The one movie Tom Cruise will always be “incredibly proud” to be a part of
Among the most successful movie stars in history, Tom Cruise has undoubtedly played a significant part in shaping the form of the modern blockbuster. It might be more keenly dismissed by cinephiles as simply a necessary evil in the movie industry, but there is some joy in creating a true blockbuster.
Developing a reputation for being a dedicated action lead, Cruise has earned numerous commercial accomplishments through projects that have completely captured the mainstream consciousness. The latest evidence of his expertise in this domain is Top Gun: Maverick, which grossed around $1.5billion at the global box office. With it, some suggest, including Oliver Stone, that he “saved Hollywood”.
Having collaborated with pioneers such as Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Spielberg, Cruise’s filmography is stacked with movies that have garnered commercial success and critical acclaim. However, even within that long list of impressive projects, there’s one particular film that he considers to be among his finest achievements. Cruise’s high regard for the work is no surprise since it was directed by none other than Stanley Kubrick.
Titled Eyes Wide Shut, the 1999 psychosexual drama was the final film of Kubrick’s extensive and illustrious career as a visionary of American cinema. Set in New York City, it stars Cruise as a doctor who sets out on a strange adventure one night after finding out that his wife (played by Nicole Kidman) had contemplated infidelity. Diving deep into the bowels of the night while witnessing the strange practices of a secret society, he finds out things about himself that he never knew.
Cruise told CNN: “The script was effective, and moving, and provoking, and working with him (Kubrick) in every scene he just – you know, he would just caress and work on, and it was an extraordinary experience because Kubrick is a guy who gives you the landscape with the least amount of colour so that, you know, almost – he wants the audience to participate.”
While Kubrick understood that a movie needs close control of its filmmaker, he also wanted it to be a collaboration between director and audience, “He wants them to imbue almost their own life and poses these questions to them so that the audience, in a way, they are experts.”
The actor added: “I saw it in New York, and I wanted to see it in London with him, but the time constraints – because Nic was in London doing a play, and I had to get on a plane and go to Australia. Nic was in the final stages, and she actually ended up having laryngitis. And, you know, we were kind of amazed by – not ‘kind of’, I was amazed by the movie, and stunned, and felt incredibly proud of the movie, and to have been a part of his picture.”
Kubrick’s critical ugly duckling and final cinematic outing is an intoxicating dream, a film more akin to the works of David Lynch than of Kubrick’s own previous films. Staggering around an erotically dressed New York City, Tom Cruise’s central character, Dr William Harford, is a vessel to explore the locations’ ethereal underworld. As he is led through depraved parties, sleazy costume shops and foggy jazz bars, his own fragility is exposed and killed by his own curiosity. Eyes Wide Shut tracks the dark descent of a made man, broken down by anxiety, jealousy and paranoia.
At the time of its release, there was much debate surrounding Eyes Wide Shut because Kubrick had passed away just days after showing a final cut to the studio. Some insisted that it didn’t have the same standards of perfection Kubrick always pursued, but its legacy has only grown in stature in the years that have followed.
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