I know, I know! No one is supposed to like this guy. He's crazy, weird and annoying. That all may very well be true. Steve McQueen constantly cheated on his wife. Spencer Tracy was a drunk. Errol Flynn liked little girls. Throughout the history of movies the stars we love have all proven to be very human. So, even though Tom Cruise might be a tool, I'd say for a tool, there are worse things Mr. Cruise could be. Among all of Tom Cruise's shortcomings there's one I choose as the most prevalent. The man has played a vast array of roles. Whether it is a horny teenager, crippled Vietnam veteran or a hitman, one aspect always seems to remain the same. Tom Cruise is a cocky guy. He likes himself and has always shown that. No matter how good an actor a person is, a part of their personality always shines through on the big screen. Cocky, is what I so lovingly call the most bankable star of the last twenty years. So, even if you hate this man's image on TMZ and E, Tom Cruise has carved out a big piece of film history for himself. These following movies are what, in my opinion, stand as his best work.
Risky Business
Before Tom Cruise became a true star in this movie he had made some noise with his performances in Taps, The Outsiders and the ever genius, Losin' It. One year before another Tom would make himself known by making love to mermaid; Cruise did it by staring as an ultra-geeky teenager who has his life turned upside down by a prostitute while his parents are out of town. I know that sounds like the next American Pie movie, and not a classic from the 1980's. I recently went back and watched this movie and was blown away by how good it actually still is. The youth dialogue is innocent, but not in the immature ways that most films try to make teenagers sound like idiots. I'm not an old man by any stretch, but my teen years are gone. I don't know if I've seen many teen movies that actually reflect the way teenagers act quite like this one. No one I've known has become indebted to pimp, got a young and hot Rebecca Demornay as a girlfriend/live-in prostitute or drown a Porsche in a lake, but the attitude is really well done. Most teenagers, especially male, try to act all experienced and cool without being either. Tom Cruise has given much better and grander performances, but with Risky Business I don't know if he's given a more spot on portrayal than as a very goofy and awkward teenager having the time of his life. This isn't a great movie, but its classic none the less. Maybe only one or two teen movies are equal or better than Risky Business. Many great stars have far less impressive breakout roles than Cruise received here.
Top Gun
On my Matchflick profile I listed this as one of my guilty pleasures, and I don't mean that in a bad way. Top Gun is what took Tom Cruise from a budding star to an A list megastar. It's one of the first Bruckheimer/Simpson blockbusters and one of the most famous movies of a decade. Yet, Top Gun is really cheesy. There's no brilliant message or hidden genius in a movie about fighter pilots going through an elite flight school. The most arrogant, should I say cocky, of all the students at the flight school is Maverick. Maverick has big time competition for the best in the class from Ice Man (The ever-cool Val Kilmer), experiences tragedy in losing his best friend during training, starts an affair with his female flight instructor and manages to luckily walk (or fly) into an international incident just in time to prove just how much of a hero he is. That is about as popcorn as movies get. Actually when I hear that term this is the movie I think of. As much fun as people make of this movie, don't think in a minute that Charlie Sheen, Mark Harmon or Rob Lowe wouldn't have killed to have been Maverick. Well, as it played out, Tom Cruise was Maverick. Tom Cruise wasn't anything that special back then. He was talented, but a lot of actors are. Robert De Niro once said that it's not about talent, but choices. I think Tom Cruise is extremely talented, but I also think that there's no star that fits De Niro's idea better than Cruise. Couch jumping aside, Cruise as always seemed to make very good choices more often than bad ones. Maybe none better than playing Maverick in Top Gun.
Rain Man
Rain Man is generally remembered as a Dustin Hoffman movie. While Hoffman gives an excellent performance, I disagree that this is his classic alone. Dustin Hoffman may have won an Oscar here, but Tom Cruise delivers the best quote from the movie. One quote that is a slice of brilliance that still stands as true today as it was in 1988, "K-Mart sucks!" As much credit as Hoffman deserves for making this movie what it is, I think that goes for Tom Cruise all the same. It's an odd subject to call comedy, but Rain Man is very much in the style of funny man/straight man. Tom Cruise actually plays the straight man very well here. This is often a parodied movie, but I think it's a great one. You take a self-centered young man who finds out at his rich father's estate hearing that not only does he have a retarded brother, but that all of his father's money is going to the brother who has no concept of money. That young man actually kidnaps his mentally challenged brother in attempt to become his guardian and hence the fortune will be his. The two brothers are as different as can be, and a fast-living young man(I know, I'm lame) having to take care of a middle aged retarded man is bound to produce some speed bumps, but maybe some brotherly love as well. Rain Man is truly a sweet and sort of gentle movie. It's the type of movie that a lot of people roll their eyes at. Rain Man is about sympathy and emotion. It's about realizing what really matters in life. I know that's kind of corny and sappy, but not everything can be Pulp Fiction.
