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3. Eyes Wide Shut (2000) In his final collaboration with then-spouse Nicole Kidman, Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut did something that he does not normally do in movies - portrayed himself as a hyper-sexual being.

Put in context, his high-profile divorce of Kidman was probably the beginning of the end for his likability in the broader public, so this movie stands out for that reason as well.

But, on its merits, one has to admire the risks that they both took under Kubrick’s wing in Eyes Wide Shut. I once heard Kidman speak of her experience filming this movie, Kubrick’s last, and recall how she described Kubrick’s direction of both of them to get in touch with their sexual selves without inhibition before the camera. The master delivered in his final act, and it was Cruise that benefited the most from it.

Rumors of his sexuality (which have dogged him forever) aside, Cruise showed yet another side of himself here. Whereas in Collateral he was the bad guy, a role he doesn’t normally play, and in Magnolia he was an eccentric loon, another out-of-type character, in Eyes Wide Shut he ventured into the as-of-yet unexplored (for him) field of neo-noir psycho-sexual thriller. No easy task, considering the beautiful woman he played opposite. His delivery of enigmatic and ultimately problematic and disturbing epitaphs at Kidman works - he successfully makes the audience’s skin crawl, and this is one of his most memorable performances.

2. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

Real life Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic wrote an incendiary autobiography about his experiences in Vietnam, his eventual disillusionment with it, and his renowned anti-war stance in the later years of his life. Oliver Stone adapted it into a movie of the same name, which landed Tom Cruise his first Academy Award nomination.

The difficulty of playing Ron Kovic cannot be understated. Had the story covered only the days in which Kovic fought in Vietnam, it could have easily been dismissed as another Cruise action movie that happened to have a connection to real life. But Cruise had to show incredible depth and range to depict the torrent of emotions that Kovic experienced when he returned home - guilt, confusion, isolation, anger, hatred, and compatriotism with the other veteran who understood him. He had to do this while bound to the wheelchair that Kovic found himself in after sustaining injuries in Vietnam, and he had to do it at a time when he was known simply as a popular action figure, and not a serious actor.

Cruise delivered. His technique is impeccable, heart-wrenching, and sincere. The emotion he portrays is real, it oozes off the screen. One feels, more than anything, pity for the sad things that happened to this man, on top of admiration for the courage it must have taken him to adopt some of the loud anti-war positions that he did take during his life time.

It is hard to argue with the Academy’s decision to award Daniel Day Lewis magnificent performance in My Left Foot over the younger Cruise, but in retrospect, with Day Lewis now sporting three lead acting Oscars, it is a shame that Cruise has never received one. Perhaps one day he will get a Paul Newman-type award, but his shenanigans off screen may get in the way.

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