A Hologram For The King, directed by Tom Tykwer, is due for release on both Blu-ray and DVD come the 19th September 2016 from Icon Film Distribution. Based on the novel by Dave Eggers, Tom Hanks plays Alan Clay, a man who has lost everything now finding himself desperate and directionless within a strange and foreign land, searching for a way to get his life back together. Below is a Tom Hanks retrospective which takes a detailed look at some of his best roles to date.
Big
Directed by Penny Marshall back in 1988, a twelve year old boy comes across the fortune-telling Zoltar machine, wishes that he was “Big” and awakens the following morning to discover that he has become an full grown adult. Thrown into this new world rapidly and with the attitude of a pre-teen, his outlook on life nets him a job in at the MacMillan Toy Company where impresses the vice-president of the company, charms a fellow employee and also he also begins to forget what’s important, his friends and family back home.
Saving Private Ryan
Tom Hanks plays Captain John H. Miller who after successfully surviving the brutal storming of Omaha Beach is charged with retrieving Private Ryan, the last remaining son of the Ryan family. We follow Capt. Miller and his men as they make their way across Normandy (France) in search of Pvt. Ryan, witnessing the devastation that war has left upon the country and the people within. Directed by Steven Spielberg in 1998, Saving Private Ryan won five of the eleven Academy Awards it was nominated for.
Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3
Looking at both Pixar/Disney’s greatest creations, Tom Hanks as Woody the Cowboy shines as one of their greatest characters. Seeing both him and the rest of the toys evolve across the past twenty years has been fantastic piece cinema history. Watching their run in’s with sadistic Sid and his monstrous toy creations, Stinky Pete and the final furnace scene, Toy Story 1, 2 & 3 has been an excellent series of films.
Forrest Gump
Robert Zemeckis directed Tom Hanks in the 1994 comedy-drama based upon the novel by Winston Groom. We follow Forrest Gump, the kind-hearted, though not overly bright, man who as the film progresses we discover was at a number of key points in America’s modern history. To this day you will still hear people uttering, “Life is like a box of chocolates.” or yelling, “RUN FORREST! RUN!” to a friend running down the street.
Captain Phillips
Based upon true events, namely the Maersk Alabama hijacking in 2009, in which merchant mariner (Captain Richard Phillips) was taken hostage by pirates in the Indian Ocean. In this tense thriller Tom Hanks plays Capt. Phillips whose vessel, the MV Maersk Alabama, is boarded by Abduwali Muse (played by Oscar nominated Barkhad Abdi) and his gang of vicious pirates. This 2013 film directed by Paul Greengrass sees kidnapping, Navy Seals and drug withdrawing pirates baying for blood.
Cast Away
Have you ever cried at a volleyball? Anybody that has seen the 2000 Robert Zemeciks film Cast Away has. Here Tom Hanks plays Chuck Noland a Fedex employee that becomes stranded on a South Pacific Island with only the wreckage of his delivery plane to keep him alive. The survival drama is not only life-affirming but heart-breaking too and to watch Cast Away is a real joy.
SEE ALSO: You can order A Hologram for the King via Amazon UK or Amazon US
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Originally published September 6, 2016. Updated January 23, 2020.
