“Philadelphia” (1993)
These days, a straight actor playing a gay character is seen as being as Oscar-baity as any Holocaust film, let alone playing a gay character with a terminal disease. But 20 years ago, for one of the biggest stars in the world to take on such a role was a brave decision, particularly as the film in question, Jonathan Demme’s “Philadelphia,” was the first Hollywood picture to tackle AIDS, then a decade into the public’s consciousness. And, while the film doesn’t always escape the danger of turning into a well-meaning but obvious Stanley Kramer-style picture, there’s no denying Tom Hanks‘ performance. Undergoing a physical transformation just as impressive as the one in “Cast Away,” seemingly aging decades over a period of months. The character risks coming across as a little saintly, but Hanks undercuts it in one of the best scenes, where he admits how he contracted the disease, and the actor refuses to ever make him a victim. His chemistry with co-star Denzel Washington (who’s equally good) is very strong, so much so that you wonder why they haven’t worked together since. The film hasn’t aged well — the belief shared by virtually every character that AIDS can be contracted like it was the flu was overblown even then — but for the most part Demme keeps it just the right side of sentimental. Hanks won his first Oscar (having been previously nominated for “Big”) and it’s a much more deserving victory than his one the following year for “Forrest Gump.”
“Saving Private Ryan” (1998)
When “Saving Private Ryan” hit theaters in 1998, both critics and audiences applauded director Steven Spielberg’s brutally realistic depiction of World War II. Tom Hanks’ quiet and imperturbable performance in the film as the enigmatic Capt. John H. Miller was the next logical step in his rise to leading man status, but the role contained unexpected textures. While superficially, Hanks was portraying an American everyman and a god-like leader whom his soldiers had built up through varying mythologies, this is actually a dutiful man who is forced to put on a brave face. The character is exhausted, frustrated and resentful of his mission — risking his men’s lives for some random soldier he does not know. Expressing more through weary eyes than dialogue, there’s an almost anesthetized look that washes over his face every time a new obstacle arises. In one of the film’s more moving moments, Private Ryan (Matt Damon) has just shared the memory of his last night with his brothers before leaving for war and asks Capt. Miller to tell him about his wife and her rose bushes back home. He replies simply, “No. No, that one I save just for me.” We get the sense that he has been transported back home for just a brief moment, a temporary escape from the insanity that surrounds him. In ‘Private Ryan,’ Hanks is both the most callused of the men and also the most vulnerable, and in the depths of war, his truly heroic moment is urging his men to hold onto a sense of dignity and decency amidst it all. It’s no surprise that the film notched Hanks his fourth Best Actor nomination, but more importantly, it solidified his rising status as an actor who could relate some of America’s most troubled history with an approachable complexity that resonated to the core of moviegoers around the world.
