He’s America’s Dad, perhaps the rangiest actor of his generation, a stalwart in the industry for darn near 40 years, a two-time Oscar winner (and four-time nominee), and (most importantly) the original American Treasure. He’s Tom Hanks and this week, as he steps into the red cardigan of Mister Rogers, I asked our contributors to make their picks for the best performance of Hanks’s illustrious career and write a few words on their respective choices. With apologies to the lengthy list of great Hanks roles that go unmentioned here, these are our picks. Happy Hanksgiving.
AMY CARTER
Jimmy Dugan, A League of Their Own (1992)
Scrolling through Tom Hanks’s filmography, one is hard-pressed to find many roles in which he is playing a jerk. But when we reach his role as Coach Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own, we need to pause to remember the first 2/3rds-ish of the movie in which Hanks very successfully pulls off playing an uncouth, lazy, insensitive drunk who is just showing up for the paycheck. But, in true Hanks fashion, we get to see the revelation of his heart of gold and willingness to do what it takes to see his players succeed. And we all know who was first there for Betty Spaghetti in her darkest hour: Coach Dugan, our teddy bear with a rough exterior.
SEAN BLANFORD
Michael Sullivan, Road to Perdition (2002)
Trying to answer the question, “what is your favorite Tom Hanks role” is like deciding which of your children is your favorite. In figuring this out, I wanted to highlight one that goes against the typical Tom Hanks type: his role as Michael Sullivan in the 2002 Sam Mendes film Road to Perdition. The film sees Hanks, America’s Dad, playing the father who shoots people in the face for a living. There is so much nuance to this role that he at points gets lost in the shuffle. That is the beauty of this role. He doesn’t have to carry the film with his amazing acting skills to have it be a great movie. He just gets to be a different kind of amazing. The best scenes are those in the quiet of a restaurant, or teaching his son how to drive, just like all good mobster dads should.
MEGAN SPELL
Joe Fox, You’ve Got Mail (1998)
While Tom has obviously established that he can do almost anything, as a devout 90’s romcom fan, this is THE Tom Hanks Performance.
He starts as a passing flirtation, then becomes the enemy, then the inevitable love interest. I may be underselling by choosing to focus on a role where he plays such a human character, but he does it so well. You believe that you could meet this guy in any coffee shop; he is so fully realized to me.
The highest praise I can give is that if I were Meg Ryan and he literally crushed my business of running a quaint bookstore AND was essentially catfishing me, I, too, would still forgive him. That’s the magic of the Hanks.
SHANE BIERLEY
James Donovan, Bridge of Spies (2015)
Tom Hanks has, of course, been in a number of crummy movies. (He’s been acting for almost 40 years now, after all). But let the record show: Tom Hanks has not once himself been crummy in a movie. And that is precisely why I have chosen his best performance as 2015’s Bridge of Spies. As far as Cold War tension movies, and Spielberg films, it’s… fine. Well done, sure, but a tad forgettable. But it is Hanks’s performance as James Donovan, an everyman insurance lawyer called to step-up and do the right thing, no matter how unpopular, that makes this movie required viewing.
His resolve to fight for international civility and decency in a time when both were hard to come by is rewarding and no one else but Hanks could have pulled that role off. If not for his warm smile, kind eyes, and reassuring voice, his character would have come off as trite and jejune. And that’s why you always cast Tom Hanks: he makes your movie better.
ELLEN TOUDOUZE
Carl Hanratty, Catch Me If You Can (2002)
The accent: too much? Probably. Still great Hanks? For sure.
Throughout CMIYC, Hanks conveys a level of authenticity and heart while still being a forcible antagonist to Leo’s plucky conman.
One of my favorite Spielberg movies, Catch Me If You Can is a perfect storm of directing, cast (main and supporting), script, score, and editing. It is so well paced, and of the many 2hr+ movies we’ve all sat through, this one feels less tedious and more enjoyable.
As the tone shifts from playful to dramatic, Hanks’s performance keeps up perfectly. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is between our two leads as Abagnale and Hanratty come face to face in a hotel room only to have Abagnale slip through Hanratty’s fingertips as he hands him his phony wallet. The tension and comedy in those few moments is executed so well by Hanks that the audience feels the disappointment and urgency as he realizes that he almost had him.
Cut to what I would consider to be the emotional climax of the movie, this small moment on the plane that changes Abagnale’s life forever. Hanratty tells Abagnale that his father has died and sits next to him as he falls apart. This is Hanks at his finest. He’s not overly dramatic, in fact his delivery of the line is quite pragmatic until you see the weight of the moment catch up to him and he quickly shifts to empathy and concern.
In less capable hands, Hanratty could have been just a fool stumbling after Abagnale until he finally gets lucky. Like many of his characters, Hanks has a way of making him a man of nuance and depth...even with a ridiculous accent.
BRIAN GILL
Captain Miller, Saving Private Ryan (1998)
I love pretty much every version of On-Screen Hanks, whether it’s Pure Fun Hanks (Big), Vulnerable Hanks (Sleepless in Seattle), Grumpy Hanks (A League of Their Own), or anywhere in between. But perhaps my favorite Hanks is Reserved Hanks and no role puts this Hanks iteration on display better than Captain Miller. It’s not just the quiet resolve and determination of the character, it’s the juxtaposition of that character and those traits against the loud, explosive, horrifying chaos that occupies nearly every frame of Saving Private Ryan. You see Hanks’s quality in the little things; a facial flinch here and there, the matter-of-fact way he takes off his equipment when he and his crew are forced to storm a machine gun turret, a small smile when talking to Upham just before sleeping, and a dozen other tiny, easily overlooked touches that Hanks does so well and Spielberg knows to highlight with framing or a lingering camera. Miller isn’t a super soldier, he’s just a dude who shouldn’t be forced into the role he’s been forced into but now that he’s here, by God, he’s going to do his job to the best of his ability because that’s what he does. I love that. I love the way the character is presented, and I love the way Hanks brings him to live on screen. And to cap it off with one of the most gripping, gut-wrenching scenes of Hanks’s career, uttering, “Earn this” with his literal last breath, is a perfect close to one of our greatest actor’s greatest performance.
