Perhaps no American screen presence has been as beloved in the last 30 years as Tom Hanks, who is currently starring in A Man Called Otto. The two-time Oscar winner has all the right attributes of a great actor: comedic and dramatic chops, the "everyman" persona, charisma, and a sense of timelessness that allows him to star in contemporary and period pieces. His universal acclaim among not just passionate moviegoers but the general American public has colloquially earned him the title of "America's Dad." While Hanks' absolute prime as a movie star and prestigious actor may have been in the 1990s, thanks to the likes of Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan, the 2010s, when he reached his mid-50s, is when he truly adopted his current title of everlasting paternity of the nation.

From the outside, the most noticeable pattern of Hanks' filmography from 2010 to 2019 is his abundance of portrayals of real-life figures, including the titular roles of Captain Richard Phillips, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, and Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. His performance as the iconic television host was the only Oscar-nominated performance from him during this decade. This is a total misstep on the Academy's part, because these performances, along with two collaborations with Steven Spielberg: Bridge of Spies and The Post, deserve to be part of the canon of great Tom Hanks work and complete his evolution as America's Dad. This era for him was important for his overall legacy, as his immaculate screen persona being embedded with other noble figures contextualizes the public's relationship with the actor.

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Captain Richard Phillips Is an Everyday Hero

As the titular lead in Captain Phillips, Hanks is forced to manage numerous traits by director Paul Greengrass. He must be a brave enough leader that would believably thwart a pirate hijacking by sacrificing himself as a hostage, but also grounded enough where audiences are undoubtedly fearful of his fate. Because Hanks has an innate ability to perfectly capture the everyday individual, he balances this dynamic with no sweat. In more ways than one, Hanks as Captain Phillips is the ideal fatherly figure. He is the commander of his ship, crew, and the surrounding circumstances. Much of the critical and financial success of Captain Phillips hinged upon the lingering crisis surrounding Somali pirates, which was still in the news in 2013, four years after the events of the film occurred. The casting of Hanks as the leader of a defense against a hijacking in a major Hollywood production is indicative of how Americans hope to combat this threat. In the proper American way, an everyday, blue-collar worker like Phillips, who is embodied on screen with the familiar Hanks paternal energy, is how America overcomes the perils of the foreign sea.

Hanks and Spielberg Are a Match Made in Democracy

Tom Hanks in The Post
Image via 20th Century Fox

Hanks' two Spielberg outings, Bridge of Spies and The Post, are also true stories, and they are placed at the heart of two of America's most tumultuous periods in recent history: the Cold War and the Vietnam War. Hanks plays James Donovan and Ben Bradlee, respectively, who are put in the middle of two crises involving the national security of the country. Hanks brings a stalwart, collected presence to the screen while facing off against forces, the Soviet Union and the Pentagon Papers, who threaten to tarnish American democracy. Having the ideal father figure like Hanks in this role captures the retrospective sentiment of these times, a time when the country was led by tough but pragmatic individuals who were nonpartisan and served the nation honorably. These two films use Hanks' older age effectively, invoking a sense that his characters are simply getting "too old for this."

Hanks Gets Serious as Sully

Tom Hanks in Sully
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

The story of a plane landing on the Hudson River in January 2009 by pilot Chesley Sullenberger was a match made in heaven for Hanks and director Clint Eastwood. Their 2016 collaboration, Sully, fits into Eastwood's late career fascination with real-life heroes and how the media and the "suits" in upper management attempt to derail the reputation of said heroes. In this film, Hanks diverts from his usual screen persona for something slightly more reserved and unassuming. The overarching public perception of a fatherly figure is displayed in his performance, as he feels there is no option besides maintaining an unflappable image in the midst of sensational media coverage, despite suffering his own internal traumas after the crash landing. Because Sullenberger is shown as immensely humble, to the point of intimidation of the media glamour, the film also serves as an expression of the public image of Hanks. The character's mantra of ignoring the noise and looking past the fanfare has major dad vibes, and it is cleanly summed up with the film's ending, with the probing demand from Sully asking, "Can we get serious now?" during his flight's trial held by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Hanks as the Friendly Neighbor Mr. Rogers

tom hanks in a beautiful day in the neighborhood
Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

Casting the famous nice guy Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers seemed a little too cliché on paper, almost something out of Saturday Night Live. As it turned out, in 2019, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, directed by Marielle Heller, focused on the impacts that a brief relationship with Mr. Rogers had on the life of an emotionally stunted journalist, Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), rather than the tiresome approach of a hagiographic biopic. This film may have been the most ingenious utilization of the Hanks ethos. The main thesis of the film is that, even in a deeply cynical world, the most wholesome figure from an outsider's perspective, Fred Rogers in this instance, is actually the same loving and caring human being off camera. The film's debunking of theories of Rogers having a traumatic past and/or being a Vietnam War veteran is surprisingly jarring. The wholesomeness of Rogers is paralleled with the all-encompassing negativity of Lloyd, thus allowing the character and audiences to experience kinship with the warmth that the TV host brings to the world.

Hanks' performance, while brilliant, may have gotten stale if he were the focal point of the movie and taking up all the runtime. However, his presence is so welcoming as a supporting part, as the cynicism surrounding Lloyd is purposefully tough to sit through. In a time when we are always seeking to uncover dark secrets, believing in pure goodness from people could help out a lot. There was no one more equipped to demonstrate the remarkable life of Mr. Rogers than America's Dad himself. Similar to the figure he portrayed, a sector of the public probably expects something sinister about Hanks behind the scenes, and that his "nice guy" image is merely overcompensation for his true demons. But from what audiences can take away from this film and the rest of Tom Hanks' 2010s filmography is that America does have, indeed, the ideal father figure.