Today, we’re counting down the top 30 Tom Hanks movies. You could argue there’s a cohesive Hanks concept: the actor is many things because he’s always Tom Hanks. As a consequence, he’s sometimes accused of portraying a specific individual: the all-American Everyman, who is inherently kind, good-hearted, and honorable but modest.
Of course, there was some reality to this: regardless of how hard Tom Hanks attempted, he couldn’t play Travis Bickle. But that isn’t fair to characterize Hanks as a figure who repeats himself, and it’s not fair to suggest he doesn’t try new things or take risks.
As just a tiny pull-string cowboy called Woody, he’d voice among the most popular cartoon characters ever created. In addition, he’d created, produced, and appeared in two films. In his 49 leading roles to the present, he’s gone to space, battled pirates, and endured a desolate island, all while embracing America’s father.
30. Sully(2016)
- Director: Clint Eastwood
- Writer: Todd Komarnicki
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Valerie Mahaffey
- IMDb Rating: 7.4
- Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
- Streaming platforms: Spectrum TV, Watch TBS, Watch TNT, truTV, ROW8, Prime Video, Apple TV, VUDU, Vudu Movie & TV Store
In this Tom Hanks Movie, he plays in this genuine dramedy about the courageous commercial pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III, who touched down his defective US Airways Plane 1549 on New York’s River and rescued all 155 people aboard, just to face an inquiry from the repulsive pen-pushers and enterprise bean-counters afterward. Hanks plays a decent character, but that doesn’t quite bring it to life.
Sully, an unmistakably heroic narrative featuring one of the globe’s most likable movie performers, might easily be seen as Eastwood’s proactive professional play following the issues surrounding American Sniper’s factual revisionist history.
29. Da Vinci Code(2006)
- Director: Ron Howard
- Writer: Dan Brown
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Ian McKellen
- IMDb Rating: 6.6
- Rotten Tomatoes: 25%
- Streaming platforms: Netflix, Prime Video, and Just Watch.
In these clumsy versions of Dan Brown’s best-selling novels, Hanks plays the charming Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who decodes esoteric messages in Classical art about Jesus.
The version of Dan Brown’s bestselling novel by Tom Hanks and Ron Howard is unimaginative and by-the-numbers, but it’s competently designed in a mainly unthreatening manner. Nevertheless, these are two motivated and talented individuals, and it seems a shame to put them through the challenges of hacking.
28. Road to Perdition(2002)
- Director: Sam Mendes
- Writer: David Self
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh
- IMDb Rating: 7.7
- Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
- Streaming platforms: Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+
Hanks is cast in a deeper character that is memorable, even though it does not fit his talents. He portrays a mafia mobster in 1930s Chicago who, with his young kid in tow, is on a mission to find the men who murdered the majority of his relatives. On his resume, he has an elevated eccentricity.
The beautifully groomed set architecture and exquisite Conrad Hall shooting strangle filmmaker Sam Mendes’ historical crime picture, leaving the performers with little breathing room. As a consequence, we get an interesting whiplash of a portrayal from Tom Hanks, but not one that is especially outstanding or even informative.
27. Splash(1984)
- Director: Ron Howard
- Writer: Lowell Ganz, Bruce Jay Friedman
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, Eugene Levy, John Candy
- IMDb Rating: 6.3
- Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
- Streaming platforms: Amazon Prime, Hulu, Vudu
Ron Howard’s quiet directing and delightful portrayals from Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah keep this flawlessly light, warmly humorous romantic comedy intact.
A fantastic early part for the youthful and unthreateningly mousy Hanks, who was judged inadequate like a protagonist by some analysts at the moment. He’s the lonely person who falls in love with the mermaid who rescues him from being drowned and then travels to Manhattan to get soaked and disclose her actual nature in his jacuzzi – despite the film’s deft handling of the smut factor.
Darryl Hannah is fantastic in this. Like the dude who is also the man-next-door, Hanks won the hearts of audiences for the first time in this picture.
