114 THE RANKING

T. Hanks for the memories.

Chris: When did you first become familiar with the work of Tom Hanks?

Amon: Probably the Toy Story movies.

Chris: This is a litmus test for people’s ages.

John: I’m totally the same. Toy Story was one of the first films I got obsessed with as a kid. Helen: It was either Big or Dragnet for me. By the time Forrest Gump and Philadelphia came out, I was already on the Hanks bandwagon.

Chris: Helen and I are of a similar age. So you guys didn’t get to see Hanks transition. He’s not a comedian, but he is a very funny and outrageously, naturally gifted comedic actor. If you look at his breakthrough roles in the ’80s, they’re all comedies. Bachelor Party, Splash, Big, Turner & Hooch, and then the daddy of them all, as far as I’m concerned: The ’Burbs. He was really, really funny. I remember feeling a little betrayed when he started doing the serious stuff. Helen: Philadelphia, that he won his first Oscar for, is a phenomenal performance.

Chris: I wish he did more comedy. But I revisited a number of those early, funny movies, and turns out they’re not so funny. And I’m going to drop a controversial opinion right here. Big ain’t all that.

Helen: Wow.

John: I agree.

Helen: Look, Big is the most problematic movie ever made. Think about that film for more than ten seconds and it’s grotesque. But there’s a moment at the end which I maintain is the moment that

Tom Hanks, comic actor, became Tom Hanks, global megastar, which is when he looks back over his shoulder just before he transforms back into a kid. He’s got everything he’s learned, and the fact that he’s not ready for any of it, all in his face. He doesn’t say a word. It’s unbelievably good.

Chris: A lot of the stuff he made in the ’80s maybe gets by on the sheer force of his personality and the power of his charisma. But The ’Burbs is tremendous. A pitch-black satire, mixed with broad slapstick comedy, and all sorts of interesting messages about suburbia and suspicion. There’s a bit at the end, where he slides down some steps after being blown up, that is one of the greatest pieces of physical comedic acting I’ve ever seen.

Amon: It’s interesting. When I think of Tom Hanks, the first thing that comes to my mind is just innate decency. If Tom Hanks is in the movie, it’s going to be okay, because he’s the man to follow. Even when he’s playing a hitman, you never believe he’s on the wrong side of things, because it’s Tom Hanks. He’s the ultimate everyman.

Helen: Ding! Sorry, someone said “everyman”.

Amon: And even though he’s played a variation on that person many times, it feels familiar but it never feels the same.

Helen: Decency is a big thing that runs through his films. His real heartland is the reluctant hero, the decent guy in an extraordinary situation.

Chris: Hitchcock would have loved him.

Helen: That’s why Apollo 13 is one of my favourites of his. He’s the sort of person we’d all like to be in those circumstances. Competent, empathetic, decent.

Chris: The shorthand has always been, he’s our generation’s Jimmy Stewart. But there is a darker side to him that could be explored by the right filmmaker. Of course, he played a straight-up hitman in Road To Perdition.

Helen: I love that film, but he’s not a bad guy. He’s just a decent family hitman. Not that he kills families. He’s a family man who is also a hitman.

Chris: It would be hard to root for him if he started going around killing families.

Amon: The scene where he kills Paul Newman’s character, everything is perfect about that scene. I will never get tired of watching that.

Helen: It’s weird that he does play variations on a theme, but he doesn’t feel like he’s stuck in a rut, or pandering to anyone. The big surprise is that it took so long for him and Spielberg to work together. They seem absolutely made for each other.

Chris: They’ve done five movies together.

John: The Terminal, I’ve got a real soft spot for. Bridge Of Spies and The Post are both very handsome, well-made films, but a bit harder to love, perhaps. The Post, I can barely remember what happened in it.

Chris: It’s extraordinarily dull.

Amon: Hey! Watch yourself. I really love Catch Me If You Can. He’s incompetent for large sections, and if you don’t play that right, that wouldn’t work.

Chris: Incompetent is harsh. Apollo 13? He’s a nice astronaut but he’s incompetent. Couldn’t even land on the moon.

John: Saving Private Ryan is the perfect Tom Hanks performance for me. He’s got the humour and the humanity and the stoicism.

Chris: But he gets killed at the end. More incompetence!

Amon: Wow. But if you don’t cast that role right, he gets completely overshadowed by Dicaprio.

Helen: There’s a real kind of generosity to a lot of Tom Hanks’ performances, where he brings out the best in other people.

Chris: This is a man who makes you emotionally invested in a volleyball, for the love of Christ.

Helen: Cast Away is not my favourite Tom Hanks film, but it had to be on my list because there is no film without Tom Hanks. If you cast anyone else, I don’t see it working.

Chris: Here’s another big statement. He should have won more than two Oscars.

John: Don’t say The ’Burbs’.

Chris: Dammit.

Helen: He’s got six nominations. Not nearly enough.

Chris: Agreed. However, might I suggest that Forrest Gump

was not worthy of an Oscar?

Helen: It’s the kind of performance that Oscar loves, but I think it’s what caused them to devalue his later work. I think they’re embarrassed that

Forrest Gump won as many Oscars as it did. And I think Hanks has paid the price. Apollo 13 was completely overlooked.

Chris: He didn’t even get nominated for Captain Phillips.

Amon: That final sequence alone, I don’t understand how you look at that and don’t nominate him.

Chris: He was nominated most recently for A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood. I think it’s seen as a lesser Tom Hanks movie and I don’t necessarily feel that way.

John: It’s one of my favourite Tom Hanks performances. Only he could have played Mr Rogers, and what he does with it is so interesting. It’s not him being a cuddly dad, he’s dealing with morality and ethics and what it means to be a man.

Helen: The minute’s silence in the middle of the film is almost religious when you see it in a cinema.

Chris: When he looks directly at the camera, it’s like Tom Hanks is looking into your soul. Now, is anyone going to bat for

Forrest Gump?

John: Nope. Fuck that film, it’s it’s a reactionary piece of shit.

Helen: It means well, it’s just very blinkered. I admire him in it, but I think we’ve moved on.

Chris: Right, enough squabbling. Let’s vote!