This novel has a long title; The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece. It alliterates nicely, and I’m sure that the admirable Mr. Hanks knows his subject matter intimately. But to me it felt confusing, opaque, and overlong – hence the title of this post, also alliterative. The novel has been praised to the skies, and I was expecting another pithy and compact story, like his previous debut work, Uncommon Type. I bought a copy as soon as it hit the shelves, but this is not like Uncommon Type at all.
The novel has so many angles, characters, storylines, and embedded narratives, that I lost track of what was going on, and lost interest. It has been described as “joyfully sprawling”, and “sprawling” is the right word. His writing style is often wordy and circuitous, and heavy on obscure metaphors and references, and much of that went over my head. If you want to know the plot, read the summary on the front flap of the dust cover, which is so long it fills the entire length of the page and includes the words “CUT TO:”. So you know to expect a complicated plot.
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece: A novel, by Tom Hanks. The listing shows another mis-categorization by Amazon. (Genre from Amazon: Literary Graphic Novels, Military Historical Fiction, War Fiction; Publisher: Knopf, Canada; May, 9 2023, hardcover, 448 pages.)
Review:
Mystified and confused
I couldn’t figure out what was the story, what was the draft screenplay they were working on, or why it mattered. People are usually interested in movies, and some are interested in how they come to be made, and who makes them. I’m one of those people who always watches a movie right to the end, particularly every word and name in the credits. But in this instance, despite the fact that it is about the making of a film, I really couldn’t get myself to care about any of the characters.
As I write this I am trying to remember any particular character, and there is a guy who draws comics, but right now, nope – mostly blank. The book includes the reified comic books created by this character – do you call them embedded graphic novel narratives? – as three sets of graphics. Good artwork in different styles by Robert Sikoryak, actually. Those, at least, I read.
One of the three included comics, by R. (Robert) Sikoryak. This one is in black and white, the others are full colour. I have included the front flap so you can read the blurb yourself. Isn’t that nice of me.
Footnotes, illustrations and a screenplay
In addition to the three short comic books included in the novel, you can also read the screenplay of one of them, titled Knightshade: The Lathe of Firefall, by scanning a Penguin Random House QR code on page 429. (The publisher, Knopf, is a division of Penguin Random House.) I think this is the name of the movie that they are producing in the story. It seems to me that the novel includes an unusually high number of illustrations, notes, and examples – perhaps to clarify the story? If Hanks wrote an actual screenplay for you to read, then I assume it must be worth something.
If this is how filmmakers think, it explains a lot
There are many pages of stream-of-consciousness depictions of the strange workings of the mind of a director, or is it a producer? Or the writer? I’ve written about the link between insanity and creativity, and I thought, this type of reasoning – possibly drawn from Hanks’ personal experience – looks very chaotic and not quite rational. It it supposed to be inspired? Is this the way people’s heads work in the Hollywood film industry? If so, wow, pity. Hanks includes quite a few footnotes, but I couldn’t figure out whether those were actual definitions or made-up ones. I did not have the patience to go and Google them.
For an example, there’s this film reference: I noticed that the book’s copyright is held by Clavius Base, Inc., Hanks’ company. Clavius Base is a fictional lunar research base on Earth’s moon, that is featured in the novel by 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, and its film adaption by Stanley Kubrick. Ha. Talk about an obscure factoid.
Try this extract
Below is a fairly representative extract. If, Dear Reader, you get all the references, and understand the context, and appreciate the significance of this exchange, well, then – as Rudyard Kipling wrote in his pretty terrible poem – “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!”** In which case, I’m sure you will just love this novel.
Not the pitch in the novel
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece – Casting
“’But yes, “Or…” Bill let the word hang in the volume of his spic-and-span office. ‘We roll film and capture magic. We’re Zapruder on the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza. We have a take so arresting that we’ll strut onto the next setup like cocks of the walk. Example: the ash can in Barren Land.* To make a movie is to stumble around the laboratory and accidentally invent vulcanized rubber or Post-its. We catch the Nazi tanks after they’ve run out of synthetic fuel. We throw deep from our own twenty-two-yard line and score six. We ask the prom queen out for chili dogs and she says, Finally! I’ve been waiting for you to ask ’cause I’ve wanted to get my hands on your…’ ‘I think she gets it, Skipper.’ Al patted Ynez on the arm. ‘In the Blur the great and the horrible will happen side by side.’
— [Bottom of p. 245]
*The famous moment in that movie – in the Sears parking lot – where the exploding ash can landed so perfectly on the hood of the Ferrari on the first and only take.”