26. The Burbs(1989)
- Director: Joe Dante
- Writer: Dana Olsen
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher, Corey Feldman
- IMDb Rating: 6.8
- Rotten Tomatoes: 53%
- Streaming platforms: Netflix, VUDU, Prime Videos, and Hulu
Is he a curious gentrifier who is preoccupied with his neighbors’ alleged shady dealings? That’s the part where Hanks shines the brightest. It might have worked much better if he had been the straight-laced nice person whose harmless activities were misunderstood.
A “gloomy” sitcom about a lonely suburban father who starts to suspect his neighbors are killers. There is a lot to be explored here, but Hanks and star director Joe Dante — who will go on to do a lot better work in this genre in subsequent films — go much too wide, way too frequently.
By the end of the film, it has devolved into absurdity. In 1989, Tom Hanks starred in the film This and That Dog… and then made a sensible decision to choose a completely another path.
25. You’ve got a mail(1998)
- Director: Nora Ephron
- Writer: Nora Ephron, Delia Ephron
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Parker Posey
- IMDb Rating: 6.7
- Rotten Tomatoes: 69%
- Streaming platforms: Netflix, Prime Videos, Peacock, HBO Max, and Hulu Plus
In 1998, co-stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan returned to the romantic comedy well, although with less success. This time, Hanks ends up portraying the loving hero with just a little more grit — he’s huge bookstore multinational CEO aiming to close down cute Meg Ryan’s tiny local bookshop — even though he’s mushy in the heart and easily acceptable to the older white viewers that devoured this.
24. Toy Story /Toy Story 2/ Toy Story 3/ Toy Story 4
- Director: John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Joe Ranft
- Writer: Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele
- IMDb Rating: 8
- Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
- Streaming platforms: Hotstar and Amazon Prime
For his amazing vocal performance as Woody in Pixar’s magnificent illustrated Toy Story of Walt Disney flicks, Hanks’ spirit is captured. He represents Andy’s favorite toy, a squeeze cowboy, who is now in fear of being displaced in his feelings by astronomer Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), much as Hollywood movies were replaced in America’s affections by space-inspired sci-fi in particular.
23. Charlie Wilson’s War(2007)
- Director: Mike Nichols
- Writer: Aaron Sorkin
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
- IMDb Rating: 7
- Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
- Streaming platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Vudu.
The fact that we first encounter congressional congressman Charlie Wilson relaxing in a Vegas hot bath, beguiling topless showgirls whilst maintaining one eye on the news, reveals that he treats his politics professionally yet has a good time. And that’s how a rich Texas philanthropist, as well as a mercurial C.I.A. operator, sell a secret war against the Communists in Afghanistan in the 1980s to this Beltway rascal.
Greatest of all, it’s the kind of cunning, somewhat antagonistic part that Hanks excels at. Wilson is a mix of a party animal and a foreign affairs power figure. The amorous interplay with both him and Roberts is top-notch, and his hilarious chemistry with Hoffman makes you wish they’d made their respective Hope/Crosby Road films.
He understands how to bring Sorkin’s words to life. When things turn severe, Hanks shows Wilson realizing that the eventual outcome might not have been all enjoyable after all. It may be his most underappreciated performance.
22.Ladykillers(2004)
- Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
- Writer: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans, J. K. Simmons
- IMDb Rating: 6.2
- Rotten Tomatoes: 54%
- Streaming platform: Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar
That’s not Hanks’ mistake that his one Coen Brothers picture is one of their greatest contentious and loathed – it’s quite wide, even among the Coens, and it only has one humor — but it’s not his fault.
Hanks’ Goldthwaite Higginson Dorr — the character’s title is as nuanced as his name — is goofy, ridiculous, and far over the line, but he enjoys portraying him. Hanks’ earnestness wasn’t ever considered to be a fantastic match for the Coens, but he gives it his all in a silly, willing-to-try-anything performance. The underlying issue here seems to be that Hanks delivers his A-game to the Coens during a moment of adjustment when they weren’t certain what their next move would be.
21. The Great Buck Howard(2008)
- Director: Sean McGinly
- Writer: Sean McGinly
- Cast: Ricky Jay, Griffin Dunne, Steve Zahn, Tom Hanks
- IMDb Rating: 6.4
- Rotten Tomatoes: 71%
- Streaming platform: Amazon Prime Video and Vudu
Hanks appears briefly as a cautious father in this mainly uninteresting bauble about a boy (Colin Hanks) who serves for a probably fake huckster magician (John Malkovich). Hanks portrays the dad of his biological son Colin for perhaps the first occasion in this film, and he’s nice enough just to turn up and just get out of his child’s path.
