Before Tom Hanksperformance in Elvis as Elvis Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker, he played a similar, albeit much less nefarious role in the 1996 film. What you do! Just like in Elvis, Hanks plays the main characters’ musical manager, Mr. White, while The Wonders are gaining popularity. Hanks not only starred in the film, but also directed it and also wrote the screenplay. Although the characters themselves are very different - Mr. White is a practical and useful figure for the main characters, while Colonel Parker is much more villainous - Hanks plays the same standard character in relation to the main characters of his films, each of whom faces the same and same. fate. Tom Hanks is clearly drawn to stories like this, especially in the music industry, and the many factors that can lead to a downward spiral after a meteoric rise to fame.
What you do! follows the story of a fictional band called The Wonders through the eyes of their drummer Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott). In Erie, Pennsylvania, while Guy is working in a hardware store, his acquaintance Jimmy Mattingly (Jonathan Sheh) and Lenny Hayes (Steve Zahn) are busy creating the group The Oneders. Right before their first performance at a local talent show, their drummer Chad (Giovanni Ribisi), breaks his arm - knowing he can play drums, Jimmy and Lenny ask Guy to fill in for him. They end up winning the show and getting a gig at a local pizzeria. They soon have fans in their hometown who ask them to record a record. After recording “That Thing You Do!” and sold 45 copies, local promoter Phil Horace (Chris Ellis) notices them and promises that if they sign a contract with him, he will get them on the radio within 10 days. They sign and he gets the song on Pennsylvania radio and booked a concert for them in Pittsburgh. Phil introduces Guy to Mr. White, an A&R representative from Play-Tone Records, and reveals that Mr. White wants to be their manager. White renames the band The Wonders, gives them a signature look, and takes them on tour. Jimmy Faye’s girlfriendLiv Tyler), who helped form the band, also comes along. The group’s popularity is growing rapidly, and the song That Thing You Do! soon rises to number 7 on the Billboard Top 100 chart.
Meanwhile, internal tensions are building. Jimmy grows increasingly annoyed with Mr. White’s management style, wants to record new songs instead of promoting old ones, and begins to ignore Faye. Before appearing on television, their bassist (Ethan Embry) escapes with a group of Marines and needs to be replaced, Guy is hungover from a night of drinking with his favorite jazz musicians, Jimmy has the stomach flu, and Lenny is frolicking with his new girlfriend. When they finally get on stage, the TV announces that Jimmy is engaged. This infuriates him; he explodes on Faye and Mr. White and she breaks up with him. The next day, Lenny is absent from the recording session, having run off to Vegas with his new girlfriend, and Jimmy leaves because he is upset that Mr. White is not forcing them to record more original songs. Guy is now alone, and Mr. White assures him that such stories are common in the music industry. However, the film ends on an uplifting note. Guy and Fay realize they love each other and stay in Los Angeles, get married and start their own music conservatory. On-screen text reveals that Jimmy became a record producer, the bassist earned two purple hearts in Vietnam, and Lenny works as a casino manager in Nevada (and is currently single).
When Collider interviewed Tom Hanks after Elvis, one of the questions he was asked was if he could make any film he wanted and what kind of film it would be. He replied that he would like to make a film about a singer named Dean Reed who achieved Elvis-level fame in Chile and behind the Iron Curtain. Nicknamed “Red Elvis” and “Comrade Rock Star”, he was the most popular singer in the Soviet Union despite being an American. Hanks seems to have a unique relationship with the music industry and the stories that industry generates. He also nearly made a film with Martin Scorsese about Dean Martinwhich unfortunately failed. Stories about the music industry in particular provide a unique setting for human drama, pushing their characters to their own and each other’s limits - often with dismal results. However, a certain formula does not mean the same stories: Elvis as well as What you do! technically they have a similar structure, but fundamentally they differ precisely because of the personalities operating within them and the relationship between these personalities. Part of the frivolity What you do! lies in the fact that the fall of the main characters does not go beyond the dissolution of their group and the loss of glory. On the other hand, Elvis almost like a Shakespearean tragedy. In an EW interview, Hanks even says that the Colonel’s relationship with Elvis reminded him of Falstaff and Hal from Henry IVand that this Shakespearean aspect of the story was part of what drew him to it; in particular, the untold story of the relationship between Colonel Parker and Elvis. In the end, what all of these film concepts have in common, whether it’s Dean Reed, Elvis or Miracles, is the idea of particularly untold storytelling in the music industry - even if the movie’s hero is someone as famous as Elvis Presley.
