Doubting Thomas - Why I Won't Allow Films By Tom Hanks In My Home

    A few years back, I believe it was around the end of 2019, I was telling a friend how I don’t understand the appeal of the Polar Express movie and how my kids were driving me crazy playing it over and over again.  The film has always just seemed painfully average to me, and I have never truly understood its popularity.  My friend looked at me and said, “You shouldn’t have movies by Tom Hanks in your house.” 

    If you’ve known me for a good while you already know that I am not a Hanks fan – not a fan of his films, and not particularly a fan of the man himself.  Much like Garth Brooks, Hanks has always struck me as someone who just oozes false humility.  His aw-shucks, I’m just the guy next store routine has never set well with me. 

    But if my kids wanted to watch that overrated Polar Express movie, I wasn’t really going to put up a protest.  When it comes to raising kids in a rapidly declining society, a seemingly harmless cartoon didn’t seem like the spot where I should draw a line in the sand and make my final stand.  And the truth is, there are hundreds of children’s cartoons that I don’t personally like, and most modern Christmas movies are so lame and predictable that I would never waste my time watching them anyway.  But why in the world would my friend say I shouldn’t allow ANYTHING from Hanks in my house?

    He looked at me and said, “Did you see Forrest Gump?”  I have seen it, and like the Polar Express I think it is astonishingly overrated.  Personally, I found the representation of Southerners to be offensive, and the way people with mental/emotional disabilities were portrayed left a lot to be desired.  I’ve even heard people who thought the Vietnam scenes were too light-hearted and therefore offensive to those who served and/or lost loved ones in the war. 

    But I knew what my friend was going to say before he even said it.  His point of contention was going to be the scene where Gump wipes his face on a towel and it leaves a mark similar to the image on Veronica’s Veil.  I remember being put-off and little confused by the scene when I first saw the film all those years ago.  It made me uncomfortable, and I remember wishing it wasn’t in the movie.  I remember wondering what the point of the scene was.  Were the filmmakers trying to make Gump a Christlike figure?  Were they disputing the validity of the Veil of Veronica by showing just how silly the idea is?  I didn’t know what their motives were, but I knew it wasn’t a heartfelt tribute to God.  Of that much I could be sure.  I didn’t like the scene.  It made me squirm in my chair.  But I didn’t turn it off. 

    After telling my friend that I knew which scene he was going to bring up, he said, “Aren’t you supposed to love God above everyone?  How would you feel if that had been a relative the film mocked?” 

    This is where my friend’s part of the story ends.  I spent the next few hours really pondering his point.  In the span of five years I lost both of my grandmothers – both died with some level of dementia present.  I asked myself how would I feel if I saw someone mocking them.  Not just mocking them, but mocking their death.   Mocking their dementia.  Mocking their SUFFERING.

    This is EXACTLY what happened in Forrest Gump.  The face-wipe scene was openly mocking the suffering and death of Jesus of Nazareth as He was forced to carry His cross to His bloody execution.    Tom Hanks, in the character of Forrest Gump, mocked the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.  Period. 

    I know, Hanks didn’t write the book or the movie.  Maybe he had second thoughts about the scene, I truly don’t know.  But I do know that if he were mocking the suffering and death of one of my grandmothers that I would never see another film associated with him in any way.  I know that I would never see a film made by that movie studio again.  I would never see a film by that director, or producer, or anyone who had anything to do with that movie.  I would boycott everyone right down to the caterer and the guy who gave Hanks his pointy haircut.   I would send letters to Hanks and his agent and his publicist and the production company and anyone who backed the movie financially.

    I know, it’s hard to wrap your mind around the fanciful idea of a Hollywood film about your grandma, but just allow yourself to think about how you would feel if someone, anyone, mocked the suffering of your grandparent, or parent, or sibling. 

    So, I got rid of the Polar Express DVD. 

    You have to decide where do you draw the line.  Do you stop watching a show if they disrespect your favorite politician?  Do you boycott a sport if its players disrespect your country’s flag?  Do you refuse to see a movie if it stars an actor who disagrees with you politically?  You have to decide what you are as a human first and foremost.  Are you a Christian?  An American?  A Trumpian?  Do you just shake your head and “wish they hadn’t done that” like I did when I saw Hanks mocking Jesus in that lame film 25 years ago?  Or do you throw out the DVD / turn off the TV / close the book / walk out of the theater the next time you’re subject to someone mocking God behind the guise of entertainment? 

    What’s your non-negotiable?  If you were to turn on Saturday Night Live this weekend, and I heartily and heartfully suggest that you don’t, what would make you turn it off?  Another skit mocking the former president, or skit mocking Jesus Christ? 

    I haven’t watched Saturday Night Live in over twenty years, and I haven’t missed it one bit.  And I surely don’t miss the Polar Express.  Or Joe Vs the Volcano.   Or Bachelor Party.  Or any of those other cinematic masterpieces that made Tom Hanks a star.

Galations 6:7-8.  ""Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting.""