20.Turner & Hooch(1989)
- Director: Roger Spottiswoode
- Writer: Dennis Shryack, Michael Blodgett, Daniel Petrie, Jr., Jim Cash
- Cast: Tom Hanks
- IMDb Rating: 6.7
- Rotten Tomatoes: 50%
- Streaming platform: Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus+ Hotstar
Turner & Hooch, the buddy cop film with such a dog which, amidst being such a smash, reportedly caused Tom Hanks as Scott Turner to reevaluate his career and make the turnaround that would earn him several Oscars, isn’t all bad. (How about this for a comparison: it’s not as bad as Tango & Cash.) However, approach with a warning: if you weep a lot whenever a dog passes away in a film, you would break down and cry whether you cry whenever a dog dies inside a movie. (Wait, isn’t that a spoiler?)
19.Larry Crowne(2011)
- Director: Tom Hanks
- Writer: Tom Hanks, Nia Vardalos
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston
- IMDb Rating: 6.1
- Rotten Tomatoes: 37%
- Streaming platforms: Netflix, Prime Video, and Vudu
The 2nd film directed by Tom Hanks was a flop: a well-intentioned portrayal of working-class Americans affected by the 2008 financial crisis but came out as arrogant and facile. He portrays Larry, a regular guy who loses his job at Walmart and tries to rebuild himself, infatuated with Julia Roberts’ college professor in the meantime.
Larry Crowne is the kind of film that explains why republicans go on rants about out-of-touch liberal Hollywood celebrities. There may not be a shred of realism in this plot, and Hanks plays an ordinary man like such an alien – he’s never been so awkward and implausible before.
18. News of the World(2020)
- Director: Paul Greengrass
- Writer: Paul Greengrass, Luke Davies
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel
- IMDb Rating: 6.8
- Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
- Streaming platforms: Hulu, Netflix, and Prime Video
It’s incredible to think that all this is Hanks’ initially Western. How could the main character so entrenched in American mythology take so long to produce a Western? Hanks reteams with Captain Phillips filmmaker Paul Greengrass for such a narrative of a Civil War soldier (Hanks) attempting to return a small girl who already has ended up losing everything to the only home he had left while guarding her and himself across increasingly difficult terrain. This is all old terrain for Hanks, but he’s nonetheless terrific as a grizzled, sorrowful man who’s never managed to lose as much of his heart as he may have expected.
17.The Post(2017)
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Writer: Liz Hannah, Josh Singer
- Cast: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk
- IMDb Rating: 7.2
- Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
- Streaming platforms: Netflix, Prime Video, and Sony Liv
Hanks is an actor born to work with Steven Spielberg; in many ways, he is the actorly embodiment of what Spielberg is as a director, and he gives a richly entertaining and watchable performance as the renowned Washington Post editor and liberal lion Ben Bradlee, sparring amiably with his boss Kay Graham (Streep) as they chase the Pentagon Papers scoop in 1971, which paved the way for the paper’s Watergate investigation. In this role, Hanks delivers pure Jimmy Stewart decency straight into your veins.
16. The Bonfire of the Vanities(1990)
- Director: Brian De Palma
- Writer: Michael Cristofer
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Morgan Freeman
- IMDb Rating: 5.6
- Rotten Tomatoes: 16%
- Streaming platform: Amazon Prime Video and Vudu
In 1992, Hanks remarked of the Brian De Palma disaster, “I did all I could to ensure that it works.” “And the result was that it caused you to think for a while.” You have doubts about yourself. But what are your options? You slide away after taking your shots.” Yes, this version of Tom Wolfe’s Zeitgeist-y book was a flop, but it is a fascinating flop in many ways, not least because it features Tom Hanks as that of the narrative’s Master-of-the-Universe Wall Street operation.