Being the manager of a musical act is the epitome of being behind the scenes and the supreme role from which one becomes a witness to how an indescribable drama unfolds, and sometimes even causes this drama. In an interview with The Ringer, Chris Ellis describes What you do! as Hanks’ dream project for a long time. In the same interview, Hanks talks about his passion for a rock band. Jan and Dean when he was in high school - a band that only stayed together long enough to go on their first tour. He also recalls wondering what life was like for Jimmy NicholEnglish drummer who replaced Ringo Starr in The Beatles for eight shows when Ringo got tonsillitis. Both of these stories are stories of what an adoring audience won’t see, and this mystery provides the opportunity for a compelling dramatic narrative that Elvis as well as What you do! take advantage, each of which gives a completely different effect.
A Dean Reed biopic, if told from a very personal point of view, would similarly show the inner workings of a man who on the outside seemed very contradictory and strange. Both Elvis as well as What you do! Similarly, it is about the internal dynamics of a musical act as opposed to what is visible to the public. The Wonders have a carefully crafted public image: the same costumes, the goodness of the boy band, the fact that Guy always wears sunglasses. Meanwhile, this image hides the disintegrating relationship between the band members. Elvis also about the meticulous efforts made to maintain a certain appearance. For example, when Elvis is condemned by the media for obscenity, Parker attempts to create a new, healthier Elvis, going as far as sending him into the army when Elvis rebels and reverts to his old image on stage. There is a constant struggle between the look Elvis wants to design for himself and what Colonel Parker wants to create for him, and it is this power struggle that makes up much of the conflict between the two men. The audience sees the performance styles, the costume changes, but they don’t see the parasitic relationship between the musician and his manager causing these changes from behind the scenes. Die-hard fans of The Wonders see this fun-loving, healthy boy band, one of whom even appears to be engaged to his longtime girlfriend. What they don’t see is that the boys’ real personalities are very different from those projected on stage. Jimmy’s cruelty towards Faye and his fury when he discovered that Mr. White hinted for a commercial that they were engaged is completely at odds with the charming personality he presents to fans. Ironically, Guy, branded as the “bad guy” of the group by Mr. White by making him always wear sunglasses, is actually the most selfless and helpful.
As managers of Elvis and the Miracles, Colonel Parker and Mr. White are at the center of their clients’ public and private lives. The tension between these two lives accounts for much of the tension of the films. While the musician’s life is divided into these public and private personalities, the manager takes part in each of them and is the link between them. Whether this person is good or bad, it would seem, plays a big role in determining the fate of his client. It is interesting, therefore, that despite Mr. White’s professionalism, miracles do fall apart. However, the difference between the stories of Miracles and Elvis is that the former shows that sometimes even a good manager like Mr. White cannot save you from yourself. Meanwhile, a villain like Colonel Parker can break you despite your best efforts. It makes sense that Hanks’s interest in this unique dynamic is not just about his love of music. Thinking of Jimmy Nicol, Jan and Dean, he asks, “What can’t we see?” Despite the seemingly similar trajectory of a musical act that crashes and burns after a meteoric rise to fame, in the end it is this question that really binds Elvis as well as What you do! together. Let’s hope Tom Hanks continues to answer it in the future, be it the music industry and Dean Reed or whatever.
Source: Collider