Born on the Fourth of July
What may be Tom Cruise's best performance may have been given in a movie that is one of his more controversial choices. I would say the safe thing for anyone in entertainment is to keep politics separate from work. If I want to hear about the world I'll turn on Chris Mathews or Anderson Cooper (more like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert). I don't want to hear about issues from movie stars. Tom Cruise would've been very well severed to have kept his interviews about his work, but sometimes movies can take an issue or an event and put its form of art to that certain topic there by taking it to a different place that the real world could never achieve. Matchflick isn't a place for politics, but I don't think that me saying that the Vietnam War was as big of a mistake as anything in United States history is out of line. 65,000 American troops were killed, not to mention the countless Vietnamese casualties. Born on the Fourth of July doesn't really take on the whole war directly, but the film does show its senseless nature through one man. Ron Kovic was a man crippled in the Vietnam War. I don't know how much of this movie is true to his story, but I imagine as horrible of a tragedy as the movie displays, it's probably nothing to what the man went through in real life. In the movie Kovic was obviously played by Tom Cruise. It's the most daring role of Cruise's career. Anyone who thinks he's not a good actor, you should stop talking. Tom Cruise plays a man who has his youth destroyed by an ignorant war. Ron Kovic never had sex or experienced any real life. His youth was taken and replaced by living in a wheelchair. That's a hard role to play for any actor. Tom Cruise is brilliant in Born on Fourth of July. Nothing else needs to be said.
A Few Good Men
You know, Tom Cruise has on occasion shown that he is capable of being a true actor. More often though I would say he's a movie star. Top Gun may have made that image, but I think A Few Good Men was Tom Cruise's movie star image at its apex. I love this movie. A Few Good Men isn't an all-time classic or anything, but it's just good. I will say one bad thing about this movie, Demi Moore sucks. You have a movie about macho military guys and the most butch is the former Mrs. Willis. Anyway, from the torture scene at the start of the movie to the infamous "You can't handle the truth!" courtroom showdown between Cruise and Jack Nicholson, I grew up with this movie. So maybe I'm biased, but this is my favorite Tom Cruise role. He's a cocky (there's that word again) military attorney who had a famous lawyer father who casts a big shadow. Never wanting to go to deep into anything, this character has successfully plea bargained all of his cases, all of them. When a physical discipline ends in the death of a weak marine, the case of defending the two soldiers who committed the act falls in Cruise's lap. Despite his efforts, he can't plea bargain this trial. Turns out the soldiers were ordered from a very high source to punish the weak boy. So, an attorney who always takes the easy route must make a stand against almost insurmountable odds. Much like Top Gun, this is a cheesy movie. It's about as over the top as you can get without becoming a parody. Oh well, this over the top movie is extremely entertaining.
Jerry Maguire
If Top Gun was a movie about a cocky fighter pilot's heroics and A Few Good Men was about a cocky lawyer fighting a noble fight, Jerry Maguire might be their opposite. Top Gun and A Few Good Men were about a cocky guy knowing he's awesome, losing confidence but finally realizing he's still badass enough to win the day. Tom Cruise plays the title character who is a man who has everything. He's a hot shot sports agent, has the ever-hot Kelly Preston as his fiancé and is living the dream. Yet, one day he realizes that maybe life isn't all about money and success. Though, that way of thinking has its price. He's fired from his agency, loses all but one client and eventually his fiancé goes away as well. Jerry Maguire loses everything of glamour in his life. He's stuck with a football player with talent, but that has no market value. His beautiful fiancé is replaced by a plain girl that sees him as the end all be all. As good as Tom Cruise is in this movie, Renee Zellweger's even better as the pitiful girl who loves a man going through a midlife crisis. Though, there's no doubt this is the Tom Cruise show. The title of the movie is Jerry Maguire and Tom Cruise is Jerry Maguire. Something I recently saw on VH1 really describes this movie the best. On, I believe an I love the 90's episode, a comic said that Jerry Maguire had the best marketing ever. He said that they got guys to believe this was a football movie and girls to believe this was a romantic flick. The truth is that it's oddly both. There's a lot recognizable sports figures from the 90's in this movie, but in the end, this movie is about a man who finds harmony in his life through moving the goal posts. Maybe a simple life is more pleasing than a life of grandeur.