He possesses the All-American looks of the protagonist, but not the corrosive spirit that mortally poisons the entire picture. It’s just one issue with such a high-profile collapse that sparked at least a decent behind-the-scenes account.
15.Nothing in Common(1986)
- Director: Garry Marshall
- Writer: Rick Podell, Michael Preminger
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Jackie Gleason, Eva Marie Saint, Hector Elizondo
- IMDb Rating: 5.9
- Rotten Tomatoes: 54%
- Streaming platform: Amazon prime Video and Vudu
Hanks’s performance is an advertising executive whose life is thrown inside out when his folks split and he has to look for both of his parents. This is an accurate portrayal of several of Hank’s jobs during the period. This is high-concept and boring, and Gleason, notably, roasts it up each time he appears on stage, but it marks the beginning of Hanks’ transition to a more “serious” cinematic character. He’s not especially amusing in the picture, and he’s attempting to play it straight. Nothing in Common is the best vehicle for it, but it was the correct impulse.
14. Extremely Loud and incredibly Close(2011)
- Director: Stephen Daldry
- Writer: Eric Roth
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Horn, Max von Sydow
- IMDb Rating: 6.9
- Rotten Tomatoes: 45%
- Streaming platform: Netflix and Amazon Prime Video
There is a slew of reasons why many despise this 9/11 movie, but it’s difficult to pin it all on Tom Hanks. That’s primarily because he’s only in it for a few minutes, portraying the deceased father of the film’s autistic young protagonist (Thomas Horn), who embarks on a mission throughout the city to answer a puzzle his father left for him. In memories, Hanks is much more than convincing as a father worried about his sensitive kid, however, the Oscar-nominated film’s overt specialness makes it difficult to recognize that authenticity through the forceful pretense.
13.Sleepless in Seattle(1993)
- Director: Nora Ephron
- Writer: Nora Ephron, David S. Ward, Jeff Arch
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Bill Pullman, Ross Malinger
- IMDb Rating: 6.8
- Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
- Streaming platform: Netflix and Amazon Prime Video
We would not hold Tom Hanks in such great respect if he just created a movie such as Sleepless in Seattle. But, c’mon, it’s impossible to dislike him playing Sam, the puppy-dog widower who might fall in love with a paper writer (Meg Ryan) who likes An Affair to Remember. Sleepless in Seattle is the essence of feel-good, wish-fulfillment Hollywood romantic comedies, and Hanks gives it a foundation that it desperately needs, thanks to deceased director Nora Ephron’s fairy dust sparkling allure. He’s kind and charming, like the lovely man next door, with a sincerity and sweetness that makes him crush-worthy.
12.Green Mile(1999)
- Director: Frank Darabont
- Writer: Frank Darabont
- Cast: Tom Hanks, David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, Michael Clarke Duncan
- IMDb Rating: 8.6
- Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
- Streaming platforms: Netflix and Prime Video
The Green Mile is the kind of pompous awards bait that just doesn’t function unless it’s being piloted by someone like Tom Hanks. Even though, he’s limited in his portrayal as Paul Edgecomb, a predictable good-hearted prison officer who encounters Michael Clarke Duncan’s death-row inmate with extraordinary abilities. In that very three-hour-plus (!) Frank Darabont’s production of such a Stephen King-inspired movie, the syrup is rather thick, and happily, Hanks avoided this type of daftness in following years. He’d soon be venturing into stranger and deeper territory.
11. A League of their Own(1992)
- Director: Penny Marshall
- Writer: Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna, Lori Petty
- IMDb Rating: 7.3
- Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
- Streaming platform: Amazon Prime Video
Hanks chooses to play the charming crank in preparation for his character as Jimmy Dugan, the drunken management of a women-only baseball club, a character he didn’t get to perform much after being a great movie star. That’s kind of a blast to see him there snarl at protagonists and be obstinate in A League of Their Own because he’s in a fascinating in-between position in his career — he’s recovering from the breakdown of Bonfire of the Vanities, but not just yet toward the phase where he’ll claim victory back-to-back Oscars — and so as a result, it was kind of a blast to see him there growl at protagonists and be utterly obstinate.
Of all, Dugan is a decent guy with a good conscience, and he’s the kind of one-note figure who could have effortlessly devolved into caricature if it was not for Hanks’ charm and tenderness.
