Totally lost respect for: Tom Hanks

[chipwhich]

As an actor he can pick and chose whatever he wanted...

As a director he can pick and chose whatever he wants...

= choice and (does)

see how that works... he is so rich and popular he doesn't have to hate his job and just do what the man demands.. He does what he "wants" to do.

look deeper

Listen 20 million dollar roles aren't a dime a dozen for actors. Very few get that amount of money.

You can argue until you are blue in the face. Actors don't turn down 20 million plus. This wasn't a charity event. He isn't doing it for a cause. He is doing it for 20 million.

But if you can show me any actor who has turned down such a role, please do. I would love to hear about it.

[endzone_dave]

I absolutely cannot believe that there are some people advocating the notion that we "forced" Japan to attack us at Pearl Harbor.

Yeah, economic sanctions are equivalent to a surprise military attack that cost over 3,000 American lives.

Give me a break.

It's kind of like saying we forced the terrorists to do 9/11.

[Smoot Point Really]

It was a dumb comment... regardless of the context.

I wouldn't lose respect for Tom Hanks based on a stupid comment. He has done enough to promote quality education on American History (Edit: EXCUSE ME... "US History" for the folks like Siven who don't consider the US to be American) with a very pro-American slant in all of his documentary-like projects and in some of his fictional movies.

My only complaints about him off the top of my head are regarding "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (I was a Protestant who married a Greek and converted to Orthodoxy... the movie was pretty insulting in places) and the "Davinci Code" movies...

[Bang]

Hanks was also a huge part of the driving force behind getting the World War II Memorial built downtown as I recall, and I don't think he got paid for that.

As someone else has said, I'll go with the honor and respect and reverence of which he's treated the memory and legacy of the American veterans of World War II over a comment made one time.

Let's face it. We have all at times said something wrong, or said something that doesn't truly reflect what we actually mean.

If you look at his deeds over the last 20 or so years, and if you look at the projects he's associated himself with and produced, I think it paints a much clearer picture of what he thinks of this than one comment made to a reporter from CBS.

His body of work should earn him the benefit of the doubt on this.

As to forcing the Japanese,,Make no bones about it. Japanese Imperialism is what forced us to fight them. Not racism, or any underlying economic or trade issues. Their attempt and success even of enveloping and enslaving the pacific Rim nations and their brutal incursions into China was the cause. Japan knew that as they came east across the Pacific they'd eventually have to fight us, so they made a pre-emptive strike on our navy.

Our depictions of the enemy in propaganda posters and film was indeed racist, but there should be no fingers pointed. Total war. That was what it was. And dehumanizing an enemy makes it easier to kill him, and killing him was a necessity. Some of you guys going down that path need to change your paradigm of how you think about this stuff and fit it to the situation. In our lifetimes we've never experienced anything like World War II, indeed at no other point in history has there ever been a greater cataclysm than World War II. Right now we've been involved in 2 wars for 8 years and it hasn't been but a fraction of the scale and scope of World War II.

In WWII everyone had family involved, in World War II the enemy was HUGE, not small factions like we fight now. In world War II we lost more Americans on some beaches in a single assault than we lost in the entire Iraq War.

Several times.

Vietnam was horrible, and we lost 58,000+ servicemen in 11 years of involvement. A terrible price. In contrast World War II we lost nearly ten times that amount (US deaths were just shy of a half million) in 4 years of American involvement.

Atrocities that to this day are hard to fathom were committed by the Axis. (Everyone knows about German atrocities.. check out some of Japan's one day if you want to get sick. Google "Nanking".) The stakes were MUCH different. To fight a war like that you simply cannot have pity on the enemy. You can't view him with any compassion at all. The possibility was VERY real that we may have had to kill all of them to survive.

Consider the differences. In our current wars (which i support) there is no threat of anyone holding dominion over the United States. Our fight is over there, and it will stay over there with the possible exception of the occasional terrorist incident. Not so with World War II. The Germans definitely had designs on the US, and the overall eventual goal of the Axis powers was complete dominion over the earth.

Anyway, the point is you can't judge the overt racism in the wartime propaganda posters the same as we would today. They weren't made out of the typical prejudice and ignorance that defines what we consider racism in our time.

~Bang

[Capt Rich Fla]

I think Hanks has done wonders over the years. I wouldn't take what he said out of context. He probably didn't mean it to sound bad.

