Tom Cruise Rewind

Eight years and ten movies after Cruise's first film  Endless Love , Cruise finally accomplished a feat that seemed perhaps implausible after some of his more pronounced cinematic failures: he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. The film that earned him this nomination was  Born on the Fourth of July , adapted from Ron Kovic's autobiography of the same name and directed by Oliver Stone, who had snagged the Oscar for Best Picture two years prior with another Vietnam War story,  Platoon . While  Platoon  might have ultimately had a larger impact on film history than  Born on the Fourth of July , the latter marks a large development in Cruise's career: not only was he a movie star, but he was a critically-acclaimed actor, as well.

Although Cocktail was a critical failure, it did little to harm Tom Cruise's career. This is largely due to the fact that five months later, Cruise's third attempt at an adult drama was released. At last, he had a critical and commercial hit with Rain Man .

Cocktail remains one of the most well-known Tom Cruise films, even if for the completely wrong reasons. Despite being a commercial success, it was lambasted by critics, earning it its spot as his lowest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes to this day. With that much unanimous negative feedback, it feels silly to argue anything different; however, I do believe there is something of value to be found within it, even if it takes a bit of digging to get there.

While filming Top Gun, Tom Cruise received an offer to work with yet another critically acclaimed director. This time, it was Martin Scorsese, and the project was the 1986 movie The Color of Money , a sequel to the 1961 film The Hustler with Paul Newman reprising the title character. Although the film is a solid enough endeavor, it doesn't get close to recapturing the critical acclaim of its predecessor.

I was concerned about rewatching Top Gun because, in truth, I'm not sure what I can say that hasn't already been said about it. After all, Top Gun is the most quintessentially 80s movie to exist. It has it all: mindless action, blatant US military propaganda, forced romantic subplots, cheesy synths, Berlin and Kenny Loggins, homoerotic subtext, and, of course, Tom Cruise. Of course, there's something interesting to be said when the film is put into the context of the 80s and of Cruise's life and career.

By 1985, Tom Cruise had already worked with two well-known directors in his four years in Hollywood: first, there was Francis Ford Coppola on The Outsiders (1983), and then there was Ridley Scott and Legend (1985). As the story goes, Cruise was hot off of Risky Business when he became involved with the production of this film. However, its disastrous reception upon release nearly ended Cruise's career before it even began.

Closing up the unofficial trilogy where Tom Cruise losing his virginity is essential to the plot is the 1983 movie All the Right Moves . As the last of four films that Cruise released in 1983, it brings me no pleasure to say it does little to continue the thought-provoking commentary put forth by Risky Business to settle for a mediocre coming-of-age story that says little instead.

It's a shame that Risky Business is primarily known for Tom Cruise dancing around in his underwear. That scene alone is not representative of the entire film, and yet, many people tend to judge this film as if it were another mediocre teen sex comedy from the 80s. The truth is that Risky Business is much deeper than that -- and is perhaps the most intelligent film in the genre.

There isn't much to say about Losin' It outside of what could be expected based off its poster and title. It's another straight-forward 80s teen sex comedy, only this time so stale that the offensiveness of the standard misogyny and racism found in movies like this can't override how humdrum this film really is.

The Outsiders is peculiar, in that its biggest weakness is what also makes it so memorably charming. That is, of course, that the novel of the same name is very obviously the product of a 16-year-old girl. Even with heavyweight names like Francis Ford Coppola attached to the movie, the film remains a faithful adaptation of the novel and therefore isn't any more or less complex in its portrayal of the Greasers, its poor main characters, and the Socs, the rich rival gang.

The key to understanding Taps lies in its name. It differs from the title of the novel that serves as its source material, and perhaps for good reason: while both follow the general premise of a group of military cadets fighting to keep their school open, Devery Freeman's  Father Sky serves as more of a psychological investigation behind the cadets' reasoning and their parents' opposition, while Taps purely focuses on the cadets. This may be a result of the fact that the film rights were purchased before Father Sky was published. However, nitpicking over similarities and differences doesn't mean too much when Taps provides a subdued analysis of its own on military culture within the United States.

In 1979, Scott Spencer published his book Endless Love , a novel about 17-year-old David Axelrod and his dangerous obsession with his girlfriend, Jade. Two years later, a film adaptation of the same name came out and disastrously missed the point of its source material. While this is no strange feat in Hollywood, it's difficult to point fingers on who, exactly, is to blame for claiming that David really was in love Jade and vice versa when the novel goes so far to explain that this isn't the case, as there doesn't seem to be much information widely available regarding the production of the film. Part of me feels that it's more likely the fault of studio meddling; after all, the popular love ballad of the same name gained this film its only Academy Award and Golden Globe. And I don't believe that the screenwriter nor director were completely oblivious to the symbolism present in the novel, given an early scene in the film where David and Jade dress similarly to ...