MovieChat Forums > War of the Worlds (2005) Discussion > anyone else find it refreshing that Tom ...

anyone else find it refreshing that Tom Cruise's character was an asshole?


I don't know about you, but I thought it was great how they made Tom Cruise's character a legitimate prick at the start of the film. We've seen the whole absentee father archetype done a thousand times by now, but I like how for once, we actually see why Miranda Otto would have wanted to divorce this guy. He's selfish, immature, uncaring, uneducated, lazy, and just an all-around bad dad. Far too often with these movies, we only hear about the protagonist's flaws, while never actually witnessing it ourselves (The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which incidentally was also made by Spielberg and Koepp, is a perfect example of this).

But of course, as the film goes on, he becomes more sympathetic. It's a shame though, that the rest of his family are almost completely unlikable the whole way through.

Anyone with me on this?

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He's great when he's the capable, charismatic hero, but yeah, he's absolutely at his best when he plays characters with traits like you've described.

I love in WotW how near enough every time he behaves poorly it turns around and bites him in the ass. He mocks the health food takeaway and then can't even make a simple meal for his kids. He behaves passive-aggressively with his son while playing catch and ends up putting the ball through his own window. All great character stuff and acted superbly.

He's terrific too as a slinking coward in Edge of Tomorrow and a sabre-rattling, over-confident jerk in Lions for Lambs.

It's probably a good part of the reason people rate his performances in Magnolia, Interview With the Vampire, Born on the Fourth of July, The Color of Money, etc, so highly.

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His finest ever role was in Rain Man and he played a total dick in that. Cruise has a dark side and he’s much more credible playing an asshole than when he’s doing his goody-two-shoes characters like Ethan Hunt, which one suspects is how he sees himself.

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Yeah. The director's cut of War Of The World's accentuated his dark side even more saliently, with it's inclusion of he and Dakota Fanning's sex scene

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Try to keep your imagination on a tighter leash there, bud.

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