Follow That Star

"In the 1950s, it was prophesied that television would kill the movies; it didn't, but it helped to drive the industry mad. I am not an economist and cannot account for what has gone wrong, but, like the rest of the world, I have no difficulty in seeing that the trend has been away from a steady flow of seldom first rate but very acceptable pictures to a few productions upon which so much money has been squandered and on which so many expectations ride that a kid of financial hysteria has set in. The producers, the actors, and the audiences have all been led to believe that each new release will be the greatest ever. It is as though every sexual union between a husband and his wife must be the most shattering experience ever or the marriage will fail. As Dr. Westheimer would be the first to point out, it is the accumulated understanding by each partner of the other's needs that is the foundation of a successful relationship; and it is the continuous appreciation of a director's work or an actress' performances that are the deepest joy of moviegoing." (Quentin Crisp, How to Go to the Movies, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1989)

I asked my wife last night which actor she's followed over the years (no matter how good or bad the movies that they've starred in were) and she said, "Tom Cruise, up until he went crazy." Because most people probably feel the same way about him, and because he's been around for more than 20 years, and also played different character types during that time, I thought he would be a good guinea pig to exemplify the above quote. After looking at his filmography, it became apparent that he's merely added continuing layers to a constant "Cruise core." So, without further adieu, here are the "three degrees of Cruise characters:"

Risky Business (1983) cocky; this is neither his first movie nor the first one I saw, but it's the best, earliest example of all his characters' most defining feature; it also represents the group of teen sex comedies he started off making like All the Right Moves and Losin' It (both 1983; I've still gotta rent these); his next group of movies are merely an extension of this, and could be called "cocky but in over his head" - The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988), Far and Away and A Few Good Men (both 1992), and Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Top Gun (1986) cocky + conflicted; before he became the Mission: Impossible (1996) action star that he's best known for, he had to play somebody you could almost feel kinda bad for; who knows if he has ever been truly successful with that, but something started with Top Gun and continued in Born on the Fourth of July (1989); a related group of movies that he has done could be called "everyone's out to get me/the paranoid egotist" - The Firm (1993), Jerry Maguire (1996), and Minority Report (2002)

Interview with the Vampire (1994) cocky + conflicted + cracked = a natural progression; Magnolia (1999) and The Last Samurai (2003) shouldn't have come as revelations, but both movies stepped away from his previous work and tried to take them to another level at the same time; madness was the next logical step in Vanilla Sky (2001) and playing a villain in Collateral (2004; my favorite of his roles) was a no-brainer; people talk all this junk about his cameo in Tropical Thunder (2008), but I just see that role as the vampire Lestat in a fat suit