Image Credit: Everett Collection
If actors were baseball players, the back of Tom Cruise’s baseball card after more than 25 years at the top might resemble that of Hank Aaron, the one-time home-run king. The Hall of Fame slugger was famous for hammering out one workmanlike 40-home-run season after another, ultimately amassing career totals that surpassed flashier, more spectacular players. Now 50, Cruise’s raw statistics have been so amazing for so long, you almost take his excellence and appeal for granted. His films — in which he is practically always the star — have grossed more than $3 billion, and 16 of them have topped $100 million at the box office. He’s been nominated for three Academy Awards and worked with an eclectic circle of directors that includes Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Martin Scorsese. Like Aaron, Cruise has rivals who may have had better years, but no one’s had a better Hollywood career.
It’s a career that’s being celebrated and examined this month by New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center. On Dec. 17, before a sneak preview of his next film, Jack Reacher, Cruise will sit down with Kent Jones, the New York Film Festival’s director of programming, for a conversation about his most iconic roles. And during the subsequent three days and nights, the Film Society will screen seven of his most essential films, from Risky Business to The Last Samurai. READ FULL STORY »
