Tom Hanks

Today the History Channel hosted Tom Hanks war movies.
I don't know why this weekend has these movies on T.V.?
I recently saw his new movie "The News of the World".
Kinda slow but good.
"Saving Private Ryan" was extremely violent in the beginning and I had my head in my lap while watching it.
Too real for me!

The only two TH movies I own are "Forrest Gump" and "That Thing You Do".
I would like to see more movies by TH like these.

'Nuff said!

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Saving Private Ryan was a good movie, overall. I love the intro in current day and then enters into ‘flash back’ for essentially the entire movie. You almost forget by the end of the movie and it returns to the cemetery that it has all been a replay in his mind of the people who gave their lives to save his.

And I will say, watching it in a theatre when it was first released was even WAY more intense than when I watched it at home on DVD a year or so later. I realized about 20 minutes into the movie while in the theatre that I was clutching my armrests so hard they were, seemingly, almost deformed by my grip. It was ‘unsettling’, which is, what I believe, the movie’s producers wanted the audience to feel. War is hell after all, not that it really can truly be reproduced that way. But, to a lay person like me, I almost felt like I was on that troop transport ship about to hit that beach!

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
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I recently watched Greyhound on AppleTV+ (1 free year, since I recently replaced my 6 yr old iPhone).

Really good, hopefully some day it'll get more widely available. Seemed like a pretty realistic depiction of a destroyer escorting troop & supply ships across the Atlantic - he plays the captain, of course. It takes place mostly during the cross of the black pit, where there was no air support due to the distance from shore, which U-Boats took advantage of.

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Paul
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For that reason, that movie really should be viewed in a theater, with an audience. The most memorable point in that scene, to me, was when the sound went silent, representing his temporary deafness due to a nearby explosion. I was in a full theater, and the entire audience was absolutely dead quiet. And I mean dead quiet - like I've never heard in a theater before; everyone was simply too stunned to make a sound.

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IIRC, Tom is either one of the founders or is very involved with the WWII museum in NOLA. Next time I have a job down there I’ve got to visit it. Has anyone been there?

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Greyhound was an excellent movie. Some of the action scenes fit what an uncle of mine talked about on the Destroyer Escort he served on in WW2. In the Greenland Gap they could sometimes go 3 days with little sleep.

I think Greyhound is the ONLY submarine warfare movie I haven’t seen yet. I need to find a way to see it without paying for Apple TV.

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Never trust an atom. They make up everything.

4 out of 3 people struggle with math.

Chemically, alcohol IS a solution.

NAR# 94042
SAM# 0078

Tom Hanks is one of the premier actors of my generation (he's a year younger than me). Interesting to watch his progression from movies like 'Splash' and 'Big' to his premier rolls such as 'Saving Private Ryan', 'Castaway', and 'Apollo 13'. I suppose there might be a stinker or two in his resume, but if there are, I've not seen them.
Greyhound is definitely worth the watch - I found some of the CGI annoying but that's been true of many otherwise good movies of late. I also hope it makes it's way to other sources or formats (I don't get Apple TV either - watched it while visiting a relative).
I'm a bit of a war movie enthusiast (especially WW II - my dad fought the Japanese in the Army Infantry in the South Pacific), and 'Private Ryan' is one of the best war flicks ever. I had a college buddy who shared my interest in WW II movies - his dad had fought the Nazi's in Europe - sadly my buddy passed away about 12 years ago. Anyway, we compared notes about 'Private Ryan' - what they got right, what they got wrong (or at least exaggerated). Ironically the one scene we both complained about being simply unrealistic was the scene where the glider pilot is complaining that they'd added a ton of armor plate to the glider without telling him which caused him to crash killing several on-board. We simply thought it was silly - no one would be that dumb. Turns out that scene was based on a real event

That portion was very effective, you are right. You could almost 'feel' his shell-shocked (well, no pun intended) psyche, almost as if the deafness was maybe not just completely physical, but possibly partly psychological, like when one has been hit with a greatly negative emotion (like the loss of a loved one or the instance of facing a true life-or-death situation, etc.), the brain sometimes tends to partially 'check-out' in attempt to block out what is truly happening.

And speaking of audience reaction -- in this case a completely different Tom Hanks movie -- and that was spontaneous clapping and cheering when the radio signal came back from Apollo 13 during re-entry and the chutes began to unfurl at the end of the Apollo 13 movie. Granted that has now been 25 years ago, but at that time watching it in the theater when it was first released (may have been opening night even), I had not heard a theater audience clap during a movie in a long, long, long time. But there they were, the ENTIRE theater clapping as Houston says "Odyssey, we show you on the mains...it really looks good!". Funny thing, EVERYONE in the theater knew in advance the guys make it back safely. But at that moment in time, it was as if the entire audience had NO idea how it was going to end and were truly, truly happy the re-entry was successful. It was a moving moment.

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

What, no "APOLLO 13" ?

Dave f.