many times from The Untouchables to Angel Heart, This Boy’s Life and Cape Fear https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/robert-de-niro-films-villain-list-peter-stormare-gary-oldman-samuel-l-jackson-a9455206.html
It is hard sometimes to categorize a character as a villain or not. Is Travis Bickle a hero or a villain? Is Vito Corleone a criminal or a man who is trying to do the right thing? Are we supposed to hate the things Rupert Pupkin do or supposed to feel pity for him(same for his Mean Streets character)? All this characters De Niro played has one thing in common though they have an edge. I don’t see that in the characters played by Tom Hanks yet. Maybe that’s what you are referring. I have never seen Dicaprio play a pure villain either from what I have seen. Or Pitt.
@Anderson- agreed on it being hard to categorize a character as a villain or not. Half those on the link I sent aren’t villains. Vito isn’t a Villain. Jimmy Conway from Goodfellas? I mean gangster doesn’t mean villain. He’s certainly no villain in Heat. But I picked Cape Fear, Angel Heart, This Boy’s Life, and Cape Fear. Hanks hasn’t hit these notes. DiCaprio was a villain in Django… Pitt attempts it in Kalifornia– not a great film tho.
@Anderson – I thought the same thing reading that from Drake. But there definitely is a difference between a villain shown from the villain’s perspective and a villain shown from the hero’s perspective, which seems to be what he was getting at.
For Pitt, I suppose Fight Club and The Tree of Life, and maybe 12 Monkeys? All three are highly debatable. For DiCaprio there’s Django Unchained and there’s an argument for The Wolf of Wall Street as well.
@Drake-You are right. Hanks usually play the hero or the man trying to do the right thing. I’d like to see him in a villainous role as well. I guess Dicaprio plays a villain in Catch Me if you can too. It may not be his best but it is my favourite Dicaprio role. Hard to hate him in it even though he is the villain.
@Anderson– I personally wouldn’t consider DiCaprio’s role in Catch Me If You Can a villain
Zane is correct in mentioning Fight Club and The Tree of Life for Pitt. Neither film has a character that sits strictly within the villain archetype, but Pitt’s characters are absolutely the antagonists in each if one had to be chosen. One’s perception of those characters really shifts throughout the two movies; Tyler Durden becomes more and more villainous as we discover the truth while Mr. Obrien gradually becomes slightly more sympathetic as we understand his struggles (though he never stops seeming like a really terrible parent).
Also, I think the perception of Fonda as 100% “the good guy” until OuaTitW is not necessarily accurate. His characters may be protagonists, but they are antiheroes much more than they are knights in shining armor. Case in point is The Grapes of Wrath, where Tom Joad at the beginning is a scary former convicted felon who doesn’t really become a hero until the very end of the movie.
@Graham- antihero and villain are very different though. And I think we can all agree that Tom Joad is not a villain…. extremely far from it.
@Drake- Surely Pacino in the godfather part 2 is a villain. I don’t know if he usually plays hero characters but Sean Penn played a villainous role as Pacino’s lawyer in Carlito’s Way. Interesting considering Penn and Hanks are from the same generation.
@Anderson – Sean Penn also did Mystic River, and if you’ve seen Mystic River, you know he’s a fairly villainous character that gets revealed over time.
@Zane-No I haven’t seen Mystic River. I just selected Carlito’s Way to give an example that someone of Hank’s generation played a villain in a great movie. And also imply that Pacino who played a villain in Godfather Part 2 played a hero in Carlito’s Way.
A. Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West, James Stewart in Rope and Vertigo, Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad. If they can do it, so, I think, can Tom Hanks. I see some darkness waiting to burst out in his performance in Road to Perdition (trying to get around to watching that one again) and my understanding is that he plays a villain in Cloud Atlas as well?
B. I once saw Tom Hanks suggested for the role of O’Brien in a 1984 film. After initially dismissing the idea way back then I now think he would do an excellent job in that role and that taking a negative support role would counterbalance his career’s overabundance of positive leads. I’ve also seen him suggested to play Andrew Ryan in a BioShock film or series, and while I’m still leaning towards Mads Mikkelsen or Johnny Depp in that role I’ve become much more amenable to the idea of Hanks as Ryan over time. It benefits any actor to show range in a wide variety of roles and switching between hero and villain roles is really most common method there.
If Hanks did play a villainous role I think it would need to be a surprise villain as opposed to an over the top villain. There’s a good example of this with Harrison Ford when he played a villain in a 2000 film What Lies Beneath with Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Honestly, it wasn’t a great film but the way Ford is revealed to be the villain worked for me as it plays off of Ford’s typical movie persona/reputation (although Coppola’s The Conversation is an exception). There were some clues leading up to the revelation but it’s hard to see them when you’re so used to Ford as the hero. I think it would need to be something similar with Hanks, use his typical persona in a similar way.
@James Trapp- so I think this is a brilliant comment. I’m frankly jealous I didn’t write this.
All of this chatter makes me excited for Hanks in Baz’s Elvis movie.
@Anderson – You forgetting Django Unchained.) DiCaprio was most definitely a villain there. And quite a great one in my opinion.
Also, Brad Pitt played a serial Killer in Kalifornia, apparently. But I haven’t seen it.
Actually I haven’t seen Django Unchained. You maybe right. I haven’t seen Kalifornia starring Brad Pitt too. These villainous roles aren’t that iconic like Jack in The Shining, Pacino in Godfather Part 2, DDL in There Will be Blood/Gangs of New York, Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the lambs, Henry Fonda in Once Upon a time in the west I guess. From the screenshots I thought Jackson was the villain in Django. My Bad.
@Anderson- certainly Samuel L is a villain in Django as well.
@Zane – Wow, Hanks in the 1984 film sounds like a great casting against type. We could easily identify with Winston when he thinks that he sees understanding and kindness in O’Brien.
Hanks demonstrates amazing versatility in That Thing You Do and Saving Mr Banks
Saving Mr. Banks is another Stewart-Like performance for Mr. Hanks.