A Celebration of Tom Hanks' Films

A Celebration of the Films of Tom Hanks

By Joe Cotter (Year 13)

 Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. He has earned and been nominated for numerous awards during his career, including winning a Golden Globe for Best Actor and an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Philadelphia and a Golden Globe, an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a People's Choice Award for Best Actor for his role in Forrest Gump, and earning the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film from the BAFTAs in 2004.





My Top 5 Tom Hanks Films 

5. The Terminal

My number 5 is The Terminal. Tom Hanks plays Viktor Navorski from the country Krakozhia, who arrives at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, only to find that his passport is suddenly no longer valid due to the outbreak of a civil war in his homeland. As a result, the United States no longer recognizes Krakozhia as a sovereign nation, and he is not permitted to either enter the country or return home. It is a comedy and Tom Hanks plays the character well as you sympathise him and feel bad for him at not being able to leave the country yet his determination to make it work. You also feel happy for him when he tries to talk to the girl who he is obviously in love with (played by Catherine Zeta Jones)

4. Philadelphia

My number 4 is Philadelphia. Philadelphia is a 1993 American drama film and one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to acknowledge HIV/AIDS, homosexuality, and homophobia. Tom Hanks played Andrew Beckett, who is a senior associate at the largest corporate law firm in Philadelphia. Beckett is not open about his homosexuality at the law firm, and doesn’t let them know that he has AIDS. He performs brilliantly in it and you sympathise the character emphatically when he passed away at the end of the film, and also how Denzel Washington manages to change his homophobic ways makes you believe just how much Tom Hanks character played a part in that.

3. Toy Story (1, 2 and 3)

Toy story 3 is a classic animation films made in the late 90’s and is in my opinion the third best film Tom Hanks has appeared in (although he wasn’t actually in the film, he just voiced a character). Tom Hanks voiced Woody, who along with Buzz Lightyear was the two most known characters in the film. In the first film you sympathise the character as Buzz Lightyear overtakes him as the favourite toy when Andy gets him as a birthday present. In my opinion he voiced the character great and made the character for me.

2. Saving Private Ryan

Number two for me is Saving Private Ryan. Tom Hanks plays Army Rangers Captain John H. Miller and the film is about Tom Hanks and his squad as they try and search for a paratrooper, Private First Class James Francis Ryan, who is the last-surviving brother of four servicemen. It is set in 1944 during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. It was directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. The film is notable for its graphic and realistic portrayal of war, and for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which depict the Omaha Beach assault of June 6, 1944. Tom Hanks plays the character wonderfully and makes you feel as though he truly is a real leader and that you would trust him.

1. Forrest Gump

In my opinion Forrest Gump is Tom Hanks best performance in any given film. The story depicts several decades in the life of Forrest Gump, who Tom Hanks plays, who is 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.
Forrest Gump is straight away recognized as very much uneducated and dumb yet when he saves everyone at Vietnam he makes you believe that you don’t need to be smart to be a hero and he gives everyone hope. You sympathise him when everyone he loves passes away yet he manages to do them all proud and amazes people with his talents (especially in ping pong!)