10. Bridge of Spies(2015)
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Writer: Matt Charman, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan
- IMDb Rating: 7.6
- Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
- Streaming platforms: Prime Video, Hotstar, and Sony Liv
Hanks’ natural kindness appears in multiple films, but in this underappreciated Cold War drama, it’s conveyed uniquely. Hanks plays Donovan, the insurance lawyer who is hired to represent a Russian spy (Oscar winner Mark Rylance), and discovers that he is the only one who cares about the suspect’s proper trial.
Bridge of Spies is a film about concession and bargaining, about which beliefs we’re prepared to surrender and which we can’t, and Donovan becomes magnificent not because he has a halo, but because he’s savvier and more persistent than everybody else he meets. This is Tom Hanks as a World-Weary Veteran Film Star, and he swaggers with ease.
9.Philadephia(1993)
- Director: Jonathan Demme
- Writer: Ron Nyswaner
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Jason Robards, Mary Steenburgen
- IMDb Rating: 7.7
- Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
- Streaming platform: Sony Liv and Amazon Prime Video
Regardless of everybody’s positive motives in this activist tale — let alone its social relevance — there’s no disputing that Philadelphia isn’t precisely riveting film. The same might be said regarding Hanks’ portrayal of an AIDS-affected lawyer. It’s charming and full of heart, but he runs the risk of portraying Andrew Beckett perhaps too holy, which made perfect sense at an age when homosexuality would be seen as a frightening “other.” Because of Hanks’ obvious personal qualities, he was able to challenge discrimination, and the portrayal has remained very relevant.
Andrew, on the other hand, is more of a signal than a good character, a remarkable time-capsule relic whose significance has been partly diluted by the fortunate growth of human understanding regarding sexuality & AIDS.
Hanks won his 1st Academy Award for Best Actor after his portrayal.
8.Cast Away(2000)
- Director: Robert Zemeckis
- Writer: William Broyles Jr.
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Nick Searcy
- IMDb Rating: 7.8
- Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
- Streaming platforms: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Vudu
Robert Zemeckis s film, with Hanks as the FedEx employee who is marooned on a desert island, is taken very seriously by Hanks fans; the initial “crash” scene is certainly a corker, and Hanks is also a likable castaway with his tattered trousers and straggly beard, capering with self-congratulatory delight when he makes fire for the first time. But there is something a bit silly about this; with anyone less seductive than Hanks, it would have sunk.
7.The Terminal(2004)
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Writer: Sacha Gervasi, Jeff Nathanson
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci, Chi McBride
- IMDb Rating: 7.4
- Rotten Tomatoes: 61%
- Streaming platforms: Prime Video, Netflix
Steven Spielberg’s doodle around an upbeat, decent Eastern European visitor who gets trapped in bureaucratic limbo and ends up spending nearly a year there at New York’s JFK Airport in New York might be a little excessively adorable by half, but Tom Hanks nevertheless tends to make your search for him, also when Spielberg is sinking in quirkiness. That being said, this must be the most uninteresting film these two have ever collaborated on.
6. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood(2019)
- Director: Marielle Heller
- Writer: Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Cooper
- IMDb Rating: 7.3
- Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
- Streaming platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Sony Picture Entertainment
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’s main protagonist, Matthew Rhys’s self-hating magazine editor with father issues, is indeed not Mr. Rogers, and the film gains as a result: Mr. Rogers, as depicted by Tom Hanks, is so strange, constant, and peculiar that a narrative centered on him would leave the film with nowhere else to go. But the accompanying shot of Tom Hanks is just right: Hanks may be a touch too huge and contemporary to completely embody Rogers, however, the manner he captures his essence, that calm elegance, is eerie and even poignant.
Hanks’ Mr. Rogers is mysterious, unexplainable, but seductive. When a Mr. Rogers picture was confirmed, Hanks seemed like such an obvious option that the film almost cast himself. But, like the film, his portrayal is more than just great acting: it’s disciplined, well-thought-out, and simply gorgeous.
