The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is a novel by the actor Tom Hanks. This is truly a love letter to making motion pictures and a thank you to the whole film industry. There is no small part of the industry not valued by the author of this book. It recognises a lot of the areas of the process that the casual film viewer doesn’t think about. This novel follows an idea that sparks a comic, that sparks a film and follows it right the way through from concept to creation. It’s a very interesting look at the time and effort involved in making a motion picture.
I admit to being worried at the beginning of this book. When I read the first section I thought oh no, I’m not going to like this. It seemed to take a little while to get to a plot or to settle into a single character long enough to engage with them. My advice here is plough through the beginning as the story is there.
We are taken to the story of Lulu, her brother Bob and her son Robby. Lulu reads in the paper that her brother Bob is part of a motorcycle gang. She hasn’t seen her brother for years after he went away to war in 1947. She has had no idea where he was for years. Shortly after the article surfaces Bob comes to stay. Lulu is thrilled. The experience of Bob staying with them leaves a lasting impression on Robby which he takes with him into adulthood. This is the source material section of the book which leads into Robby’s young adulthood.
For the next section called ‘Development Hell’ we move to the employment in the movie industry of Al Mac-Teer and her work with movie producer Bill Johnson. Later on we also add the help of PONY driver Ynez and her ability to get things done. These were the stand out characters for me and those whose storylines I enjoyed the most.
Generally speaking I don’t think I’m in favour of books that build up a set of characters just to ditch them and provide you with a new set of characters. But in this setting with the production of a movie it does at times work well. Making movies is all about lots of people doing their small part for the film and a much bigger thing emerging from this joint effort. A huge number of people are needed to get a project off the ground and into production before the film is even shot. Even by that point there is still a tremendous about of work to do in post production and marketing the film and promoting it internationally. Hanks does a really good job of setting up so many characters that the reader really cares about and wants to here more of without annoying his reader when they leave. I was sad to see them go but quickly interested in the next set.
However, I did eventually get frustrated with it. I held on for a couple of hundred pages and when more and more characters kept joining I found I’d reached my limit and that I really just wanted to get back on with the main story. I really wanted to find out if the characters from those early sections were ever going to meet the characters from the later years. I hung on for that and wasn’t disappointed but it felt like a very long wait. I could have done without the casting and shooting sections personally though with the way the book is set out you of course have to have them. I enjoyed them a lot less.
Tom Hanks is a much loved actor with a wealth of talent on screen. I can honestly say that he is also a talented writer. I enjoyed reading the early and late sections of this book with the central characters and it captures something of the love of movie making that I’m sure will be enjoyed by people inside the industry and enthusiastic fans of films and film making. It takes the common person inside the industry in a way they would not otherwise see. Truly an accomplishment. Certainly ambitious.
I’ll be very interested to see if Tom Hanks will write another book or if this was a one off passion project for an industry he loves. As a one off it certainly stands tall. For me the timing of this book stood out for me as well. Tom Hanks has recently appeared in Wes Anderson’s film Asteroid City which focuses a lot on movie making and acting. I couldn’t help wondering if those two projects had inspired each other in any way or if any conversations between the two had sparked something off.
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