— The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, by Tom Hanks, p. 245 (Text reproduced verbatim as in the book.)
**Gunga Din, by Rudyard Kipling, from A Choice of Kipling’s Verse (1943)
SEVEN CIRCUMSTANCES 
This novel has a long title; The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece. It alliterates nicely, and I’m sure that the admirable Mr. Hanks knows his subject matter intimately. But to me it felt confusing, opaque, and overlong – hence the title of this post, also alliterative. The novel has been praised to the skies, and I was expecting another pithy and compact story, like his previous debut work, Uncommon Type. I bought a copy as soon as it hit the shelves, but this is not like Uncommon Type at all.
The novel has so many angles, characters, storylines, and embedded narratives, that I lost track of what was going on, and lost interest. It has been described as “joyfully sprawling”, and “sprawling” is the right word. His writing style is often wordy and circuitous, and heavy on obscure metaphors and references, and much of that went over my head. If you want to know the plot, read the summary on the front flap of the dust cover, which is so long it fills the entire length of the page and includes the words “CUT TO:”. So you know to expect a complicated plot.
Review:
Mystified and confused
I couldn’t figure out what was the story, what was the draft screenplay they were working on, or why it mattered. People are usually interested in movies, and some are interested in how they come to be made, and who makes them. I’m one of those people who always watches a movie right to the end, particularly every word and name in the credits. But in this instance, despite the fact that it is about the making of a film, I really couldn’t get myself to care about any of the characters.
As I write this I am trying to remember any particular character, and there is a guy who draws comics, but right now, nope – mostly blank. The book includes the reified comic books created by this character – do you call them embedded graphic novel narratives? – as three sets of graphics. Good artwork in different styles by Robert Sikoryak, actually. Those, at least, I read.
I have included the front flap so you can read the blurb yourself.
Isn’t that nice of me.
Footnotes, illustrations and a screenplay
In addition to the three short comic books included in the novel, you can also read the screenplay of one of them, titled Knightshade: The Lathe of Firefall, by scanning a Penguin Random House QR code on page 429. (The publisher, Knopf, is a division of Penguin Random House.) I think this is the name of the movie that they are producing in the story. It seems to me that the novel includes an unusually high number of illustrations, notes, and examples – perhaps to clarify the story? If Hanks wrote an actual screenplay for you to read, then I assume it must be worth something.
If this is how filmmakers think, it explains a lot
There are many pages of stream-of-consciousness depictions of the strange workings of the mind of a director, or is it a producer? Or the writer? I’ve written about the link between insanity and creativity, and I thought, this type of reasoning – possibly drawn from Hanks’ personal experience – looks very chaotic and not quite rational. It it supposed to be inspired? Is this the way people’s heads work in the Hollywood film industry? If so, wow, pity. Hanks includes quite a few footnotes, but I couldn’t figure out whether those were actual definitions or made-up ones. I did not have the patience to go and Google them.
For an example, there’s this film reference: I noticed that the book’s copyright is held by Clavius Base, Inc., Hanks’ company. Clavius Base is a fictional lunar research base on Earth’s moon, that is featured in the novel by 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, and its film adaption by Stanley Kubrick. Ha. Talk about an obscure factoid.
Try this extract
Below is a fairly representative extract. If, Dear Reader, you get all the references, and understand the context, and appreciate the significance of this exchange, well, then – as Rudyard Kipling wrote in his pretty terrible poem – “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!”** In which case, I’m sure you will just love this novel.
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece – Casting
“’But yes, “Or…” Bill let the word hang in the volume of his spic-and-span office. ‘We roll film and capture magic. We’re Zapruder on the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza. We have a take so arresting that we’ll strut onto the next setup like cocks of the walk. Example: the ash can in Barren Land.* To make a movie is to stumble around the laboratory and accidentally invent vulcanized rubber or Post-its. We catch the Nazi tanks after they’ve run out of synthetic fuel. We throw deep from our own twenty-two-yard line and score six. We ask the prom queen out for chili dogs and she says, Finally! I’ve been waiting for you to ask ’cause I’ve wanted to get my hands on your…’
‘I think she gets it, Skipper.’ Al patted Ynez on the arm. ‘In the Blur the great and the horrible will happen side by side.’
— [Bottom of p. 245]
*The famous moment in that movie – in the Sears parking lot – where the exploding ash can landed so perfectly on the hood of the Ferrari on the first and only take.”
— The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, by Tom Hanks, p. 245 (Text reproduced verbatim as in the book.)
**Gunga Din, by Rudyard Kipling, from A Choice of Kipling’s Verse (1943)
Review of Tom Hanks’ Uncommon Type
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