Ask Martin Scorsese who his favourite superhero is and he’ll probably say Tom Cruise. Last year, the filmmaker credited the actor for “saving Hollywood’s ass” with Top Gun: Maverick, thanks to its sky-high box office numbers on the back of the pandemic. That Cruise should be the literal saviour of cinema seems fitting, given that he’s now the undisputed king of action blockbusters. And yet, for all his recent efforts and cinema-saving success, he doesn’t have a major personal award to show for it. In fact, it’s been years since the actor gave a genuinely Oscar-worthy performance. Twenty of them, to be exact.
December 2003 saw the release of director Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai, a sweeping epic charting the end of Meiji-era Japan and the extinction of a noble band of warriors. Teeming with peaceful temples, opulent courtrooms and pensive shots of luscious nature (although it was mostly filmed in New Zealand, not Japan), the film didn’t exactly feel like your typical Cruise blockbuster from the offset. But it ended up becoming the perfect vehicle to showcase both his acting ability and superhuman work ethic.
