best film: Magnolia is the answer. As much as I love the entirety of Cruise’s filmography (only 43 IMDB credits to date) this is a two-horse race here between Cruise’s gigantic achievements in 1999 (Magnolia & Eyes Wide Shut). The oddity of it is, I think 1999 killed the artistic ambition in Cruise to some extent. Magnolia, his best film, was a box office bomb and the tyrannical shooting method and schedule (and length) from Kubrick probably killed some spark in Cruise (and his marriage to Kidman—but I digress). Still, it may have been worth it because those are the best two films in year that many critics are calling one of cinema’s finest. What if Clark Gable was in Gone with the Wind AND Stagecoach or what if Daniel Day-Lewis was in There Will Be Blood and ______ (throw in Jesse James, No Country For Old Men, Zodiac). Cruise in Magnolia is a thundering achievement— loud, meticulous, and remarkable.
best performance: I think there’s Magnolia and then a big gap… and then there’s about seven performances that are clumped together behind it virtually tied for second (from the four below on the top five too Risky Business, Born on the Fourth of July, Minority Report). I wish Rain Man and Jerry MacGuire were strong enough to land in their years’ top 10 (their right there on the outside looking in) and I’ve come around on his performance in Eyes Wide Shut and now believe it to be one of his best. Still, these are all nice but not close to his work as Frank “TJ” Mackey. Cruise gets the 2001 theme music introduction, the bombastic speech-making, the intense interview (reminds me of the processing scene in The Master with Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour) and the breakdown scene with his father. It has it all and Cruise is razor sharp- he’s never been better.
stylistic innovations/traits: Cruise is one of my favorite actors to write about. He’s a box office monster and his career is filled with moments stained in the memory of everyone my age and about 10 years older in Generation X. Some of the iconic moments are pop art (Magnolia speech, Risky Business ray-bans) and some are closer to pop-culture or pop-corn (Top Gun). There’s the iconic smile, the running (lifted from Dustin Hoffman) and the undeniable screen presence. He’s not an actor with great range, but few can play cocky and confident better than Cruise. Cruise can tackle characters with OCD (Magnolia, Collateral) so well because he’s an actor with a penchant for an attention to detail. How about the work with the pool sticks in Color of Money and even the bottles in the failed Cocktail? He’s been quiet for the last decade but even if he’s done with 15 movies in the archives he’s made his mark. He’s done solid work with Kubrick, PT Anderson, Spielberg and Scorsese—nobody else can say that.
directors worked with: Cameron Crowe is the only auteur more than once—then Oliver Stone, De Palma, Scorsese, Kubrick. Spielberg, Michael Mann and Paul Thomas Anderson
Top 5 Performances:
- Magnolia
- Jerry McGuire
- Rain Man
- Eyes Wide Shut
- Collateral
Archiveable films
| 1981- Taps |
| 1983- Risky Business |
| 1986- The Color of Money |
| 1986- Top Gun |
| 1988- Rain Man |
| 1989- Born on the Fourth of July |
| 1992- A Few Good Men |
| 1994- Interview With a Vampire |
| 1996- Jerry McGuire |
| 1996- Mission Impossible |
| 1999- Eyes Wide Shut |
| 1999- Magnolia |
| 2001- Vanilla Sky |
| 2002- Minority Report |
| 2004- Collateral |
| 2008- Tropic Thunder |
Just rewatch Collateral. What a movie. A Must-See.
I read this page,never seen before. I think Outsiders (1983),The Last Samurai (2003),War of The Worlds (2005) & maybe Mission Impossible 4 & 5 deserves the Archives.
@KidCharlemagne . Great stuff- yeah- Collateral gets better every time I see it- a great film. I’ve seen all the rest of your suggestions but I think just once a piece so perhaps I’ll add them when I get to them again.
My top 10 of his performances :
1} Magnolia
2} Collateral
3} Born on the Fourth of July
4} Jerry Maguire
5} Interview With a Vampire
6} Eyes Wide Shut
7} Rain Man
8} Risky Business
9} Tropic Thunder
10} A Few Good Men
@KidCharlemagne. Very nice! So we have 3 of the same top 5 (Magnolia, Collateral, Jerry McGuire)- that’s not bad. Cruise is just a great actor, huh? I mean I don’t have it in the top 5 but I caught up with The Color of Money recently and he’s really superb in that, too.
Thanks for the reply 🙂
Love Color of Money too (Scorsese,Newman & Cruise,legends). Cruise had few misses (Cocktail,Rock of Ages,Jack Reacher 2,The Mummy). I even like Legend,Far Away or Days of Thunder. Not great movies but entertaining.
His performance in Magnolia is One Of The Best Performances of all time he Should have won the Oscar that Year. Even in the deleted Scenes he’s amazing
@Randy– yeah I agree– it’s really embarrassing the Academy missed on Cruise in 1999.
Been on a Cruise binge recently. The man makes damn watchable cinema. Add to the fact that he is so good looking and he can act, I can go on heh.
You deserve credit for sorting out his top films, I would have put everything in lol.
You don’t have War of Worlds in there, it has some great cinematography. Cruise is a little off, but Fanning is great (the sisters are very talented). Spielberg does good there, not his finest but a good film regardless.
@AP—- haha we’re on the same page here. I’m a big admirer of Cruise and his films. Even the bad ones I find myself watching again and again. haha. I owe War of the Worlds another viewing soon. I saw it in theater and maybe once since but I think it’s been a decade.
