Tom Hanks: America's Chronicler-in-Chief

History in the Making
Hanks and Spielberg stand with military adviser Dale Dye on the set of The Pacific. The two producers strived to make their epic as authentic as possible. The story does not shy away from depicting the harrowing details of the campaign, down to the dysentery and malaria. Nearly every prop used in the show is an exact replica. "Steven and I wanted to provide people with an accurate visual sense of time and geography," Hanks says.

• The World According to Tom