★★★★☆ The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, by Tom Hanks, Robert Sikoryak (illus
Tom Hanks shows who he is
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece
Tom Hanks, Robert Sikoryak (illus)
Tom Hanks shows who he is
Tom Hanks, an actor, has written a novel. It is his debut novel. It is shockingly good.
You are not surprised to read this. I was not surprised to discover it. There are some people who will never do less than the best they can on any job they undertake, and whose best will never be less than very, very good. Tom Hanks is such a person.
The tone for The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is set in the dedication
For all the actors in the cast and every member of the crew
As the title indicates, the novel tells the story of the making of a movie. But the stars of the novel are not the stars of the movie. The stars of the novel are a kid Robbie Andersen who draws comic books, an associate producer Al (short for Allicia) Mac-Teer, a PONY (think Uber or Lyft) driver, Ynez Gonzalez-Cruz, and the writer-director of the film Bill Johnson. Now, there are also actors, two of them the stars of the film, and they are important characters, but if this book were to be nominated for Oscars, they would be up for Best Supporting Actor/Actress.
It is exciting and funny and informative. (Seriously. The characters talk in impenetrable showbiz jargon, and the book is extensively footnoted to help the ignorant like me understand.) I certainly learned more about the facts and the feel of moviemaking than I have ever known. Here you will learn (what I have always wondered) what it is a producer actually DOES! And what is a gaffer, or a teamster...
The gist of the story is that the making of a movie is a creative, chaotic, unpredictable activity.
Imagine a jet plane, the funds for which were held up by Congress, designed by poets, riveted together by musicians, supervised by executives fresh out of business school, to be piloted by wannabes with attention deficiencies. What are the chances that such an aeroplane is going to soar? There you have the making of a movie, ...
The heart of the experience is "Principal Photography", known informally as "The Shoot", when the the film is actually recorded. At the beginning of the shoot Al explains to Ynez what it will be like. She calls it "The Blur". It is intense and chaotic and like nothing else.
Despite this, I was surprised at how ordinary the story was. It is people doing their jobs, and the heroes are those who hit their marks and solve more problems than they create. If you are a human who has ever worked at any serious project, this will sound familiar. In fact, I was reminded of Tracy Kidder's nonfiction accounts of the building of a house (House) or the design of a digital computer (The Soul of a New Machine).
The real secret here is that "The Blur" is not really "*The* Blur" -- it is "a Blur". The Blur of the Shoot is unique to movie-making, but it is a thing of the same kind as The Blur of scientific discovery (my own background), which is also unique, or The Blur of founding a corporation, which is yet another intense, chaotic Blur. Hanks understands this. He makes that clear in a sort of epilog written by Doctor Patrice Johnson, Writer-Director Bill Johnson's significant other, who is a scientist and educator.
TMOAMMPM is one of the best debut novels I have ever read. It is informative, funny, exciting, and just plain FUN!
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece on Amazon