As of recent times, I have been thinking about the question, “Who is still the greatest director of all time?” It went around in dizzy circles with Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, and Stanley Kubrick. Steven Spielberg is arguably in my opinion, the greatest director of all time.
Spielberg made films that completely changed the game for film making like the shark thriller in “Jaws”, the adventure blockbuster with “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, the dinosaur extravaganza with “Jurassic Park”, and the alien contact film with “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. Similar to Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane”, blockbuster movies would have never been made if it wasn’t for these examples.
In this situation, there comes the example where there are the underrated and polarizing Spielberg like “A.I. Artificial Intelligence”, “Ready Player One”, “Hook”, “The BFG”, and “War of the Worlds” that garner different emotional reactions.
A true example of this is his 2004 film “The Terminal”.
“The Terminal” shows a very different and soft side of Spielberg and the same can be said with Tom Hanks’ out-of-character performance as the English-language troubled Viktor Navorski of the fictional country Krakozhia.
Viktor Navorski is at the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York waiting for his passport to be valid. The problem with him is that his passport from Krakozhia, his native country, is not valid due to a major outbreak of a war occurring in the country. Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), the strict airport director, tells Navorski that he is stateless and cannot go back to his country until the war is over.
Frank tells Viktor that in order to wait for his country to be normal again, his only location available is to shop at the terminal in the airport. Viktor while located at the terminal starts to develop friendships with the employees and even the airport crew. Well, he almost does because there is one Indian garbage cleaner that always gets furious with Viktor since he always attempts to steal the man’s job.
Frank Dixon soon wants to get rid of Viktor Navorski and potentially make the airport security arrest him because he thinks Navorski is messing around with his building like a pyschopath. Meanwhile, Viktor then attempts finds a future true love with Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones), having frustration with her relationship with her husband.
Viktor takes the best time he could to not only get fascinated with the society of the airport, but also to adapt to the English language with the people there as well.
It is very sad to see that this film isn’t getting mentioned in the top-best Spielberg films because it has such a soft and tender tone like a Buster Keaton/Charlie Chaplin comedy unlike his more dramatic films like “Catch Me If You Can”, “Schindler’s List”, “Saving Private Ryan”, and “The Post”, where they feel like an important true story.
Spielberg expects viewers that Navorski isn’t familiar with the typical English language we utilize when talking in his native Krakozhian language towards New York-citizens since he utters two words in VERY broken language.
Speaking of Viktor Navorski, this has to be one of my favorite Tom Hanks performances ranking up there with “Cast Away” and “Forrest Gump”. Hanks portrays flawlessly as the stateless passenger Viktor Navorski. He showcases such a soft, autistic feel to his character (much like “Forrest Gump”) with him meeting literally every employee in the airport, assisting others, and stealing some occupations.
During the opening scenes of the film when Frank Dixon and his crew direct Viktor to the terminal, his communication to the Airport crew seems very hard to comprehend that it evokes so much patience to them. That shows a hint where Frank Dixon has a growing pain on Viktor’s personality.
It just seems so Oscar-worthy too because Academy members truly recognize sensitive, out-of-character performances. This could’ve been one of those performances that stuck in people’s minds back in 2004 and even now.
Stanley Tucci as the customs director of the Airport, Frank Dixon, does such a fantastic performance developing a strict and serious mood towards Viktor while also being assistive.
His character sometimes can go nut-sack insane and uncontrollable when paying attention to the actions of Viktor Navorski from their cameras. He is usually on task and brutally honest despite of all this.
Catherine Zeta-Jones plays a fantastic character named Amelia Warren, who is having a tough environment with her husband. Throughout the film, Viktor Navorksi really wants a romantic relationship with this woman because he wants to explore the true meaning of the English language.
What I really love about Zeta-Jones in this film is that not only does she have genuine charm, but also feels like a noteworthy and important friend to Viktor. A true example of this is when Amelia tells her surprisingly great knowledge of world history to Viktor.
The film’s overall tone is mostly a heartfelt tribute to many Buster Keaton/Charlie Chaplin comedies where Viktor performs with a Chaplin-style attitude to the terminal employees. Coincidentally, Viktor when not talking in regular English can sometimes evoke a lot of visual presentation (a lot different than “Cast Away”) to the audience when watching the film.
Steven Spielberg is appreciated for making “Jaws”, “Schindler’s List”, “Saving Private Ryan”, and “Jurassic Park”, but unfortunately he doesn’t feel as appreciated as a film like “The Terminal”. It is not just a beautifully-made and shot film, but showcases how different Tom Hanks can perform a brilliant variety of characteristics into his films like this one.
Grade: 9/10