5. Captain Phillips(2013)
- Director: Paul Greengrass
- Writer: Billy Ray
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi
- IMDb Rating: 7.8
- Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
- Streaming platforms: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix.
Another excellent illustration of Hanks’ regular guys in exceptional situations is his fearful, vulnerable portrayal as the titular Captain Richard Phillips. Phillips, played by Tom Hanks, is a competent captain, but he’s also fallible, and he’s always reacting to situations beyond his authority.
He tries everything he can to simply survive, but when the experience is finally done and he is free to reflect, he disintegrates in the most honest, heartbreaking sequence of Hanks’ whole profession. It’s a deliberate, methodical presentation that develops to a kind of the overpowering point of intensity.
4. Apollo 13(1995)
- Director: Ron Howard
- Writer: William Broyles Jr., Al Reinert
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise
- IMDb Rating: 7.7
- Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
- Streaming platforms: Netflix, amazon prime, and Mx Player
If you’ve not watched this Best Picture candidate in a while, all you remember is maybe Tom Hanks’ Jim Lovell exclaiming, “Houston, we do have a dilemma.” If you view Apollo 13, you’ll notice that Hanks foregoes the blink of his latest Oscar-winning performances in favor of a no-nonsense performance as an operation commanding officer who is obligated and committed to keeping his squad (Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon) concentrated as they and Mission Control try figuring out how to get one‘s hobbled vessel home. It’s easy to dismiss Hanks’ portrayal, yet he instills it with an eternally thrilling, stripped-down power. He makes it seem Herculean not to lose your shit in the face of a problem.
3. Catch me if you Can(2002)
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Writer: Jeff Nathanson
- Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen
- IMDb Rating: 8.1
- Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
- Streaming platforms: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Vudu.
In this documentary on experienced con artist Frank Abagnale, you might claim that Tom Hanks’ portrayal is only the third greatest fascinating. (The part of Abagnale is played by rising star Leonardo DiCaprio, while Christopher Walken, who plays his hard-luck dad, received an Oscar nomination.) Hanks, on the other hand, delivers superb supplementary work as a geeky FBI agent on Abagnale’s trail, effectively playing the type of mediocrity square who scares the unsettled, deracinated Abagnale.
The most amusing aspect of Catch Me If You Can is how it signaled a permanent transition in Hanks’ character: the brash upstart from Dragnet had become old enough (and famous enough) to play the just-the-facts-ma’am cop. Still, Hanks glints his eye. He’s so darn lovable, even as a geek.
2. Saving Private Ryan(1998)
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Writer: Robert Rodat
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore
- IMDb Rating: 8.6
- Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
- Streaming platforms: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video
Captain Miller’s hands are trembling as he places his canteen to his mouth before embarking on the D-day invasion of Normandy. He’s terrified, as one can be in that position. Saving Private James Ryan’s awesomeness can be defined in various ways — the horrifying excellence of its introductory action sequence, the breathtaking underexposed images of world war ii delivered by filmmaker Janusz Kaminski — but at its core, it’s a very compelling story, and that is why the director struck Hollywood’s most dependable and believable everyman celebrity in the position.
Hanks is as bare as the desert, thinking that saving Private Ryan would be enough to bring him home and overlook the horrific murders. Hanks pays respect to a lot of decent troops who went out to preserve liberty and have never seen America again in the last scenes of the movie, and his loss bothers you much after the movie is gone.
1. Forrest Gump(1994)
- Director: Robert Zemeckis
- Writer: Eric Roth
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson
- IMDb Rating: 8.8
- Rotten Tomatoes: 70%
- Streaming platforms: Netflix, Prime Video, Vudu, Just Watch.
The list of memorable quotes in this Best Film winner — “Run, Forrest, Run,” “Life is like a box of chocolates,” and “Jenny” — increases the chances of limiting the film to a succession of Quotables as basic as the character Hanks portrayed to win his second Oscar.
But the brilliance of his portrayal is in the way it simultaneously satirizes a tumultuous era in American history, even while emphasizing the earnestness and hopes that always have been a symbol of national spirit. Sure, it’s a clichéd idea, but it needed a special performer to turn emotion into anything moving and sincere, and no one was probably more suited for the part than Tom Hanks.
