Customer Reviews

The Tom Hanks Enigma: The Biography of the World's Most Intriguing Movie Star

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tom Hanks is well known, famous even, for the wide variety of film roles he has played from Forrest Gump, to astronauts, to Army Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan. Yet in spite of the large number of movies he has made, he remains a quiet and generally unknown person. He has managed to escape the wild publicity swings, multiple divorces, and generally outrageous behavior often found in Hollywood characters.

This book, by British author David Bardner tells the story of Tom Hank's life, the history of his films and of his family. It is written neither to glorify nor condemn, but seems to strike a fair balance of objective reporting.

It brings out how hard Tom Hanks had to work to hone his craft. His casual screen style is no accident but the result of a lot of hard work, and a wise selection of roles and directors. All in all, you are convinced that Tom Hanks is a really nice guy.

It was obvious the author did not interview Tom Hanks, but he interviewed many people who knew him at various stages of Hanks' life AND quoted Hanks from many of Hanks' interviews. It felt like a balanced biography, and I found it very interesting.

Hanks has an interesting life story but it is poorly told in this book (hardcover in 2000, updated for paperback in 2007), which relies on a lot of magazine articles and a few interviews with very old people who haven't known him for years. Too much time is spent on insignificant early-life stories from the few people the author interviewed (such as a lot of wasted pages about his time in theater in Ohio), while almost nothing is stated about the man's first marriage and even what is said makes little sense (the writer calls the woman Hanks "wife" even though they didn't get married until a couple years after having Colin).

Some of the more recent material is stuff you've read before, just skimming the surface. Then the author throws in asides, like a chapter on Meg Ryan and her background! What's that doing in there?

This needs some serious editing and much better writing. The author acts like a fan who pasted together pages from different articles he read about the star (Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, etc.). There are no footnotes in the hardcover version I read and you don't always know when the writer is quoting from someone he interviewed or just taking something from a story he read.

Hanks did have an unusual childhood and then suddenly got famous. There were many things I hadn't known about before (Tom was an evangelical Christian in high school, then got a woman pregnant at 20), but most were in public circulation that the author just pulled together. If it's the only Hanks bio out there, then it's probably worth skimming to hear some of his father's words (that the author got from the dad's autobiography manuscript), but be prepared to wade through clunky and directionless writing to get to the good stuff.

This is an updated "David Gardner Book" (see others on the amazon-list) about actor Tom Hanks which provides you with most important things to learn something about Tom Hanks' life. Easy-to-read style, in-depth research and even latest entries are accurate. The only "minor" thing which may disappoint some readers and fans is the fact of getting only a small number of black and white pictures in the book (therefore only 4 stars).
Nevertheless, strongly recommended.