Eyes Wide Shut
Stanley Kubrick may very well be film's foremost auteur. This is his movie. Tom Cruise plays with his wife at the time, Nicole Kidman as a married couple who go through a bit of sexual discovery. I actually feel that this probably wasn't the best movie for Cruise to do. People never expect to go see a Tom Cruise movie about a man venturing into a world sexual deviants. Tom Cruise is actually really good in this and his mainstream image made this character's journey be seen through a clearer window for the audience, but I have to feel that he could've chosen a role with more mainstream appeal. As good as Tom is in this movie, I think this is where I realized his second wife was the better actor. For years Nicole Kidman was Mrs. Tom Cruise. It's almost ridiculous looking back on it now, but either way both are extremely talented and great in this film. I don't think this is a well liked movie, but I've always really liked it myself. Though, I think it's more from love of Kubrick than of anything else. When looking over Tom's movies to see what to include here I couldn't skip this. Eyes Wide Shut is twisted, haunting and a brilliant movie from a director that never delivered anything but brilliance. This isn't Tom Cruise's movie in the end. We follow his character throughout the majority of the movie, but this is Kubrick's film for me. Tom Cruise was there, so I have to add this movie.
Minority Report
Okay, it might be a bit of a rip off of Blade Runner, but originality is overrated. Minority Report is certainly one of Steven Spielberg's better movies of late. Though I feel this is mostly a quintessential Tom Cruise movie. Minority Report tells the story of a police officer in the future that works in a special unit that uses three prophets to predict future murders. One day Cruise happens to see himself in one of the visions and thus becomes a fugitive. What makes this a favorite of mine for Tom Cruise is the scene in which he visits the man he is supposed to murder. I won't spoil any of the plot, but it might just be Tom's most touching moment in all of his movies. There's plenty of action in this movie, but the best scene is when Cruise's character completely crumbles in a dreadful moment of shear heart break. Minority Report is a good movie and just might sum up why Tom Cruise is a world-wide movie star. In Tom Cruise's career this is absolutely a must see.
Collateral
This is my favorite Tom Cruise movie. Writing this column I've wondered what Cruise's best performance is. I would probably go with Born on the Fourth of July for a true performance. This isn't far behind though. Tom Cruise plays Vincent, a hitman. Vincent hires a cab driver named Max, played by Jamie Foxx, for the night to take him to five stops. Max will soon discover that the five stops are actually hits when a body drops on his windshield. Vincent forces Max to drive him to the remaining four stops. What I love so much about this movie is that this isn't an action movie by any means. As director Michael Mann put it, Collateral is a drama with action in it. The essence of this movie is the conflict of the personalities of the two men. Vincent is a sociopath who's heading into madness. Max is a guy who has dreams and an idea of a better version of himself, but never does anything about it. Both men are headed towards a clash with each other and within themselves. Vincent is already insane, but that insanity is bursting into a mad and violent rage. Max will either have to stand up for himself and actually accomplish something if he's to live. You take Michael Mann's masculine and raw style, the best I've ever seen the beauty of the early AM hours on film and this excellent character driven story, it's incredible. Collateral is Tom Cruise's best movie. Much like I said about Out of Sight a few weeks ago, I wonder just how great this movie is. Michael Mann's masterpiece will always be Heat, but this is damn good too!
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Well, I wrote this while watching The Green Mile. Someday I'll have to do one of these on Tom Hanks. Anyway, now that The Green Mile is over I think I'll turn on Collateral. It's 2:20 in morning and I can't think of a better movie for my mood right now. Hey, I'm sorry but if you won't watch Tom Cruise movies because of his real life wackiness, you're missing some really great movies. I didn't even mention Magnolia or Interview with the Vampire. I don't see very many actors or actresses over the last twenty years that can match Tom Cruise's resume. This guy is in the league of Cary Grant, Clark Gable, John Wayne and Harrison Ford of the really great male movie stars of all time. No amount of getting owned by Matt Lauer will change that.
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| Out of the Past |
Every other Thursday
Discussing classic films from City Lights to Apocalypse
Now and everything in between and beyond.
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| Andy York |
Andy is a life long movie fanatic. The first movie he saw in the theater was Back to the Future, Part 2 at the age of 3 and he has loved movies ever since.
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