Culture news Tom Hanks is final. It is the worst film of his career and “one of the most mediocre films ever made”
Tom Hanks has not only had one series of masterpieces, he has also had some failures in his career, including this 1990 film.
Every great actor has one or more failures sadly etched in his filmography, even Tom Hanks and his two Oscars, whose list of projects in which he appeared is dizzying, but includes a few failures. The man once spoke about “one of the most mediocre films ever made” which dates back a few years earlier. To understand the context, we have to go back to 1990, when Hanks was best known for his comedic roles, in Turner & Hooch or The Burbs. SO when he was invited to play a role in a film directed by Brian De Palma and based on the famous novel “The Bonfire of the Vanities” by Tom Wolfe, the actor jumped at the opportunity, thinking of a new springboard for his career. Released in 1990, the film focuses on Sherman McCoy (played by Tom Hanks), a big Wall Street broker whose life changes when he goes to Manhattan with his mistress, Maria Ruskin (Melanie Griffith), and gets lost. to end up in the Bronx. He accidentally knocks down a black man, beginning a series of events that will lead to his downfall.
Demolished by critics, the film only has 15% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and no Oscar nominations. It did, however, earn five Razzie Award nominations, taking home the award for Worst Screenplay of the Year. The press agrees that The Bonfire of the Vanities is an adaptation.tasteless of a thoughtful book“, “poorly distributed and lacking the crucial sense of irony of the original material.” It was also a huge commercial failure: it only brought in $15 million in the United States at a cost of $47 million.
“It’s one of the most mediocre films ever made.”
During an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the actor shared these words about his participation in the film:
This is one of the most mediocre films ever made. And yet, if I hadn’t had this experience, I would have missed something valuable. This film was a fascinating endeavor from the start. He was larger than life and, for one reason or another, garnered enormous attention.
Even today, when I go to Germany, people say to me: ‘Why don’t we make films as good and raw as ‘The Bonfire of the Vanities’? They have no idea what it meant to be American and have this film enter the national consciousness. ‘The Bonfire of the Vanities’ taught me that I can’t force a basic connection.
And in an interview with The Blast, the actor even dares to talk about a casting error: “When we were making the film, it was huge. We couldn’t move anywhere in New York City. Everyone was talking about it. Everyone was miscast, especially me. Brian De Palma cares more about iconography than cinema. He’s the most uncompromising filmmaker – in both a good way and a bad way – you’ll ever meet“. Hanks wasn’t the only high-profile name to appear in the credits. He also starred opposite Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Kim Cattrall, Morgan Freeman and F. Murray Abraham.