Trying to process the sheer number of classic films that Tom Hanks has appeared in is overwhelming. You almost have to break them up into genres, focusing on his Oscar-winning dramatic work, his crowd-pleasing comedies, and the Toy Story franchise, which deserves its own category. Hanks reunites with his Forrest Gump co-star and director, Robin Wright and Robert Zemeckis, for the groundbreaking narrative achievement Here. It’s available in theaters for you to go see right now. And as part of his press tour, Hanks stopped by CinemaBlend’s official ReelBlend podcast to break down the movie, his illustrious career, and the moment from his films that made him burst into tears.
We probably have our own lists of the moments from a Tom Hanks movie that made us sob. Again, I go back to the Toy Story franchise, or the moment he leaves Wilson the volleyball behind in the magnificent Cast Away (also directed by Bob Zemeckis). As we spoke with Hanks himself, though, he brought up a moment from Ron Howard’s film, Apollo 13, that moved him to tears, and we can completely understand why.
We were speaking specifically about the use of film score to enhance the emotions of a scene. The great Alan Silvestri provides the score for Here, and has worked with Hanks and Zemeckis countless times. When talking about score, though, Hanks brought up this moment, telling ReelBlend:
I was on the recording stage for Apollo 13, for James Horner's recording of the ‘Re-entry into Earth’ sequence. And I could only listen to it once. Because you hear the live orchestra, and then you see it playing up on the (screen). I could only hear it once because I burst into tears. It was so powerful, and so heavy. Later on, you see how also his theme for the launch was so filled with majesty and hope and gravitas.
James Horner is another one of our all-time greats, a master composer we lost way too soon when he died in 2015 at the age of 61. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Apollo 13, though his only Oscar win was for Titanic, which he did with James Cameron. Here’s the re-entry piece that he composed, which Hanks mentioned to ReelBlend:
Personally, I found Tom Hanks’ newest movie, Here, to be incredibly moving as it follows the passage of time – and the history of one particular family – over the course of decades. The film breaks ground with its visual presentation of the source material, a graphic novel by Richard McGuire. But it’s the emotional connections made by Hanks and Robin Wright, and some stellar work from Paul Bettany, that really anchored the stories in Here for me. As mentioned, the movie is in theaters now. And we also have a guide to all the upcoming 2024 movies that are still on their way the rest of this year.
