Every Tom Hanks character in a Steven Spielberg movie, ranked from worst to best
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Like most filmmakers, Steven Spielberg has a few regular collaborators he trusts enough to hire again and again. The work of cinematographer Janusz Kamiński, composer John Williams and editor Michael Kahn can be seen throughout Spielberg’s filmography. There are also some recurring actors who have appeared in a handful of Spielberg films, including Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, Tom Cruise, and of course the great Tom Hanks.
Spielberg first worked with the latter in the World War II epic Saving Private Ryanfor which Hanks received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and subsequently reunited with him for four more films: catch me if you can, The Terminal, Bridge of Spiesi the mail. These collaborations have given Hanks some of his most memorable roles, such as Captain Miller and James B. Donovan, and some of his most forgettable, such as Viktor Navorski.
5 Viktor Navorski (The Terminal)
The Terminal is one of Spielberg’s best films, but it’s also one of his least beloved works. It wasn’t necessarily panned by critics upon release, but it wasn’t particularly well received either, and hasn’t been revered as a cult classic in the years since. The film has a novel premise that allows for a good balance of comedy and drama. Due to political strife in his home country, an Eastern European man is stranded in a terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. But after that premise is established, it settles into stale rom-com clichés.
Viktor Navorski can’t go home and has been denied entry to the United States, so he’s stuck at the airport, sleeping on lounge seats and brushing his teeth in the lounge sink men Navorski is one of Hanks’ most likable characters, and that’s saying a lot, because he’s one of Hollywood’s most likable actors and rarely plays a bad character, but his sweet, schmaltzy schtick gets old after a while.
4 Ben Bradlee (The Post)
Filmed while extensive visual effects were being applied Ready player 1, the mail is essentially Spielberg’s answer All the President’s Men. the mail tells the true story of the Washington Post reporters who released the Pentagon Papers, a collection of classified documents describing the US government’s controversial involvement in the Vietnam War. The film is a love letter to a free press that came at a time when its integrity was being questioned and one was desperately needed.
In the role of Ben Bradlee, Hanks is well matched with Meryl Streep as his partner in political exposition, Katharine Graham. Hanks is his usual self, but while Spielberg’s other collaborations with the actor are character driven, the historical events and timely themes overshadow the individual characters. the mail.
3 FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (Catch Me If You Can)
Based on very conflicting true events, catch me if you can is one of Spielberg’s funniest films. The story may not be entirely accurate (it is, after all, based on the accounts of a man who made a career out of lying), but it’s still a very entertaining game of cat and mouse about the search for the famous swindler Frank Abagnale. , Jr. Abagnale is much more likable than Leonardo DiCaprio’s other duplicitous role, Jordan Belfort The Wolf of Wall Street. Belfort swindled honest, working-class people out of their money, but Abagnale swindled banks and airlines.
Hanks provides hilarious counterpoint as the teddy-shirted FBI agent on his tail. Agent Carl Hanratty constantly has egg on his face as the con man stays one step ahead of him. The longer Abagnale remains at large, the more exasperated comic Hanratty becomes.
2 Captain Miller (Saving Private Ryan)
Hanks’ first collaboration with Spielberg was the World War II masterpiece Saving Private Ryan. It’s easy to see why they got back together, because it ended up being one of the biggest hits of both their careers. Hanks’ leading man, Captain Miller, provided the perfect counterpoint to the glorified war heroes played by John Wayne.
Miller is not a fearless warrior; he’s just a mild-mannered schoolteacher who was recruited and sent to fight overseas. When he is introduced on the way to the beaches of Normandy, he trembles with terror. At the end of the film, Miller achieves the most heartbreaking death scene in Hanks’ filmography. He is poetically killed by a Nazi whose life he saved earlier in the film. With his dying breath, Miller tells Ryan to earn the sacrifice his fellow soldiers have made to save him.
1 James B. Donovan (Bridge of Spies)
Hanks starred in Spielberg’s Cold War thriller Bridge of Spies as James B. Donovan, the American lawyer assigned to defend the captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in court. Donovan’s bosses expect him to get on the phone, but he stays true to the law and gives Abel the best legal defense he can. He is forbidden to take on the client – his family is under siege and his house is attacked – but he still remains committed to taking Abel home to his wife.
Throughout the film, the lawyer develops an unlikely friendship with the spy. Donovan and Abel share a heartfelt goodbye in the prisoner exchange sequence, before Donovan returns to the United States a changed man. This film is a testament to the principle that everyone has the right to a fair trial.
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