Jaws, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan — these are the films that instantly leap to mind when Steven Spielberg’s name is mentioned. As arguably the greatest film director of all time, Spielberg’s resume is filled with Oscar wins and nominations as well as huge commercial hits. Yet, for all the masterpieces enumerated above, several minor-key Spielberg films have gone overlooked throughout his peerless filmography.
Perhaps the most glaring example is the third collaboration between Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Two years after making the wildly entertaining true-crime movie Catch Me if You Can, the all-time great actor-director duo reunited for The Terminal. The 2004 effort is a sweet, uplifting, feel-good affair that is not only based on an incredible true story, but also takes a welcoming pro-immigration stance. The underrated movie may not have the eye-popping action Spielberg is better known for, but The Terminal is so pure and gentle that it made the late film critic Roger Ebert “unreasonably happy.” Twenty-two years later, The Terminal is more powerful than ever.
In a risky conceit that could crumble in lesser filmmakers’ hands, Spielberg and Hanks’ reunion in The Terminal is a heartfelt chamber piece about Viktor Navorski (Hanks), a man from the fictional Eastern European country of Krakozhia. After traveling abroad and landing in New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, Viktor learns that his country has been overthrown in a military coup. As such, his passport is invalidated and his return ticket revoked by the U.S. Board of Customs and Protection. This strands him in the airport indefinitely. With only a can of peanuts to sate his appetite, Viktor is granted permission to stay in the transit lounge by acting field commissioner Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci).
Dixon offers Viktor political asylum and other avenues to return to Krakozhia, but Viktor refuses to return to a war-torn nation. Stuck in a holding pattern, Viktor turns a defunct airport gate into his temporary home. He befriends custodians and food-stall operators who provide meals. The Terminal features wonderful early performances from Diego Luna, Zoe Saldaña, Kumar Pallana, and others. Surviving off raw instinct, charming wit, and a friendly demeanor that he uses to befriend flight attendant Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Viktor’s real reason for visiting New York comes to light, giving the film a much deeper layer of emotion.
Believe it or not, The Terminal is based on an incredible true story. The film is loosely inspired by Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee who lived in Terminal 1 of France’s Charles de Gaulle Airport from 1988 to 2006. He spent almost two decades in the departure lounge due to an invalid passport – despite being offered residency in Belgium in 1995 and France in 1999.
‘The Terminal’ Is So Pure & Gentle, It Made Roger Ebert “Unreasonably Happy”
Despite being a minor-key Spielberg film, The Terminal was a commercial success upon release in 2004. The film grossed $219 million worldwide on a $60 million budget, adding to the director’s list of financial hits. However, The Terminal is tragically underrated and remains one of Spielberg’s lowest-rated movies among critics, with the film holding a 55 Metascore and 61% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet, with a 73% Popcorn Meter score and 7.4 IMDb rating, the movie is more of a feel-good crowd-pleaser than a critical darling.
However, one champion was the late Roger Ebert, who noted the warm and welcoming innocence of the film in his 3.5/4-star review, writing:
“This premise could have yielded a film of contrivance and labored invention. Spielberg, his actors and writers…weave it into a human comedy that is gentle and true, that creates sympathy for all of its characters, that finds a tone that will carry them through, that made me unreasonably happy.”
After heaping praise on Hank’s transformative performance, Ebert added:
“The screenplay also sidesteps various hazards that a lesser effort would have fallen to, such as a phony crisis or some kind of big action climax. ‘The Terminal’ doesn’t have a plot; IT TELLS A STORY. We want to know what will happen next, and we care.”
Although it lacks the trademark Spielbergian spectacle, Ebert doubles down on his assertion that:
“The Terminal is a sweet and delicate comedy, a film to make you hold your breath, it is so precisely devised. It has big laughs, but it never seems to make an effort for them; it knows exactly, minutely and in every detail who its hero is and remains absolutely consistent to what he believes and how he behaves.”
Ebert’s take aligns with Spielberg’s motivation for making the film. According to the director, after making Catch Me If You Can, he wanted to make a film “that could make us laugh and cry and feel good about the world.” Before boarding the project, Spielberg was on vacation in Hawaii when he learned Hanks was interested in playing Navorski. Despite being arguably the most successful filmmaker in history, Spielberg still kindly asked Hanks if it was okay if he directed the film.
According to Today, Spielberg phoned Hanks and said: “Tom, I don’t want to horn in on your party, but is there any room for me to direct this thing?” The courteous request is similar to what Hanks asked of Leonardo DiCaprio when joining Catch Me If You Can, when Hanks was worried that he would steal the lead actor’s thunder. In a brilliant response regarding the director’s quest to helm The Terminal, Hanks quipped: “I think I said, ‘Steven, you’re the ‘S’ in DreamWorks SKG, so it’s, uh, completely your call.'”
22 Years Later, ‘The Terminal’ Has a Lot to Say About U.S. Immigration
In addition to commenting on the aftermath of 9/11, The Terminal at its heart presents a trenchant treatise on U.S. immigration policy. Yet, rather than depicting America as an anti-immigrant destination, the film shines a light on the crippling bureaucracy and legal limbo that people like Viktor are subjected to.
Once the U.S. invalidates his passport, and he becomes “a citizen of nowhere,” the movie presents Dixon as part of the problem and the solution. Dixon tries his best to get Viktor to agree to various legal and illegal means of returning home, but Viktor flips the script, turning Dixon into a quasi-victim by denying his requests. In the end, Dixon learns a lesson in compassion, empathy, and humanity that surpasses the vocational responsibilities.
Ultimately, The Terminal expresses its pro-immigration stance by highlighting the humanitarian support that Viktor receives as he befriends Americans in the airport and builds a tight-knit community he can count on. The movie emphasizes Viktor’s adaptive resilience during a time of great uncertainty as he learns English, makes friends, begins working in the airport, and uses his wits and wiles to earn money, eat, and survive. In other words, the movie paints a bygone portrait of the American Dream that seems greatly endangered in this current political landscape.
Although it may not be the first film that comes to mind when Spielberg’s name is mentioned, The Terminal‘s uplifting and inclusive message is far timelier now than when the film was made 22 years ago.
