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Tom Cruise: the final, the foul breath of Pygmalion

Posted by Victor Khomenko (M) on January 10, 2003 at 07:17:02

In Reply to: Re: A view from Germany...Minority report.... posted by Bruce from DC on January 9, 2003 at 14:08:58:

I don't know if Tom has been playing himself, I think he simply has been playing extremely badly all his life. Being a bad actor is not a huge sin, as long as one doesn't take himself too seriously.

But Tom does.

On the other hand, Ryan O'Neal never did. He simply went through the life as a mediocre actor not looking for any high awards. But since he also was not an obnoxious idiot (like Tom), something good DID happen to him, something that forever placed his name near the top of acting achievemnts of all times.

I am talking of course about his success in Barry Lyndon. Kubrick simply saw the interesting raw material in Ryan, something that he could form at will, and form at will he did, as Ryan has not been able to raise to that level again, left to work with the lesser directors.

Taking a relatively unknown actor with no good track record was great risk for Stanley, but it also produced an immense award and sent the shockwaves through the critics community. No one expected Ryan to shine as he did in good hands.

However, oen would be foolish to try the same lucky shot again. Why Stanley did just that we shall never know, but also there was a sizable difference between him selecting Ryan and trying to hit the target with another bad actor - Tom Cruise.

I suspect the real failure lies not in the fact that Stanley was beginning to lose it, painful as it is to admit, but in the rotten nature of the subject - Tom. Unlike the young Ryan, Tom came with a huge and bothersome baggage of arrogance and, I shall use that term extremely losely... fame. He also came with an inept wife.

So while Ryan simply conformed to every movement of the master's hand, Tom kept his idiotic self largely intact, like an ugly rock inside the soft clay. Instead of letting the master make a gem out himself he simply took control.

The Pygmalion was at his last breath at this point. Much is known about his difficulties in working with the two "spectacular" stars - and the end result was certainly not what he was hoping for.

So - was it his fault for trying the same "secret thrust" once again? Like German in the "Dame of Spades" he dives headlong trusting his luck, and failes in a spectacular, but eventually rather boring way.

Should we then place some blame on Tom for bringind down the illustrous director's career? Hardly. But his negative contribution shall never be forgotten.

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