[Maximus71]

the atom bomb was the perfect solution to the pure hatred that existed between the japanese and americans.

without it japan would have killed millions more and america would have punished japan to this day

as it is we rebuilt them and now we are allies

Well I guess we start nuking all arab countries and Iran while we are at it because it will help us become allies later on :evilg:

[mbws]

And those people going to work on 9/11 had it coming... Bill Mahr, is that you?

Please provide a link with a quote of Mr. Maher saying that.

[Chachie]

There has been a ton of well-covered points in the thread already so I'd like to just offer that Tom Hanks is a bad mofo...

Skipping entirely over everything he did before Bonfire of the Vanities (his first failure after an already stellar comedy tv and motion picture resume) let's review the american classics:

A League of Their Own

Philadelphia

Forrest Gump

Apollo 13

Saving Private Ryan

The Green Mile

Castaway

Road to Perdition

Catch Me If You Can

The Terminal

(Honorable Mention)- The Da Vinci Code

Each one of those films would stand up tall in any Oscar nominated lineup in history and that list is comprised of only about 1/4 of the films he's made that we all recognize and enjoy as fine entertainment.

Back to the point though..

How many times in Tom Hanks' 30 year career has he been politically controversial or even ethically in question by the american public? Never? Maybe never. I give him an ego pass on this one.

(The hair in Da Vinci Code did shake my faith in him briefly.)

[Thiebear]

Listen 20 million dollar roles aren't a dime a dozen for actors. Very few get that amount of money.

You can argue until you are blue in the face. Actors don't turn down 20 million plus. This wasn't a charity event. He isn't doing it for a cause. He is doing it for 20 million.

But if you can show me any actor who has turned down such a role, please do. I would love to hear about it.

SO your saying the film he directed... you know something he wanted to put his name on.. is the exact opposite of what he believes (AFTER) he's worth a billion dollars?

(he got 50million for Angels and Demons) And he charges 25million per film, You fail to understand they come to HIM.. he's not out there hat in hand looking for any movie that will let him audition.

Again: Deeds over words.

[Chachie]

That guy to MacArthur's left, with the binoculars - that's my grandfather. I used those binoculars at Redskins games for years. We also had a samurai sword in our house growing up, a souvenier he picke up during the Pacific War.

I just saw that pic, Predicto. Amazing. I'm honestly blown away.

[Capt Rich Fla]

Damn Predicto, I hope you have that pic blown up and framed in your house. THAT is cool! Just think he was right beside him when HE RETURNED. That's the same as standing beside General Lee at Appomatox Court House. Your grandfather......in one of our country's most memorable moments. If you think about pics that define America I think you have Kennedy's son saluting, the Berlin Wall coming down, Washington crossing the Deleware, Lincoln being shot, and THAT walk up the beach. And your grandfather was right there. All I can say is DAMN.

[MrSilverMaC]

You dont know how to read very well, I am far from anti american, what I am is anti ignorance and anti hypocrisy. something that abounds around here when it comes to americas role in the world.

Its easy to talk about embargoing the "japanese war machine" and how they were commiting atrocities against the chinese , so explain then how so many german vehicles that powered theior war machine came from the US? or how about the russians who committed several atrocities against the Fins and others using american equipment?

Flat out, The Americans didnt like japan trying to become an imperialist nation and moved to prevent it, the Japanese then did what they thought was their best course of action.

I am not blaming anyone I am simply saying that blaming the japanese for acting out of self interest in stupid and not very enlightened.

Henry, fomenting the war and being behind the direct cuases doesnt make the sneak attack right, I agree, however one could argue that they felt right in doing so.

No, no, I think I was right. Definitely anti-American. And monumentally condescending and smug at the same time. And the part about anti-ignorance and hypocrisy, you should probably take a long hard look at that too. As far as my reading ability goes, I manage to navigate this site well enough, so my reading skills must be adequate.

Apparently you are under the impression that you are in possession of the only history books on any subject in the world. Happily, you would be wrong. Also, and I am guessing you haven't taken the time to think about this, but a lot of us here had family members who actually served in the Pacific. Which would give us cause and motivation to, you know, actually try to read and learn about the subject a bit more in-depth than say someone from another country who had little to no involvement in said theater.

