Tom Cruise Only Stars In One Western And It’s An Epic Romance
He’s taken on other Top Gun grads, aliens, and the government multiple times during his decades-spanning career, but there’s only been one film that Tom Cruise has kicked it old school and starred in a classic Western. Bringing his romance with Nicole Kidman to the world of cinema, Far and Away saw the newlyweds take on the Old West together in a movie directed by the legendary Ron Howard.
The only downside for fans of the Mission: Impossible star is that the title is currently not available to stream anywhere.
When the duo makes it to the land of the free, they try their luck at striking out on their own but soon find that it may not be as easy as they dreamed.
Tom Cruise stars in Far and Away as an Irish farmer named Joseph Donnelly, a man looking to own his own property and no longer work for others to stay alive. After his home is burned to the ground because he was behind on rent, Joseph strikes out for America, meeting a young woman named Shannon (Nicole Kidman) along the way. When the duo makes it to the land of the free, they try their luck at striking out on their own but soon find that it may not be as easy as they dreamed.
Blending truth with fiction, Ron Howard’s film took Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s fictitious characters and placed them in a historic time known as the Land Run of 1893, when land was stripped from the Cherokees and considered open season for those moving out West. Far and Away sees that mad dash for a stake of land claim in the state that would become Oklahoma.
There’s no doubt that the world loves their Westerns, and with their performances, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman helped rake in $137.8 million at the global box office against Far and Away’s production budget of $60 million.
The feature also starred Thomas Gibson (Criminal Minds), Barbara Babcock (Hill Street Blues), Robert Prosky (Christine), Eileen Pollock, and Cyril Cusack. Along with a dynamite cast that featured the leading stars in the prime of their own real-life love story, the movie also boasted a dynamite score composed by the legendary John Williams who put soaring music to the immigrants’ journey across the world.
While audiences, especially in Ireland, turned out to support the Tom Cruise-led feature, Far and Away was anything but a hit with critics proving that even with two stars, a well-revered director, and a composer with some of the most notable pieces of film score under his belt, a feature can still be a miss.
Currently, the film sits on Rotten Tomatoes with 50 percent, which is a score that’s echoed by the critics of the day who weren’t very taken aback by the plot or general ideas put forth in the movie.
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s Relationship
As for the romantic relationship going on behind the scenes, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman had already been married by the time they signed on to star in Far and Away in 1992. The pair first met in 1990 on the feature Days of Thunder and were married on Christmas Eve of that year. One of Hollywood’s hottest pairs, the couple would go on to adopt two children in the ‘90s and live out what seemed to be a fairytale life until they announced their divorce in 2001.
Before their separation, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman would star alongside one another for the final time in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. Unlike Far and Away, Kubrick’s erotic thriller would garner positive feedback from critics, and even nab Jocelyn Pook, the film’s composer, a Golden Globe for Best Original Score.
This would, however, be the final time that Kidman and Cruise would appear on screen together as their divorce would blow up any chance of them being cordial in the future with Cruise’s Scientology background also standing in the way of reconciliation.
While Tom Cruise’s one and only dip into Westerns in Far and Away may not be streaming anywhere, you’d be hard-pressed to not stumble upon a different title of his on every platform out there.
Mission: Impossible
Currently, the star has been rolling in the box office figures for his work in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One which has been holding its own against other recently released titles including Oppenheimer, Barbie, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Currently streaming on Prime Video, audiences can tune in for Cruise’s last summer blockbuster, Top Gun: Maverick which cooled down theaters during its arrival last year.