I’m a big admirer of Cruise. Just binge all his movies & for me :
The Outsiders – R
Risky Business – HR
Legend – R
Top Gun – HR
The Color of Money – HR
Rain Man – R
Born on the Fourth of July – R
A Few Good Men – R
Interview with the Vampire – R
Mission Impossible – HR
Jerry Maguire – R
Eyes Wide Shut – MP
Magnolia – MP
Minority Report – HR
Collateral – MS
War of the Worlds – R
Tropic Thunder – R
Walkyrie – R
M:I Ghost Protocol – R
M:I Rogue Nation – R
American Made – R
M:I Fallout – R
22 movies in the Archives
2 Masterpieces, 1 Must-See, 5 HR.
I think 3 of his performances deserves to be in the top 5 of the year : Risky Business in 1983, the big Year in 1999 (EWS + Magnolia) & Collateral in 2004.
My top 12 of his performances :
1 – Magnolia
2 – Collateral
3 – Eyes Wide Shut
4 – Risky Business
5 – Tropic Thunder
6 – Born of the Fourth of July
7 – Jerry Maguire
8 – Minority Report
9 – A Few Good Men
10 – Rain Man
11 – Interview with the Vampire
12 – Top Gun
This is easily one of the best websites for movies. You have described best films,best performances,best directors in proper detail and I agree with many things here. But I don’t understand this thing about Mr Cruise. “He’s not an actor with great range”. How ?.I would like to hear this in detail.His performances in BOTFJ, Interview with Vampire,Collateral,Eyes wide shut,Magnolia,Mission Impossible 1 does show some incredible range.
@Psych0— thanks for the comment and the high praise for the site. Wow- much appreciated.
As for Cruise and his range– I guess we’re talking about range compared to who? Daniel D/ay-Lewis? Phillip Seymour Hoffman? You want to see Cruise disappear into a character like Dustin Hoffman or try a bunch of accents like Meryl Streep? Cruise can play variations on it– but he is closer to the Bogart/Cary Grant/John Wayne screen-presence-type of actor. If we were strictly going by range Cruise would be much farther down the list.
What about the edge of tomorrow,american made and the last 3 mission impossible films?
Drake, he’s actually worked with Spielberg twice (Minority Report and War of the Worlds)
@Haider- yep- but War of the Worlds isn’t in the archives. So it isn’t listed here
Why no mission impossible after the first one in the archives? It isn’t nearly as good as 4-6 mission impossibles. Also no edge of tomorrow? Really loved that movie, it’s better than his other scifi films I think
Do you think his character and performance in eyes wide shut are some the best and most underrated in cinema history? I think it’s one of the greatest characters.
Do you think he’s superior than kidman in the movie?
@M*A*S*H – I just saw EWS for basically the 1st time a couple of months ago (saw years ago but basically didn’t remember much) I really enjoyed the performance and he’s playing a character who is a little out of his element and not as sure of himself as some of the characters he plays in some of his other best roles, a lot less cocky here. It’s probably one of the most challenging roles as he is portraying a character who is undergoing this sort of quest but the character himself doesn’t even seem to fully understand what he’s looking for or what is even really motivating him (aside from possible jealously due to his wife’s dream). I think the elusiveness of the character’s motivations and purpose make it a challenging role indeed and I think Cruise is fantastic in portraying this.
Completely agreed bro. I saw the movie yesterday for the 4th time and it blew me again. Cruise is silent and Haunting and so is the movie.
Its Kubrick’s most underrated work.
@M*A*S*H – also interesting that Cruise and Kidman were married at the time and had been for 9 years then got divorced 2 years later. I wonder if working on the movie contributed to that, I mean it’s Kubrick so the # of repeat shots they both probably had to do. I think there were about 400 days of actual shooting.
No movies in the archives for Tom Cruise after 2008? I think that’s a bit harsh. The three most recent mission impossibles have been great and that’s in large part to Cruise. All three clearly better than the first one in my eyes even though I love De Palma. Fallout was so good I’d probably have it in the top 10 action films ever, and definitely the best one since Fury Road. Also Edge of Tomorrow is highly rewatchable and I thought it would at least be a R. Anyway great write up again and I think Cruise at 30 sounds about right.
@Joel- yes- as @RK mentions here I did add Fallout- just after this page was written. I’m not sure about “clearly better than the first one” in terms of the Mission Impossible films. Would love to know why you think so? Not a challenge- just wondering – perhaps there is something I can pick up the next time I watch those films.
@Joel – MI: Fallout is actually archieved
http://thecinemaarchives.com/2018/07/30/mission-impossible-fallout-2018-mcquarrie/
Sorry I didn’t see Fallout was in the archives. I think the action set pieces in the most recent 3 films are pretty jaw-dropping, the Burj Khalifa scene would almost be enough for me to put it in the archives alone. I think the newer films really manage to handle the balance of a large scope story and Ethan’s personal stakes much better than the first few. The cinematography is also stunning in the new ones, again the Burj Khalifa scene and the Opera shootout in Rogue Nation. Fallout is already in the archives so don’t need to argue for that. Bird and Mcquarrie are both talented big budget directors. I have the first Mission Impossible in the archives barely and that’s just mainly due to De Palma’s visual style. Without that I think the movie would suffer greatly. And the new films basically do everything better minus the De Palma flair. Cruise also gives better performances in the new ones aswell I think. Would at least have the new three an R with Fallout HR pushing MS.
Also have you had a chance to watch Dune yet? Am keen to hear your thoughts on it. I live in Australia so sadly won’t be coming here until December.
@Joel- Thank you for sharing this- great work. Not yet on Dune- hopefully this week.