I see you have nothing to specifically argue against in regards to the U.S embargoing the Japanese while they were committing their atrocities. And yet you bring up ridiculously irrelevant issues in the U.S supplying Russia and Germany with equipment and supplies. As far as the Russians go, they were allies at the time since they were fighting Germany. What they did with the things we gave them AFTERWARDS is a totally different argument. And I am a bit foggy on this but at what point, once the war in Europe was in full swing, were we supplying the Germans with equipment and supplies? I must've missed that part in whatever passes for the history books that I was able to get my ignorant little American hands on.

You can argue all day about why America imposed an embargo on Japan, that particular point is irrelevant to me. My issue is the ignorance with which you so brazenly declare that we FORCED Japan to attack us. We did no such thing. Japan had options and other ways it could have went. It chose what they felt best suited their wants, not needs, at the time.

[Elessar78]

I don't know about this. I agree that our hatred for Japan was probably stronger but if you look at the relationship between the Russians and the Germans, it was every bit as heated, and probably even worse, then our feelings towards Japan.

According to the book Berlin 1945 by Antony Beevor, the Germans treated the Russian POWs like crud. Mass starvation and mass executions, labor camps, etc. were common for the Russian POWs. The American POWs, in contrast, were treated much better and with much more respect. Again, the Germans saw the Russians as an inferior race.

The Russians on the other hand didn't hate the Germans for any racial reasons. They hated them because they treated their POWs like crud and invaded their country. It got even worse when, after the Battle of Stalingrad, Russian troops were marching into Germany the Russians saw how well the average German lived in comparison. They couldn't understand the need to invade a poorer country like Russia when they had such a nice standard of living.

[Mooka]

Listen 20 million dollar roles aren't a dime a dozen for actors. Very few get that amount of money.

You can argue until you are blue in the face. Actors don't turn down 20 million plus. This wasn't a charity event. He isn't doing it for a cause. He is doing it for 20 million.

But if you can show me any actor who has turned down such a role, please do. I would love to hear about it.

You don't know too many actors do you. Consider an actor no different then any other artist. You know, BAT**** NUTTY.

The very few are no different and some cases they are some of the nuttiest.

[Seabee1973]

the atom bomb was the perfect solution to the pure hatred that existed between the japanese and americans.

without it japan would have killed millions more and america would have punished japan to this day

as it is we rebuilt them and now we are allies

Ive run into quiter a few people that think the best thing would have been a land invasion of Japan. lots more lives lost thta way i think

[PeterMP]

As to forcing the Japanese,,Make no bones about it. Japanese Imperialism is what forced us to fight them. Not racism, or any underlying economic or trade issues. Their attempt and success even of enveloping and enslaving the pacific Rim nations and their brutal incursions into China was the cause. Japan knew that as they came east across the Pacific they'd eventually have to fight us, so they made a pre-emptive strike on our navy.

Japan had no real interest in coming east. They only came east because there was good of evidence (including a US "volunteer" fight unit in Burma and multiple US "observers" in China) that we were going to stop them from going west and south (into the Dutch Indies).

Any way, why did we have an issue with Japan and not the English, the Dutch, or the French?

Do you really want to argue that the Japanese were more brutal than the English (keeping in mind that the English fought a war with China essentially to mantain the opium trade with that country that paid for the importing of tea from China)?

[PokerPacker]

what the...? page 7 link goes back to page 6.

edit: that is until I post truly taking it to seven pages?

[Jumbo]

what the...? page 7 link goes back to page 6.

edit: that is until I post truly taking it to seven pages?

Some mods were talking about posts like this a couple nights ago..I wish some people would cease posting the "stream of consciousness" random stuff in the middle of topical threads...if you think something odd board-wise is happening use the feedback forum or PM a mod (just as the rules tell you to do)...otherwise just don't worry about it and see what happens...

We have, always have had, and will have, various glitches on ES for years...and watching some pointless off-topic diversion form-up in non-related threads whenever someone thinks something is occurring is irritating...don't irritate the staff ...follow the rules instead

...and don''t sweat it PP, you're not in trouble...:pfft:

[chipwhich]

You don't know too many actors do you. Consider an actor no different then any other artist. You know, BAT**** NUTTY.

The very few are no different and some cases they are some of the nuttiest.

I agree.

But they aren't too nutty to accept a role with Spielberg for 20 million plus royalties for 6 weeks of work.

They are nutty, not stupid. This wasn't a charity 6 weeks for Mr. Hanks.

