Tom Cruise Regrets One Of His Most Classic Movies Being Lost On Streaming
These days, it’s hard to imagine any Tom Cruise-starring film without also assuming that the Top Gun actor had a heavy hand in influencing its development and production. While Tom Cruise prefers to maintain creative control over the intellectual properties he associates himself with, he was still cutting his thespianic teeth while starring in the 1985 Ridley Scott-directed fantasy film, Legend. In fact, Tom Cruise regrets starring in Legend for this very reason because he didn’t have control over the narrative.
And who are we to blame Tom Cruise for having hard feelings about his role in a film like Legend, which was neither critically or commercially successful upon its initial release, but rather fared quite poorly until Ridley Scott released his Director’s cut – with 25 minutes of extra footage – in 2002. Retroactive audience reviews have since allowed Legend to achieve cult-classic status with a 73 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but back in 1985 the film was heavily criticized for not utilizing its elaborate and expensive set pieces to their fullest potential.
The Tom Cruise We Know Doesn’t Compromise
While we can all look back in wonder at such a fantastical piece of Tom Cruise cinema like Legend, it’s easy to understand where Cruise is coming from. Looking back at Cruise’s legendary 40-year acting career, one of the common through lines that’s established is that he doesn’t sign onto a project until he’s 100 percent behind the character he’s set to portray, and he works tirelessly to make sure he gives the role his undying commitment.
Known for his big-budget action blockbusters, Tom Cruise has defied the laws of physics by performing his own risky, jaw-dropping stunts. What’s more, when asked about the legendary stunt in which he climbed the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Cruise proudly proclaimed that he fired the original Safety Supervisor who encouraged him not to do the stunt and hired somebody else who was willing to let him carry out the stunt as he always imagined it.
Tom Cruise Was Just An Actor In Legend
Tom Cruise’s role in Legend is a worthy entry in his filmography, but it’s a far cry from his most iconic films like Top Gun or his ongoing tenure with the Mission: Impossible franchise.
In Legend, Tom Cruise portrays a forest child named Jack who’s tasked with fighting the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) after he sends his menacing goblins named Blix (Alice Playten), Pox (Peter O’Farrell), and Blunder (Kiran Shah) to kill the unicorns near his castle. By slaughtering the mystical creatures and stealing their horns, the Lord of Darkness can put the forest in a perpetual state of darkness while everybody lives under his tyrannical rule.
Jack, who has become smitten with Princess Lili (Mia Sara), is unaware of the Lord of Darkness’ evil intent when he brings the innocent princess to see the unicorns in person, which sets Legend’s primary conflict in motion. This ultimate convergence of evil and innocence introduces us to enchanted creatures named Honeythorn Gump (David Bennent), Oona (Annabelle Lanyon), Screwball (Billy Barty), and Brown Tom (Cork Hubbert), who all help Tom Cruise’s Jack thwart off the dark forces that await them in Legend.
Seeing Legend For Yourself
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The unfortunate reality we have to deal with is that Legend’s legacy has all but been swept under the rug, as it isn’t available for home viewing through streaming or video-on-demand. If you have a friend with an expansive DVD collection, you better hope you’re in their good graces, or at the very least will allow you to borrow a copy for your viewing pleasure. Tom Cruise may not be a fan of Legend, but witnessing the ever charismatic Tim Curry in full devil makeup in the film’s third act is reason enough to check out this alleged fantastical misfire that prominently features a young Tom Cruise.
Source: SlashFilm
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