The Making Of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks (2023)
I admit I never got around to reading actor Tom Hanks's first book "Uncommon Type", a collection of short stories....
Therefore, the discovery that Hanks is as talented and creatively ambitious a novelist as he is an actor.....what can I say....breaking news.
He's poured a lifetime of his movie-making experiences into this book - film students can practically read it as a fresh-from-the trenches tutorial on the nuts and bolts as well as blood, sweat, tears, misery and joy that go into the making of a movie. I seriously doubt if there's even a single solitary detail of the process (both artistic and technical) that he left out.
And also on view is the Hanks public persona as well.......Our Most Beloved Movie Star and America's Everyguy, He gazes upon the miracles and madness of Hollywood with a sense of awe for the art that comes out of such chaos......but he possesses the smarts of a wise, witty satirist casting a deadpan eye on the filmmaking community, once aptly described long ago as "the inmates running the asylum"......
And talk about world-building.......Hanks creates, from the ground up, a deeply rendered array of movie stars, studios, streaming giants, agents, managers, bodyguards, and every major and minor cast member and crew member you can imagine. For many of these characters, Hanks takes the time to go into detailed background histories. (More on that later.)
Even more boldly, the author daringly creates his very own block-busting comic book movie franchise "Agents Of Change".....which allows him to launch his epic account of the the production of the lastest in the series. "Knightshade: The Lathe Of Firefall" (A tormented super woman who can never sleep meets and battles a legendary supernatural World War 2 Marine who wields a flamethrower.)
I'll chalk it up to Tom Hanks enduring optimism and sunny disposition that Bill Johnson, his book's A-List, award winning movie director, takes on the most daunting challenge any filmmaker could attempt.....turning a CGI heavy superhero bash 'em up into a genuine, emotional, audience-grabbing journey. In short, transforming a comic book silliness into a piercing, penetrating look at the human condition, and thereby making it an artistic achievement
Now here comes the bad news......
Just like the messy, up-and-down production of 'Knightshade' that Hanks brings to life with such laborious detail, the book itself suffers from a host of flaws. Primarily, from those previously mentioned, meticulous accounts of every minor characters' backstories. While I appreciate Hanks' dedication to bringing these people fully to life, these overwritten, often unnecessary passages bring the forward momentum of the the story grinding to a dead halt.
By far the most satisfying and brutally humorous chapters involve the actual day-to-day melodrama of the film's production. Bill Johnson must try to realize his vision of these conflicted tortured superhero souls colliding with each other. But his superstar lead actor, a temperamental dope with a bloated ego confounds and aggravates the director at every turn, throwing the entire production into peril. Readers can only imagine which real life actor (or actors) furnished the inspiration for this bloviating douchebag.......
And here's something Hanks may not have imagined while writing this novel...... that the perpetual onslaught of Marvel and DC superhero franchises would start to turn sour...... that some, boring, confusing entries in the genre, top heavy with CGI but little else, would leave audiences yawning, jaded, and just a little tired of watching the spandex crowd hurl each other around like basketballs.
"The Making Of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece" serves up unique guided tour through the 'business of show', with a tour guide whose inside information is virtually encyclopedic. Not quite a masterpiece but filled to the brim with the humor and drama that could only come from a born entertainer and a seasoned movie star who's sure as hell been here, done that. 4 stars (****)
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