Top 5 Thursday: Tom Hanks Performaces

You might already know that Tom Hanks is my favourite actor. He can practically do anything. He amazes me every time and many of his films belong in my all-time favourites list. And sometimes it’s Tom Hanks we have to thank, because his performance was so awesome. Here are the five best performances by Tom Hanks, according to me.

5. Captain Miller in “Saving Private Ryan”

Tom Hanks is fantastic here as a normal man who has found himself in an abnormal situation. Whatever I did, I just couldn’t ignore this performance for this list.

 

4. Josh in “Big”

This movie changed everything for Tom Hanks. Robert De Niro and Harisson Ford turned down the role, but it was Hanks’ escape plan from the silly comedies. He found the human heart to make it work, when he became a thirteen year old boy in an adult man’s body.

 

3. Chuck Noland in “Cast Away”

Only Tom Hanks can make us care about a volleyball. It’s technically just him and a volleyball that keep our attention the entire runtime. You have to be a master to achieve that.

 

2. Captain Richard Phillips in “Captain Phillips”

I don’t think I would have bought this DVD if Tom Hanks wasn’t in it. It’s as a minute study in physical and emotional collapse that the performance is so compelling. Hanks was never this defenceless on screen and that stunning final scene really hit every nerve in my body. Some of the best minutes of his movie career.

 

1. Forrest Gump in “Forrest Gump”

This still hasn’t been topped by Hanks. It earned him his second Academy Award and it was well deserved. Hanks had the difficult task of playing a man with what can best be described as significantly mentally impaired without turning him into a negative stereotype.

 

They Almost Made the Top 5: Jim Lovell in “Apollo 13”, Jimmy Dugan in “A League of Their Own”, Andrew Beckett in “Philadelphia”