Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: the Tom Cruise film which revealed the actor behind the star.
After his first appearance in the cinema in Endless Love in the early 1980s, Tom Cruise was hired by Francis Ford Coppola among a group of promising young actors in Outsiders. If he then broke through thanks to Risky Business, the budding actor was nevertheless propelled to the rank of star thanks to Top Gun – the biggest worldwide box office success of the year 1986.
Building on this status, Tom Cruise tries out more ambitious roles, under the direction of great filmmakers and opposite respected actors. He notably plays a billiards ace, spiritual son of Paul Newman in The Color of Money by Martin Scorsese. But he especially impressed with his performance in Barry Levinson’s Rain Man in 1988.
From a shortlist including Bill Murray, Tom Hanks and Robin Williams, Tom Cruise was finally chosen by the director to lend his features to Charlie Babbit. A young and egocentric luxury car dealer, the latter discovers, following the death of his father, the existence of his brother Raymond, suffering from savant syndrome.
Having become cult, in particular for having highlighted with humor and tenderness the subject of autism (still little discussed in cinema at the time), Rain Man allows Tom Cruise to evolve with confidence alongside Dustin Hoffman at the top of his art. He thus reveals another side of his game, far from the playboy image that stuck to him.
Touching road movie enhanced by Hans Zimmer’s score, Rain Man was a great success upon its release with 354 million dollars in worldwide revenue, for a budget of 25 million. In addition, it won four statuettes at the Oscars, including Best Picture.
With 6.4 million admissions in France, Rain Man is Tom Cruise’s biggest success on our territory. Its average spectator rating of 4.3/5 on AlloCiné testifies to this affection on the part of the public, which ranks it in first position among the actor’s filmography.
Rain Man by Barry Levinson with Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino…
Tonight on 6ter at 9:05 p.m.