An adoring audience, a fawning interviewer (Edith Bowman) and a prestigious award. Welcome to Cruise control in which the British Film Institute bowed to the Gods of populism and commercial cinema by awarding the BFI Fellowship to Tom Cruise “for his contribution to the UK film industry.”
You might well wonder how such a prize is justified for an actor who has never made a film with a British director (unless you count Stanley Kubrick as an honorary Brit).
The prize is rationalised by virtue of the employment opportunities Cruise has provided to special effects specialists for his ongoing Mission Impossible enterprise. A bit of a shoe-in I’d say although it serves the purpose of gaining positive publicity while giving TC a platform to tell the world what a genius he is.
Like he needs this!
I have no personal beef with Cruise. He’s a good actor who, alongside the pure entertainment packages, has starred in a number of great movies, notably Magnolia and Rain Man.
What leaves a bad taste is the manner in which the BFI kowtow to this A-list actor in such a cheesy manner. In the ‘welcome to my world’ interview focusing on his career highlights Cruise is given free reign to impart banalities like “knowledge is good to know” and spout the kind of platitudes you would find in a disposable personal growth manual for aspiring businessmen.
