This edition of our weekly Twitch Video Player Salutes... was written in the past, a few days prior to Christmas Day, when Tom Cruise's latest film Valkyrie would open. Having that in mind I decided it was appropriate to look back at the early career of mega-star Tom Cruise. [Oh, I could just imagine the ribbing I was going to get for this as I wrote this before leaving on holidays.]
He was a Tom Cruise who was just bursting onto the scene in Hollywood. He was a Tom Cruise that had yet to use the every day couch as a trampoline and ignore the advances of medical science in favor of another [snicker] science. This was Tom before everything went pear shaped. This was innocent Tom. This was pure Tom. This was... Tom Cruise the Younger!
Yes, it is hard to believe that there was a day when Tom wasn't a headliner. Back in 1981 in the movie TAPS it was Timothy Hutton who was the big draw for the ladies. But he did have a memorable line in film whilst shooting the M-60, 'It's beautiful, man!' It was indeed Tom.
Then there was The Outsiders in 1983. I don't think there was a high school student here in Canada that didn't read the S.E. Hinton book for English class. Even then Tom wasn't the focus of attention. Nope, but The Outsiders was pretty much a who's who of young acting talent in America at the time!
We had to wait until later that year when Tom finally headlined the film Risky Business. Everyone on the face of God's good green earth knows the scene of Tom in his tighty whities dancing to "Old Time Rock N' Roll". It was also a good excuse to watch Rebecca De Mornay get nude.
1983 was a big year for Tom as he again headlined the teen football drama All the Right Moves. Tom's co-star was Lea Thompson who was pretty much any high school boy's crush during those years. Yummy.
Jump ahead two years, just one year before Top Gun catapulted Tom into stardom forever, with Ridley Scott's fantasy film Legend. Tim Curry with horns as Darkness? Yes please.
And there was more: I saw a trailer for a movie which looked like (and was marketed as) a Porky's cash-in called "Losin' It" and guess who played the whiny git in that one?
Indeed!
Great post. Tom Cruise has the unfortunate talent of playing the very same character in every single movie. "Ron Kovic" could almost transplant himself straight into Valkyrie seamlessly. The COLOR OF MONEY might be the one film where Cruise's invulnerable arrogance does a film justice. His best performance though, and maybe shows a glimmer into who this crazy cat really is...TOM CRUISE ON TOM CRUISE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxS0
Tom Cruise embodies everything that i hate about hollywood and blockbuster feel-good crap cinema. If the stopped making movies right now i would happily open a bottle of champagne.