[Ryman of the North]

meh, a LOT of celebrities mouth off and have no business making themselves out to be experts but this is not one fo those times. WW2 has a LOT of racial overtones, FFS how many of you can remember reading World at war comics and pretty much all the crazy war comics of the early 80s late seventies.

[PokerPacker]

Some mods were talking about posts like this a couple nights ago..I wish some people would cease posting the "stream of consciousness" random stuff in the middle of topical threads...if you think something odd board-wise is happening use the feedback forum or PM a mod (just as the rules tell you to do)...otherwise just don't worry about it and see what happens...

We have, always have had, and will have, various glitches on ES for years...and watching some pointless off-topic diversion form-up in non-related threads whenever someone thinks something is occurring is irritating...don't irritate the staff ...follow the rules instead

...and don''t sweat it PP, you're not in trouble...:pfft:

I've already served my time!

on another non sequitur, because I know you love them, notice how the OP's initials are USSR. coincidence? I think not!

okay, okay, I'll post something relevant!

I don't see where all the fury is coming from. As others mentioned, dehumanizing the enemy is natural when it comes to war. Its tough to bring yourself to kill someone when you can see yourself in them. If you look at the the predecessor, Band of Brothers, you'll see instances where the soldiers see the NAZIs not as the evil enemy they have to eliminate, but just boys. Young boys who are serving your country as our troops are serving ours. And there's the instance where one American soldier discovers one of the NAZI prisoners actually grew up a couple miles down the road from him (proceeded by the infamous cigarette incident).

With Japan, the cultural differences are much greater than those between the US and NAZI Germany, and it would be creating a false picture, I think, if this was ignored in the making of the miniseries.

edit: oh, and here's a little thing to give a sense of how America thought of the Japanese during the war:

http://www.jogyjogy.com/watch.php?id=19825

[HighOnHendrix]

I don't see where all the fury is coming from. As others mentioned, dehumanizing the enemy is natural when it comes to war. Its tough to bring yourself to kill someone when you can see yourself in them. If you look at the the predecessor, Band of Brothers, you'll see instances where the soldiers see the NAZIs not as the evil enemy they have to eliminate, but just boys. Young boys who are serving your country as our troops are serving ours. And there's the instance where one American soldier discovers one of the NAZI prisoners actually grew up a couple miles down the road from him (proceeded by the infamous cigarette incident).

There is also a practical component to that kind of a situation in that the German regulars of the Wehrmacht were not necessarily NAZIs, but rather enlisted soldiers just like our guys as you said. The SS units on the other hand...

[Capt Rich Fla]

I think it is also harder to portay the Japs. They made the Germans look like gentlemen. You could actually give yourself up to the Germans. From what I gather, giving up to the Japs was as good as a death note. I think they brought on alot of hatred on themselves. That battle in the Pacific looks like such a different war. Europe looked almost romantic compared to the animalistic fighting that went on in the Pacific.

[stevenaa]

the atom bomb was the perfect solution to the pure hatred that existed between the japanese and americans.

without it japan would have killed millions more and america would have punished japan to this day

as it is we rebuilt them and now we are allies

Yet another clear lesson that might makes right. :evilg:

[Henry]

Do you really want to argue that the Japanese were more brutal than the English (keeping in mind that the English fought a war with China essentially to mantain the opium trade with that country that paid for the importing of tea from China)?

Yes.

http://www.tribo.org/nanking/

Between December 1937 and March 1938 at least 369,366 Chinese civilians and prisoners of war were slaughtered by the invading troops. An estimated 80,000 women and girls were raped; many of them were then mutilated or murdered.

...

Thousands of victims were beheaded, burned, bayoneted, buried alive, or disemboweled.

To this day the Japanese government has refused to apologize for these and other World War II atrocities, and a significant sector of Japanese society denies that they took place at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

R. J. Rummel, a professor of political science at the University of Hawaii, states that between 1937 and 1945, the Japanese military murdered from nearly 3,000,000 to over 10,000,000 people, most likely 6,000,000 Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Indochinese, among others, including Western prisoners of war. "This democide was due to a morally bankrupt political and military strategy, military expediency and custom, and national culture."[22] According to Rummel, in China alone, during 1937-45, approximately 3.9 million Chinese were killed, mostly civilians, as a direct result of the Japanese operations and 10.2 millions in the course of the war.

The English conquered many land and fought many wars, including WWII which they won. Do you really want to argue that the English ever did anything like this?

As usual, Bang gets it in one.