Let's talk 'Greyhound' and the power of Tom Hanks
No Content for Old Men
with Matt Craig
BIG NEWS! I've heard from a few different people that my movie reviews would be better served as a podcast. This week I figured out a way to give you all the best of both worlds. For those that like reading the newsletter, nothing will change. But each week I'll be narrating the newsletter with some music and editing as a bite-sized little podcast episode. I'm actually quite happy with how the first episode turned out. You can listen this and all future editions of this newsletter/podcast on Spotify HERE! The show will be on Apple's podcast store within a week or two.
In this week's newsletter: We'll take a look at Tom Hanks' new World War II drama 'Greyhound' and the phenomenon of Dad Movies. Plus, as always, I've got a couple really really good streaming suggestions.
Word Count: 891 words
Reading time: 5 minutes
Greyhound
Late last year, around the release of the Matt Damon and Christian Bale's racing two-hander Ford vs. Ferrari, I started to witness the spread of the term "Dad Movie." Whether or not the term was coined prior to last November, I can't be sure, but it came to my attention in an article on The Ringer which inducted what they called the "Dad Movie Hall of Fame."
It's a useful shorthand because it's simultaneously hard to define and instantly recognizable. Miracle = Dad Movie. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World = Dad Movie. Anything directed by Ron Howard (Apollo 13, In the Heart of the Sea, Cinderella Man) = Dad Movie. Though tongue-in-cheek, the article was all in good fun.
Greyhound, I can say with certainty, is a Dad Movie. It's about World War II. It's about boats. It's about defeating the enemy. It's about tough dudes who don't show a lot of emotion but do what needs to be done. And it both stars and is written by the genre's patron saint, Tom Hanks.
However, recently, I've taken slight issue with the term. It's been used to dismiss movies like Greyhound offhand, as if the label were a scarlet letter to anyone who endorsed its product. Oh, you liked that? It's such a Dad Movie!
Meanwhile, I started hearing rave reviews about this movie almost immediately after it was released, from the types of people in my life who both fall into the Dad Movie demographic and out of the constant churn of daily online culture.
I realize some of those recommendations were because of the content of the film (a God-fearing man leading his sailors with integrity), and a movie of equal or greater quality about an evil man (like, say, Nightcrawler) wouldn't earn me the same enthusiasm. I've been doing this newsletter long enough to know that many peoples' opinions of movies depend greatly on how much its content reflects or conflicts with a person's worldview. Which is totally valid, for the record.
But here's the thing about Dad Movies. They're usually really good! I really like them!
My issue with the Dad Movie label is not its rejection of Christianity, it's the rejection of belief. In anything! Going to the moon, winning a Formula One race, or fighting in a war is an act that requires a great deal of earnestness. And earnestness has never been so out of style. Which is why Dad Movies can only be embraced by the online zeitgeist with the same ironic distance and skepticism that anything earns in 2020. (I'm looking at you, person who is still arguing about Hamilton.)
Now that I've gotten that out of the way...this should be the part of the review where, after constructing the rampart upon which I've defended my right to love this movie, I should tell you how much I loved this movie.
But I cannot.
Which isn't to say Greyhound not a competent war film. In fact, I was surprised to see how much of the traditional fat had been cut away, down to a lean 91-minute run time. Save for a single flashback scene, the narrative is an uninterrupted naval battle. The technicalities of naval procedure are the meat and potatoes here, not the decorative garnish. Jargon and tactics are presented in a way that trusts the viewer to keep up, a refreshing departure from the usual hand-holding.
Tom Hanks deserves credit for the tight script, and one or two moments of cinematic surprise that unmistakably rise above the dozens of generic war movies all of us have seen. It should come as no surprise that he's written himself a great big ol' movie star part, and his charismatic presence fills nearly every frame and carries every scene. Honestly, if you were to cut out every frame of this movie as a still photo then shuffle them like a deck of cards, I'd be willing to bet three of the first four cards you'd draw would be of Hanks staring off the deck of his ship with a furrowed brow. There aren't too many actors in Hollywood who could pull that off.
My issue with the movie is even more elemental. In the highly saturated landscape of World War II dramas, especially those that are told earnestly and not with some modern subversive twist (like Inglorious Basterds or Jojo Rabbit), it's a curious choice to make another entry based entirely on a novel.
Greyhound's source material, a 1955 novel by C. S. Forrester called "The Good Shepherd," tells the story of a brave American ship captain and his young, scared sailors fighting against the sea and a seemingly endless attack of German U-boats. It's not a true story. Though Allied light destroyers did escort convoys across the Atlantic during the war, this story celebrates a bravery that rings hollow. It is at best a lionization, and at worst a piece of propaganda, one that weakens the bravery of these characters' real-life counterparts who may not be such angelic figures.
Ok, maybe that's too heavy. At the very least, for me, the ultra-realistic depiction of a fictional event could not muster the gravitas necessary to carry the dramatic tension. Spoiler alert: in the end, America's gonna triumph.
But the only true winner here is Tom Hanks. Long may he reign.
Streaming Suggestions!
Something New
Seberg (Amazon Prime): What if I told you there was a new movie with Kristen Stewart, Anthony Mackie, Vince Vaughn, Zazie Beetz, Stephen Root (who you might know as Gordon from Dodgeball), and Margret Qualley (straight off Once Upon a Time in Hollywood!), set in picturesque 1960s Los Angeles and speaking to the racial injustice of our current moment. Is that something you might be interested in? Yeah, I know I was. At least until I watched it. It's an interesting premise, following French New Wave star actress Jean Seberg as she attempts to support the Black Panther party and gets investigated by the FBI, questioning the effectiveness and morality of white allies in the fight for racial equality. But there's basically no plot, just a slow descent into madness. It's a tragic tale, and an acting showcase for Stewart, but one that struggles to hold attention for two hours. Such a shame to waste this cast!
Something Old
The Sting (1973): This was actually one of the original Dad Movies in my life, and was brought to the front of my mind when a friend of mine told me this week they watched it for the first time. My dad showed me this Paul Newman-Robert Redford heist movie at a young age and I think it was one of the first times I truly understood how a movie could be more than just diversionary entertainment. Their performances are iconic, the movie features one of the best plot twists of all time, and with the help of the iconic piano melody of "The Entertainer" this movie sticks in your imagination long after the credits roll. It's the definition of an all-time classic.
Something to Stream
Trumbo (Netflix): From one of my earliest Dad Movie memories to my most recent. This biopic of the blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo is a Dad Movie of a different kind. No wars, no violence, no clear-cut enemies. Like a good piece of art, you can only know its Dad Movie-ness once you see it. Bryan Cranston picked up a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his performance, flanked by capable director Jay Roach (Meet the Parents, Dinner for Schmucks) and an impressive supporting cast. It's straight-forward, whitty, and compelling enough to make for an excellent movie experience I'd recommend to anyone.